Trulia Cracks Opens Up Its Data Trove
Trulia released its API this morning, simultaneously sparking a whole new business model (the mashup of a mashup) and thus introducing in others a whole new level of self-doubt and period of intense philosophical reflection on what it means to be a mashup. (I mash therefore I am?)
I guess this is Real Estate 2.02.0.
Trulia’s API provides access primarily to two types of data; local pricing trends and search behavior. Potential developers can find more information on the Trulia API site.
The hope is that the release of their API will spur all kinds of new development. Someone could pair it with the Zillow API, throw in some craigslist feeds and a Flickr photo feed and create the ultimate neighborhood real estate portal, for example.
Not to be outdone on day one, Trulia’s developers held an internal competition and came up with two examples of what can be done with the API. Both are pretty cool.
I had a lot of fun with this tool. You compare two US cities and produce instant visual comparison of average list price or search popularity. I didn’t really care about search popularity, but comparing list prices in different markets was fun.
Open Challenge to All Readers: Can you find the biggest difference between two markets in the US? (Post your findings in comments)
Potentially the more statistically useful of the two - but not as visually impactful. Allows you to compare two different data sets from a state (e.g. median household income vs. average listing price) and see how the two relate on a scatter chart and median line.
My favorite search - ‘Does the Average rainfall relate to the Average listing price in Oregon?’ (Apparently not!)
I can’t see many agents taking advantage of Trulia’s API, however it may just be what tech-savvy brokers, who want to add more contextual information to their sites, have been looking for. Unfortunately, the data offerings (avg. price and search popularity) are somewhat limited right now, though I hope to see this expand in the future.
Update: More from Techcrunch.
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12 Comment(s)
5 Trackback(s)
- From Realty Thoughts » Blog Archive » Trulia Launches Their API | Feb 20, 2007
- From Tecnología Inmobiliaria | Feb 22, 2007
- From Team Leader Blog | Feb 24, 2007
- From Team Leader Blog | Feb 24, 2007
- From Real Estate Blog - Trulia Mashing It Up | Feb 26, 2007
Mark Ballard | Feb 20, 2007 | Reply
Yes, I suspect the data is too indirect at this point to be reliably indicative.
housereview | Feb 20, 2007 | Reply
> I guess this is Real Estate 2.0^2.0.
I’m not too sure about the mashup of a mashup analysis. I mean google itself could be termed a data mashup. The revolution they caused was not sharing the data, but ordering it.
Since most real estate companies take a strategy to protect their data, this has to be positive for the consumer.
Perhaps Trulia has brought us past real estate 0.2 rather than 2.0?
Kevin | Feb 21, 2007 | Reply
I think the bigger Trulia news in the last few days is their partnership with KW. That’ll increase their nationwide inventory by probably 10%.
Incredible Agent | Feb 21, 2007 | Reply
I agree with Kevin…The KW listings are for the consumers and the API is for all us propellor heads who have nothing better to do other than mash data sets in order to prove ourselves to the rest of the web world.
Pamela | Feb 21, 2007 | Reply
Well well isn’t this interesting… not sure where I’ve been but just learned about this newest so called “search all homes for sale” site… I guess everyone does want to be the next Realtor.com.
But as a broker here’s my problem…. If a savvy internet home buyer is looking for a home let’s say in Raleigh (where I am located) and uses this particular site ALL they are going to see are the listings from the particular brokerages that are subscribing to Trulia - like KW, HPW etc. I just tested it… But with so many agent sites out there linked to the local multiple listing services through IDX (where they will get EVERYTHING active in that MLS) why would they use something like Trulia?
Just a thought…
Robbie | Feb 21, 2007 | Reply
The biggest difference between two markets in the US I could find was Atherton, CA (home of Silicon Valley billionaires) and Gary, IN (home of really cheap homes).
Laura Kaan | Feb 21, 2007 | Reply
I agree with Pamela. I think it is a hard sell for Trulia to be able to compete with IDX sites, Realtor.com etc. Althoug Trulia is making headway, consumers are smart enough to realize that Trulia is limited and probably doesn’t offer as broad of a home search as they would like. For example, they have approx 2,000 out of over 5,000 active listings in the Colorado Springs area.
Robbie | Feb 21, 2007 | Reply
I somewhat disagree. Most MLS/IDX web sites are limited in features, local in scope, slow and in general have a poor user experience (although they do have all the listings for their MLS service area).
With the expection of a few large brokers in Seattle (John L Scott, CB Bain) and few tech savy brokers (Redfin, Catalist Homes), Trulia is a better tool for searching for listings, despite the fact it doesn’t have all the listings. It does have listings for every part of the country (which most broker sites do not). If I was moving out of state, my search would begin at Trulia (and end a local broker).
Sami | Feb 22, 2007 | Reply
Hey guys, Sami from Trulia here.
Pamela and Laura – we appreciate that our coverage isn’t at 100% yet, but we are working very hard to partner with all of you to have your listings in the Trulia search index (for free).
While some online services in the past have “scraped” listings from across the web and immediately built higher coverage (by number of listings - often not quality wise), we take pride in the fact that we currently have partnered directly with more than 100 of the very largest brokerage firms across the country. By continuing on this path, in the not so distant future, we hope to have most of the listings on our site to make Trulia an even better consumer tool.
If you have any questions about working with us, let me know – my email is sami (at) Trulia.
Joel, thanks for the coverage of the Trulia API. We are excited to see what types of applications get developed and have already heard from a number of developers hoping to integrate our data into their own destination sites!
Tim R | Feb 25, 2007 | Reply
The cost of homes for sale is now on the decline. Buyers go out and negotiate.
andres | Jan 24, 2008 | Reply
Nice, guys
Kevin | Feb 15, 2008 | Reply
I love mashups