Trulia Lets You Go Global
photo by paulhitz
A weak dollar and fire sale prices have all led to strong interest in US real estate market by foreign buyers.
Whether it’s Russian oil billionaires in Manhattan, Asian buyers on the West Coast or Canadians seeking warmer climes in Phoenix, international investors are eying US properties these days and US Realtors are perking up to that demand.
Trulia, which has enjoys decent international traffic, is now making an active push to help those agents reach those potential buyers (see How Can I Reach out to International Home Buyers?).
In principal this is not terribly unique, since most ad platforms offer
some sort of geo-targeting capability. As an advertiser on Trulia you can now opt to display specific ads only to Trulia’s international visitors.
For example, a San Francisco based Realtor might want to run a Chinese language ad to Chinese visitors or, alternatively, a Phoenix based Realtor might want to run a Beer and Hockey themed ad to Canadian visitors. (Go ‘nucks!)
The real challenge is going to be get the right messaging and in many cases, get the advertisement and listing information translated into the appropriate. Immobel is one company that offers translation services for real estate.
I think it’s smart for Trulia to position themselves as US based alternative for Realtors looking to market overseas.
There are other international-based options out there (GlobalEdge maintains a great list and so does Simon Baker’s Property Portal Watch) but this is the first dedicated effort I’ve seen by a local portal to tap that need.
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Hawaii Relocation | Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
Yes, another market to explore
Kori Covrigaru | Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
I like it. Especially because I'm quite familiar with the Miami real estate market. Very gobal. Now will someone from Trulia please tell my why you can't upload Interactive Floor Plan Virtual Tour links to listings? International buyers want to see floor plans. ALL buyers want to see floor plans…
Chad Gagnon | Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
Very cool skyline of planet Detroit!
Kori Covrigaru | Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
And Joel… You mention hockey in your post and make a shout out to the Canucks? Isn’t that a photo of the Detroit Skyline, home to the World Champion Detroit Red Wings?
Christian Sterner | Sep 25, 2008 | Reply
Easy now…this is an Avalanche only blog. Right Joel?
Hosted Property Management Software | Sep 28, 2008 | Reply
It’s one thing to run an ad in a foreign language. It can be quite another to understand cultural differences and other ways of doing business. Be prepared if you’re going to target non-US buyers.
R. Giesbrecht | Sep 29, 2008 | Reply
Easy, it’s still pre-season
Hawaii real estate guy | Sep 29, 2008 | Reply
We’ve been looking to tap into the international market. The first thing on the agenda is to translate our site into other languages. But as “Hosted Property Management Software” points out, understanding cultural differences is very important. That’s why having an agent who not only speaks the language, but understands the culture is very important.
the ViCe is closing on web 2.0 | Sep 29, 2008 | Reply
Breaking News! Trulia’s site is green. I wonder if that means they are, well, green. I gotta believe they pay you to keep writing nothing blogs about them. Big deal, they can target an ad by a users IP address. So can every other site on the web that uses an ad server that was created after 1999. Probably less than 1% of their traffic comes from outside the US & Canada. So they’re able to sell 20K-30K impressions per month. Wow. Breakthrough. At a $20 CPM, that’s $400-$600. Maybe that’s cause for celebration at Trulia…
Erik Peterson | Oct 2, 2008 | Reply
Looks like a worthwhile experiment.
Lyal Avery | Oct 6, 2008 | Reply
Trulia’s done a great job of marketing internationally. We hear about them all the time in the tech scene up in Canada.