Trulia launched a new feature, actually a few months ago, called truliasnapshot. It’s a easy to use interface that allows you to select a slice of homes in a city.
When you search for homes in Trulia, Zillow, or most other realtor websites, you enter in the following preferences:
- City, State
- Type of Property
- Price Range
- Beds
- Baths
- Sqft
- Other Amenities
The result is a list of properties based on your preferences. All the results rely on one preference, your location, the City/State field. What about situations where you don’t know which city you want to live in or don’t have a preference?
Locational preferences are more important than the amenities of your home. You can always upgrade your home over time, but you’re not going to pick it up and move it to a better location. So why doesn’t Trulia let you enter in data about areas you visit frequently to help you determine the optimal location? Information such as:
- Where I work, or nearby a train line
- School and School system ratings
- Addresses of family and friends
- Other places of interest; local coffee shops, gyms, grocery stores
Enter in 3 or 4 preferences, add a weight to each, and a best guess is computed for you. Does this take a lot of resources to accomplish? Yes, but its what people do question when they are looking for a home.