Property Maps on Your Site - with Trulia it is SOoo Easy!

Posted September 16th, 2006 by Max Chirkov
in

I was emailing back and forth with one of the Trulia employees and he shoot me a copy of an email that they mailed out to their members about new very cool feature named TruliaMap. I didn't find anything on this subject in their blog, so I think it is pretty fresh news.

Before I get any further, I need to mention that this will work only if your listings are in Trulia - that means you or your web provider have to be submitting your property listings feed to Trulia. Which I know some template based sites already do - like Point2Agents and AdvancedAccess (for information on submission property feeds to Trulia with template base sites contact your web service provider).

TruliaMap will let you have GoogleMap on your site with up to 50 (your) most current active property listings pin-pointed in a specific area within a minute or may be even less depending on your copy'n'paste skills. It is 8-step process where 7 out of 8 items are options to choose with your mouse and only 1 to fill in with your fingers - which is your site domain to claim your listings within Trulia. Then it provides you with HTML code which you copy and paste into your web pages. Since Trulia updates properties from your feed automatically - the maps being updated every 24 hours as well. Another cool thing about it - the code does not contain any scripting in it - only HTML - which I know in some template base sites scripting is not allowed and in others JavaScripts can break pages. With TruliaMap you shouldn't have any problems like that.

Trust me, it is EASY! I have experience creating Property Mapping Solution for my company site - in many cases it involves server side scripting, databases, java scripting etc. etc. etc. and at the end you stuck with debugging it :)

Here is example of the property listings in 6 different towns here in Myrtle Beach area. If you're using Internet Explorer - please be patient since GoogleMaps are a little slower in it - on the other had Firefox makes them pretty speedy and provides great experience with Google Maps.

Myrtle Beach
North Myrtle Beach
Little River

 

    
Murrells Inlet
Pawleys Island
Surfside Beach

The TruliaMap creation process is so easy that I don't have to say anything else. Just remember that you have to have your property listings already in Trulia. For more information on how to submit your listings read "Submit Your Feed" on trulia.com

Also, looking at the HTML code Trulia provides, I can change map dimensions and adjust styles so it brings up as large or small map as you want and you can change title of the maps as well.

September 20th, 2006
Trulia Blog » TruliaMap Mania -
[...] And if you want more than the standard design, you can go into the code and manipulate it to your heart’s content. Max Chirkov created six maps, re-sized them, and then combined them into one elegant layout (wow!). [...]
October 31st, 2006
NoTruliaFan -
It's a really, really bad idea for Realtors to give their listings to Trulia. If you think you hate realtor.com now, just wait until Trulia has all the listings. All they want to do is charge you for ads on your own listings. Stupid. Start your own IDX website and do some basic SEO and you will be so much better off in the long run than giving up your hard earned listing content to Trulia!
October 31st, 2006
Max Chirkov - Phoenix, AZ
Photo of Max Chirkov.
Well, there is nothing free in this world - whichever way you go you have to invest your time, knowledge, experience, money... For me, Trulia is just another opportunity to expand your marketing at very little or no cost (currently). Somehow it is ok to let Google to make billions of dollars on advertisement while they don't provide any content on their own but showing your "hard earned listings" as search results. It is okay to pay third party IDX solutions to show your "hard yearn listings" on your web site. It is ok to advertise your "hard yearned listings" in local newspapers, magazines and TV stations and paying a lot of money for it... but some how it is not okay to take advantage of Trulia to show your "hard earned listings" for free to let people see them and end on your web site without you having anything to pay for it. Pretty "smart" thinking I would say. BTW, what happened to best interest of your clients? I'm curious how would you explain your client why you don't want to advertise their property on one of the most popular property search portals for free? Don't get me wrong - I'm not promoting Trulia here, I'm a marketing person and I'm getting at least a thousand unique visitors to my site a month just advertising real estate listings "somewhere" for free. It doesn't sound too big if I get over 1000 uniques to my site a day, but that is the most targeted crowd you can get. I end up with a few leads a week from those exact advertisements. And the reason I do that - it's in the best interest of my clients (agents) and their clients as well - agents get leads; they can show their clients that they go far beyond offline ads and their web site - and they do get results. If you afraid to empower companies like Trulia by advertising there - don't. The agent accross the street will and he will get your client as well. Trulia has its own agenda and I don't think we can really do anything about it - it's an open market - if there is a demand for something - there sure will be supply as well.
December 16th, 2006
Jamie Suarez -
Amen, brother! Dost hast spaken truthfully!! I am in the process to create a similiar website and offer it free. I would charge for advertising; but it would give the agents another item to parade in front of the broker and seller that they are doing their job to market the property. Economic time is your every moment in life: awake or asleep. You have a little invisible ticker above your head that shows what your time is worth. Be it making that deal to go through or taking a nice stroll through the park. That free lunch is never free when you have to spend economic time eating it while you could be doing something else. Relax. Understand that utilizing tools now is more essential than spinning your wheels creating one. I mean why buy a car when you could build your own out of your soap box? (sorry about repeat...wanted whole name)
December 20th, 2007
Gresham Real Estate Guy -
I think in this day and age. Agents owe it to their clients to get as much exposure as possible. Especially if its free. On top of all that, most of these websites like trulia, zillow, some others can give you clients. I sold a listing through zillow. I listed the home on mls for 2 months and nothing happened. Near by in the neighborhood a seller was trying to find out how much to sell his home for on zillow and found my listing on the map and called me. We closed in 30 days.
January 29th, 2008
California Real Estate Guy -
I am going to have to say that No Fan has made some solid points that seem to be dismissed here. First off, having your own IDX website and doing SEO is solid advice, as much as I hate to admit it (since this is good advice for the competition). But everyone knows this already. What isn't as obvious is why these map widgets are free. So nice of our friends over at that TRU company. . . But realize that every map you put on your website has two outbound links at the base of the map back to their home page as well as up to 50 outbound links on the map itself, pointed to your listings on their website. All of these outbound links provide them with your valuable page rank, as well as your customers, while they search your competition's listings.
May 12th, 2008
Eddie Carr - SLC, UT
It's funny you titled this post the way you did because that exactly what I use, PropertyMaps. It's another great way to view Florida homes for sale along with detailed information, photos, etc. It has been a great help to me.