From Trulia, a big fat jar of RE eye candy

I'm not even sure what to call this, but it's pretty cool. It's Trulia's new "snapshot" feature, which, as Heather at Trulia points out, "is a really engaging way to visualize local real estate."

It's a marriage of listings, photos and Microsoft Virtual Earth. "You must see it to understand why it's cool," Heather says. I've seen it, it's cool. Click here for a Trulia snapshot of L.A.  Or, click here for a Trulia blog item explaining what this is and why they built it.

Your thoughts? Comments? E-mail story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com.

Comments

[Uncle Billy Climbs Mont Pelerin]

Well, it's nifty and cute. ...and it pops! Watch them sell Trulia now for like a billion dollars when they integrate it with the 3D cities on google earth. According to their blog entry, they created this to "satisfy our needs." Some of us won't be satisfied until we we have video of what the neighbours are doing streaming from webcams at every home. After all, their behavior does affect our homes' values. We'll be able to see when they get a new car and when the flat screen is delivered. Brave New World. Ay Dios Mio.

Here's a request for Trulia: Tab that highlights politician's homes, showing you for example, where their district is versus where they actually live, and a color code that turns bright red when they owe more than the home is worth.

[l.a.guy]

That is pretty cool. I think Redfin is still more useful for getting to the information I want, but the Trulia presentation maybe more impressive. Zipreality seems to be falling behind in the game and Zillow has kind of stagnated too.

[Edgar]

Good stuff, but it desperately needs a filter for SFR, Condo, Vacant land, etc. With that, it might truly be a tool worth using.

[Harvey Korman Fan]

Here's some more eye candy: LA Times has a new business editor, Sallie Somethingorother. She's very experienced and diplomatic. Witness one of her first quotes: ""I don't want the Web to overtake everything we do and lower our standards," she said."

Did you cringe as you read that? In all sincerity, welcome to the new position, but unless you like the taste of toejam, you might not want to alienate the digerati that are actually elevating your paper's standards.

[nano]

peter,
yes truliasnapshot is pretty nifty to look at, what with that black background (if you are on an untethered laptop with the brightness turned down, forget it, you cannot read squat), but the point I'm getting at is this - Trulia's INFORMATION sucks! It is way old, often listing properties for sale that no longer are, or not showing the latest MLS listings. In fact, it seems to tie into the realtor shop websites rather than the regional MLS's. And that info is notoriously lax in its timeliness. So - yummy interface, barfy data...Redfin is way better.

[Inland Empire]

Trulia is great when it works. There are a lot of houses that sloppy agents can't bother to load pictures for. There is at least one real estate agency who lists things then has a non-working website/links to go with it thus making the listing mostly worthless.
Zillow is not too useful - its listings tend to not be very acurate, sometimes even showing a house near the listing but not the actual listing itself.
I prefer Redfin.

[Harvey Korman Fan]

More sugary baubles for Friday. Looks like the editors are doing damage control. Some *new* quotes from Sallie Hofmeister:

1. This from Kim Yoshino in the Business section today:
"The paper needs to continue its push into the digital realm, she said, but must be cognizant of what the Web "can and can't do."

"The Web is a powerful medium but often doesn't lend itself to the kind of in-depth journalism that newspapers are known for," she said.

Hofmeister, who worked closely with both Stanton and Maharaj, said she would be able to voice her opinion to help shape broader news and feature coverage.

"It's a thrilling day," Hofmeister said. "I'm really glad to have a seat at that table.""

This from Editor Russ Stanton's Memo To Staff yesterday:

"She constantly pushed her reporters to break news on the Web, and to step back and look at the broader picture for print."

There's plenty of room at the table here (unlimited, in fact, in the blogosphere). I would really only take issue with her contention that the web does not lend itself to in-depth journalism. Beg pardon? You can print the same stories on the web that you can in print, and add all the trulia-like goodies as well: video, audio, charts & graphs. I take it also that she hasn't been a religious reader or devotee of this blog or calculatedrisk or the krugman blog. The grammar, syntax,and spelling might be a little shabby at times -- even very shabby at times -- but the stories and thought frequently surpass the print edition in scoopiness and analysis.

Oh yes. Trulia is really cool.

[peteviles]

Harvey Korman fan wrote, "The grammar, syntax,and spelling might be a little shabby at times -- even very shabby at times."

Boy, there's a harsh toke first thing Friday morning. You don,t like my grammer and punctumation? How,s abowt my spelling? And usige?
To quote your favorite politician, in the link you posted, "It ain't been easy."

[Harvey Korman Fan]

Uh, and communication skills might be lacking at times as well. I meant me and the rest of the washed and unwashed hoi polloizens.

[MarkW]

One thing I've found on Trulia, that is not on other sites, is Foreclosure information from RealtyTrac. For my area (Claremont) it lists 89 "Foreclosures". Quotes are because some are pre-foreclosure. If this data is accurate, and I have no idea if it is, this number of Foreclosures would be staggering. Maybe someone else knows more about the accuracy of the data.

[kosher krab]

This is why homes sales are down; we are all "virtually" shopping for homes

[BK Landlord]

This new Trulia gimmick looks ok. That apartment building on Lake street looks pretty good for a trophy investor. Property shark shows 84 units and for 16.5 million thats less 200K per door.

[Rudy from Trulia]

Hi All!

In our new release of TruliaSnapshot, we focussed on basic functionality. The idea was to create a cool visualization tool and is most certainly not meant to replace our core detailed search experience as found on www.trulia.com. Many have called it eye candy and real estate porn - it's a fun way to look at homes for sale.

We are improving the comprehensiveness of the data and information on our site everyday. Our goal is to provide consumers and agents with the best online real estate search experience.

Overall, the response and feedback has been fantastic. For all you real estate aficianados, please stay tuned as we have more cool things to come.......

Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia

[yanni raz]

Thats how we will see listings on trullia from now own?
Looks good, but Can't really get it yet.
I think we just need to get used to it.

[Natali R]

Looks great, I don't see it like this now.
When will it change?
I really like the idea.