trulia

Trulia personalizes real estate listings with Trulia Suggests

In an effort to better tailor home searches to customers' interests, real estate listings site Trulia has launched new functionality that aims to learn from home buyers' interests.

While real estate sites tend to present properties based on basic parameters such as neighborhood, number of bedrooms, and price range, Trulia thinks its new Suggests tool can present a better selection based on users' opinions. Trulia says its proprietary algorithm tracks individual home buyers' behavior to immediately surface personalized results determined to appeal most to users.

Trulia's personalized property suggestions appear in a photo-centric presentation and can be refined by … Read more

Real estate brokerage site Redfin suffers outage

Zillow has gone public. Trulia just announced it was going public. Redfin, another established online real estate brokerage, hasn't announced any plan to go public yet, but it is making news. The site went down for several hours Saturday morning, keeping weekend home shoppers in the dark.

The company posted a tweet to explain its troubles: "We are having a little Saturday morning tussle with our master database; we're working on it and will be back up as soon as we can."

Update, 11:05 a.m. PT: Redfin sent the following statement to CNET, referring, … Read more

A year after Zillow, Trulia files for IPO

The stock market is getting another home listing Web site.

Trulia today filed an S-1 Registration Statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, kicking off the process of holding an IPO and offering its shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "TRLA."

According to the documents filed with the SEC, Trulia generated $38.5 million in revenue last year, but lost $6.2 million. During the first six months of 2012, its revenue is way up, jumping to $29 million from $16.2 million during the same period last year. That said, the company … Read more

Open house? Google has also been eying Trulia

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

According to sources close to the situation, along with its pending bid for Yelp, Google has been in on-again, off-again acquisition talks with Trulia, the real-estate search engine.

It is unclear what price Google would pay, but sources estimate that Trulia's valuation ranges between $150 million and $200 million, although there could be a big premium on that.

Rumors about Google's interest in the real-estate search market--and specifically in Trulia--have been rebounding around Silicon Valley for the last year.

But Google has pulled the trigger on a number of … Read more

Sites that get your home ready to sell

The housing market is showing signs of returning. According to a recent report, home prices have posted a small gain and economists are suggesting that the housing market might be stabilizing.

Realizing that, and especially considering that first-time homebuyers are trying to capitalize on the government's $8,000 credit, sellers might be more willing to sell their homes than they were last year. If you're one of those folks, you'll want to consult some services on the Web that will help you get the job done. From valuation tools to agent search services, you'll have everything you need to make a deal on your house.

But if your house isn't quite ready yet and you're looking for some design tips to make it more appealing to would-be buyers, check out this roundup I wrote recently helping you do just that.

Sell your home

Cyberhomes: Cyberhomes' main focus is home valuations. Simply input the address of your property and the site will tell you how much it believes it's worth.

But Cyberhomes does more than appraisals. The site also provides a listing of homes for sale in your area, where you can find "distressed" homes you might be able to buy on the cheap, and neighborhood information down to income and demographic data. It's a full-featured site.

Domania: Domania can help you see how your home compares with others that have already sold, which is helpful since most homes are valued based on a number of factors, including recent sales in your neighborhood. It won't tell you the value of your home, but since real appraisals are completed by comparing nearby homes that are similar to yours, Domania should help you find the sweet spot for pricing your home. I was impressed by the sheer number of houses it listed on the site. You should find just about any home sold in your area.… Read more

Webware Radar: March Madness reaches the sky

Aircell, the company that offers Gogo Inflight Internet service to airline passengers, announced on Thursday that based on internal research, Gogo customer visits to NCAA-focused sites increased 953 percent during the first and second rounds of NCAA Tournament play.

Visits to sports-focused sites in general were up 123 percent from February. The most visited NCAA site on Gogo was CBSSports.com (Disclosure: CBSSports.com is a part of CBS Interactive, which also publishes CNET News.)

Real-estate search site Trulia announced Thursday that it set new records for site traffic in the first quarter of 2009. According to the company, visits … Read more

Webware Radar: Trulia finds people still want 'American Dream'

Real estate search site Trulia released a survey Thursday showing that the "American Dream" of owning a home is still alive even as the recession continues to plague the world. According to the company, more than 75 percent of Americans still consider owning a home as part of achieving their personal dreams, but only 5 percent of respondents say they believe that President Obama's plan to increase home ownership incentives will do any good "to restore faith in the American Dream of home ownership." In fact, 53 percent of those surveyed believe that creating jobs … Read more

Find your dream home with these real estate search sites

The real estate market is in trouble and housing prices are plummeting. In other words, it is a great time to buy a house.

That's why we've compiled a list of real estate search sites and examined how well they can help you find your next home.

DotHomes If you're looking to find homes, but you don't know where to start, DotHomes might be it. It's not the best real estate search site in this roundup, but it does a fine job of taking listings from across the Web and getting them to you quickly.… Read more

Trulia partners with 1020 Placecast for targeted ads

Real estate search site Trulia announced Wednesday that it has inked a deal with 1020 Placecast, an advertising company that uses location-based information to target audiences, that will see the site's advertising become location-specific.

Once users input a location they want to learn more about on Trulia, Placecast will access that data and apply it as a key component along with common demographic data points like psychographic information to provide more targeted ads.

"Once we know the place a user is interested in, we can derive a lot of useful insights about what kind of consumer they are, … Read more