The real estate slump may still be helping to drag down the economy, but real-estate sites like Trulia and Zillow seem to be holding up just fine. In fact, the number of monthly unique visitors to Trulia has more than doubled to 2.4 million over the past year, according to comScore. Zillow, in contrast, remained steady at 1.9 million U.S. uniques in July.
The strength of these real estate sites in a down market makes sense since prospective buyers (those that are left) now have more time to look around and research their dream homes. Both Trulia and Zillow do a good job of letting you slice and dice your search by any number of variables (price, location, number of bedrooms, square footage, type of home). Unfortunately, neither one offers a way to filter out homes that suck.
Both also offer market stats, and additional information about local schools and such. Zillow perhaps has a few more bells and whistles, such as its famous Zestimate, which might explain why visitors pent 41 million minutes on the site in July versus 12 million minutes for Trulia. People love doping vanity searches and checking out how much their neighbor’s houses are worth. Zillow also serves up larger photos of houses than Trulia in search results. So maybe Zillow is doing a better job with engagement.
Or maybe home searchers are finding what they need faster on Trulia. From my own anecdotal experience, Trulia seems to offer more comprehensive search results for specific towns and neighborhoods. One example: Trulia turns up 97 results for a house search in Chappaqua, NY; Zillow turns up only 83. (I’m sure I could come up with a counter-example for Zillow if I looked long enough). But when you are looking for a house, that is really all that matters. The real-estate search engine that captures the most listings and shows you the most relevant ones will win. For whatever reason, it looks like Trulia is winning mind- and market-share.
What’s your favorite real-estate search site?
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It’s true … My LA listings site has seen traffic double in recent months…Wish we had a site where people could bid on bank loans too
Have you been generating mostly organic traffic or have you found this a good time to buyup keywords on Google?
interesting comment - thats what i do. buy bank loans
Matt, check out SmartHippo.com. We let people use the power of the community to find the best loan terms.
Zillow is a gimmicky site that will never match their lofty valuation.
My favorite real estate site is LakePlace.com (but Im biased). Average visitor spends 24 minutes per visit.
Personally I like Hotpads the heatmap feature is a dealbreaker for me, and for commercial real estate loopnet.
Brett Shaw from Cyberhomes:
If you like looking at heatmaps, check out the explore maps section of Cyberhomes.com. We have over 20 categories of maps to choose from.
Redfin by a longshot….I just wish it covered more cities.
agreed. I love Redfin, but it’s far too limited. Also on topic, why do we care about site visits, we should care about sales. Is the valley out of touch with reality. It’s like saying GM should be valued on the number of people in the show rooms rather than sales. Wake up!
@Alex: trulia has had heat maps for a long time
http://www.trulia.com/home_pri.....-heat_map/
I like trulia best. No use for the zestimate.
i prefer redfin for the markets they cover, trulia for all other markets. loopnet for commercial real estate.
hotpads is by far my favorite site. The buy vs rent feature is super for me because everyone is always saying buy buy buy and it gives a new perspective.
http://www.city-data.com/ is more popular than either Zillow or Trulia, has much more local neighborhood information and much more user-generated information thanks to its very active local forums.
For NYC http://streeteasy.com is by far the best site. I don’t know about other areas, but there are just so many different issues with buying or renting in NYC as compared to other markets. Trulia really blows here.
The spelling on this article sucks.
If you are looking for Canadian property, my favorite is http://www.point2homes.com since it lets you search by neighborhood colloquialisms. But then again I am biased…
I’m plugging my own stuff here: Estately.com. Available for the entire West Coast.
Estately has a horrendous UI and provides little benefit compared to national sites
Dave, sorry I didn’t get back to you sooner. Our UI is something we’ve received a lot of praise for, but we definitely want to improve it. Could you be more specific?
Also, as a partner with local MLSes, we provide significant improvements over national sites; we have significantly more homes for sale and we have the most up-to-date inventory of homes for sale available.
We also have unique features a most other sites lack: nearby schools, transit and restaurants for every home, transit search so you can live near transit, and full text search so you can limit your search with things like “waterfront” or “tudor.”
This does not surprise me one bit. Buyers like being able to search for their own listings, find home values, local area info, etc. Both Trulia and Zillow provide buyers with the tools they want and expect in today’s online world. Trulia’s increase may also have something to do with how well they do in search engines for city, state real estate related searches.
Yeah man, where is the love for Redfin? It kicks the crap out of both Zillow and Trulia…
I like eppraisal.com. It gives me a range on my home and other info like neighborhood info, some of which is pretty funny.
It doesn’t provide the same social features as Trulia or Zillow, but Roost.com does a good Kayak-like job at serving up tailored-to-your-needs results
I have been talking about this with some colleagues for a while. Overall transactions and dollar amounts are definitely going to be down from last year but we all have to remember that there are still a ton of transactions being done across the country.
These comscore reports show that searches and peoples mind share are being aggregated to a few places online that have done a great job of building tools and search platforms that truly help the consumer filter and look at the comfort of their home before wasting their time looking at a bunch of lousy listings in person.
A well informed and equipped buyer knows exactly what they want now and are using these great online tools to help them find it.
I have to say I really enjoy using the UI that they built at http://www.frontdoor.com and if you are looking for a niche product I have to plug my own start up http://www.lofts.com
http://www.rottenneighbor.com
http://www.roost.com You did a comparison for Chappaqua, NY which (sigh) Roost doesn’t cover - yet.(Heck, we’re only 7 months old!) But, if you select one of Roost’s over 6,000 cities you’ll see that the MLS data found on Roost is much more accurate and up-to-date versus feed-based data found on Z & T. Try Chicago, Try Dallas… Roost data is updated multiple times each day - and tied directly to the source of homes for sale. The MLS.
The direct source for homes for sale is the MLS? Interesting I thought brokers listed homes, I also could have sworn that NYC has no MLS, so I guess you are never touching that market? Do your investors know that? Roost is a pretty sad site, it’s logo reminds of the Hooters Owl.
hotpads has 157 in chappaqua: http://hotpads.com/search/#lat.....30,0.059,0
Those Trulia numbers are misleading. Well maybe its their intentions that are misleading. Their new publisher program is a sham. They say it helps publishers gain revenue but none have made any money and Trulia makes out because they get credit for all publishers page views. Rather than provide publishers with a snippet of code to display listings they give publishers a sub domain so they can make it look like the traffic is up. see: http://seattleweekly.trulia.com/WA/Seattle/
If they gave publishers adsense like codes to display listings you would see the traffic go way down.
http://pycasa.com
The sites that give buyers and sellers the best tools to use today —- for the current market —- are the sites I like best. Personal plug: What-Customers-Say.com.
Good old Realtor.com is the best! Specially their beta version. Trulia and Zillow mainly have browsers - people only coming to get a home valuation or checking out cool stuff (but stuff that doesn’t provide any value). Realtor.com has got by far the most listings and provides what users are searching / looking for
We totally agree and invite EVERYONE to explore the new Realtor.com Beta site.
trulia.com ’s style is good. we will add it to cityquery
see US Best Weguide http://www.cityquery.com
Yahoo! Real Estate - realestate.yahoo.com
Love all the HYPE that these sites get. I tried Trulia (as I did when it first came out a while back). Not accurate with available homes, pricing still not right and… still sucks.
Many of the independent realtor sites have much better mapping and more precise data.
Sure, trulia reports more houses for sale, however most of them are potential foreclosures that you have to sign up for another service to even see.
I think it’s usability that’s sorting out winners and losers. Web 2.0 crap is no good if it freezes my browser or I can’t easily navigate through whatever mashup. That’s where Trulia shines. IntListings.com is also good for “real estate pr0n” thought their listing db is pretty thin.
I’m plugging my site here: Propertyqube.com Nationwide, simple to use and comprehensive coverage as we use google base.
Hi Erik, it’s David G from Zillow,
Comscore data is horribly inaccurate here. 5,3M people visited Zillow in July (as measured by Omniture.) According to Hitwise, Zillow was the 3rd most visited real estate site on in July (behind Realtor.com and Yahoo!) and Trulia was 10th most visited (and down from earlier in ‘08.) The Hitwise data concurs with most other public reporting services - and so I’m surprised that you seem to have cherry-picked the one source that says the opposite.
The public traffic reporting services are so often misquoted that we decided to report our traffic numbers (as measured by Omniture) in Zillow’s press room. Please use that data when reporting on Zillow.com traffic. Thanks.
PS - I linked to Zillow’s Press room in an earlier comment but that seemed to get me stuck in your filters. You’ll find a link in the footer of Zillow’s home page.
Hi Erik, it’s David G from Zillow,
3rd attempt - please check your comment filters.
Comscore data is horribly inaccurate here. 5,3M people visited Zillow in July (as measured by Omniture.) According to Hitwise, Zillow was the 3rd most visited real estate site on in July (behind Realtor.com and Yahoo!) and Trulia was 10th most visited (and down from earlier in ‘08.) The Hitwise data concurs with most other public reporting services - and so I’m surprised that you seem to have cherry-picked the one source that says the opposite.
The public traffic reporting services are so often misquoted that we decided to report our traffic numbers (as measured by Omniture) in Zillow’s press room. Please use that data when reporting on Zillow.com traffic. Thanks.
PS - I linked to Zillow’s Press room in an earlier comment but that seemed to get me stuck in your filters. You’ll find a link in the footer of Zillow’s home page.
Sites like Trulia and Zillow should never be supported by Realtors, since they compete directly with local real estate websites. Consumers should be wary of these sites as well, since much of the information is dated, inaccurate and incomplete.
For example, when searching for property in Maine, a site like http://www.MaineHomeConnection.com includes a direct link to the state MLS and in so doing will include ALL properties for sale in the state and the search options are much more exhaustive than anything available on national sites. And you you access to local community information and NO advertising.
Michael -
Zillow is a media site - we don’t compete with Real Estate professionals, they are our partners and advertisers. We do compete (for traffic) with other media sites - both national and local - that much should be obvious.
FYI - the MLS does not include ALL listings but Zillow is receiving more and more listinbgs directly from the MLS’. If you’re interested in publishing all your local listings, you should cvonsider syndicating Zillow’s FSBO listing API to your site - check out Tuesday’s blog post about the new API on Zillow Blog.
i really like dothomes.com
Google Base is pretty good. I go back and forth between Base and Zillow.
I don’t know, I typically find sites like Service Villa Homes and Zillow the most useful since they are free.
it is pretty sad that the replies to this thread are about 90% self promotion. Is this what we are doing to social sites, useful sites like TechCrunch? reducing the user comments to “hey THOSE sites are Horrible - but my new site, in Beta - kicks wanker arse!”
I mean seriously. Very sad.
What may be sadder is the amount of misinformation in the replies to try and discredit the ingenuity, technology, business model, of sites that are flourishing. Zillow and Trulia both have great products and a long list of clients. If you watched the industry, you would see that they are both “media” darlings, they are BOTH Media companies, competing against Yahoo, Google, Realtor.com, etc - not local brokers.
They both have slightly different models - Zillow basing their success on the Zestimate, and Trulia basing their success on easily interpreted, highly targetd real estate data as well as over 3MM listings on their site.
The Real Estate space is the last bastion of Old Media - Travel, Auto and general Classifieds have shifted to the new space. Real Estate still needs its: “Priceline, Expedia and Orbitz” - i.e. the top 3 in the vertical. Which clearly seem to be shaping up to be Realtor.com, Trulia and Zillow… they will domintate 80% of the space, as the rest: Roost, Cyberhomes, et al will scrounge around for the other 20%, keeping the top dogs on their toes and innovating.
Kudos to the innovators for doing what they do. Kharma and a poor business plan will take care of the rest.
Out of the 60 real estate websites listed in this sad thread, to my knowlege only loopnet is profitable. Look how desperate all these real estate websites are, their founders and employees are sitting on Techcrunch trying to get a little seo lift, by plugging their own site.
Features don’t bring income. Real Estate 2.0 Bust is on the horizon.
Everyone working hard to become the next Realtor.com, but Realtor.com can’t even make any money.
Right on Truth.
Poor business models and soft execution have made many of these sites nothing more than cluttered ad dumps. Trulia rakes takes millions in VC money and has little more than snazzy ad platform and a Soma address to show for it.
I use REDFIN and love it. Compared to that Trulia/Zillow interfaces seem so poor - even though they are pretty good web apps!
In the UK (for now) check out start-up Globrix (http://snipr.com/3iq4m). It was started last year by a couple of ex-FAST guys and so the search is so, so good.
If this site wasn’t UK it would be setting the bar in the US.
It’s clear the ’slump’ in the US is pushing the real estate industry to look outside its borders for homebuyers - especially,according to the NAR’s annual report, in states like Florida and California.
The UK’s Financial Times also reported this weekend that foreign buyers now account for a THIRD of New York City condo sales…
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7906.....ck_check=1
For a lot of realtors and their buyers the value of a real estate search site is perhaps coming to be measured by how ‘cross-border’ it is - as the real estate industry becomes less and less local, places to list like Properazzi.com (http://www.properazzi.com) become more important.
When it comes to selling real estate, one of the biggest obstacles sellers face is a so-called “depressed” market. Even when a property is highly desirable, it can be hard to get the price you want in this real estate environment. You could end up losing a lot of time, money, and opportunities, waiting for a “perfect buyer” who may NEVER materialize!
The traditional solution is to drop your asking price. But this common strategy doesn’t always work in your favor. In fact, it can work against you, making your home seem undesirable and your position seem weak.
But there IS a way to turn this challenge into a profitable opportunity! I am trying to let every Realtor know that I can increase your sales and my bottom line. It does not cost anything. Please visit our BLOG for more information. I am not selling anything. I am in the business of paying cash for mortgage notes and trust deeds.
http://realestatefunding.smilingdogenterprises.com
http://twitter.com/sgriecci
If you need property management information or leads, check out http://www.allpropertymanagement.com
I know a ton of California investors are buying up the foreclosures in Atlanta. Have them contact us and we’ll be sure to provide the property management and customer service they need. Check us out.
http://www.wegomanagement.com
I think that they forgot another big player. What about ViewMyListing.com for example.
http://www.viewmylisting.com/homes-for-sale
I am a fan of http://www.viewmylisting.com. As a home owner, I was able to log in (FOR FREE) and keep up on what my agent was doing with my property instead of always having to call and leave messages. I also found some great listings on there, and could search all over the USA. So my suggestion is if you are an agent, seller or a buyer you should check this site out. It is really easy to use too.