In late December, 2008, my wife and I were going through the early stages of listing our house. Our goal was to put the house on the market in February. However, we first needed to find a Real Estate Agent. So I did what anyone else in 2009 would do and went to Google. I came across a site called Trulia. I had never heard of Trulia before, so I bounced around on the site for about 20 minutes, registered, then posted my first question:

Negotiating costs (listing, selling, etc) for home in 27707. Suggestions?

The best answer was from a Real Estate Agent name Michael Colvin. A few days later, I posted this question:

Realtors with experience selling home in Forest Hills / Parkside area. Anyone out there?

The first (and best) response was once again from Michael Colvin. I emailed Michael to set up a time to meet in person. My thought was, if he is that responsive on Trulia, he must be that way in "real life" as well. In fact his Trulia profile - as of 4/1/09 - shows Michael as answering 176 questions. 55 of those are "first answers," 21 "useful answers," and 4 "best answers."



Michael lived up to his reputation. Fast forward 2 months later and Michael Colvin is our Realtor. We've been fortunate to have more than 15 showings and several second showings over the past 6 weeks.

I've also been using Twitter to try and sell the house - offering $250 to anyone that can bring the buyer to me. It's still too early to tell, but the twitter campaign has generated over 1,000 additional clicks on the trulia posting. Even Anderson Cooper tweeted about it! However, selling the house is what matters most.

Read and watch the NBC 17 story

In addition to Trulia being the source of quality answers to real estate questions (and helping us discover our realtor), Trulia has also helped in our search for a home in Salt Lake City. We've leveraged the Trulia "search and email alerts" tools to get updates on newly listed homes in Salt Lake City based on certain criteria we've established. We are also using the search/alert feature to keep abreast of other homes selling in the 27707 area code. Trulia's mashup with Google Maps makes it simple to narrow our search by geography. Actually, the entire "My Trulia" portion of the site makes it simple to learn more about the area we are buying/selling in.

Finally, through Twitter, I've been able to connect with Trulia's Social Media Guru, Rudy Bachraty. Rudy is not only the owner of the Trulia Twitter handle, he's the kind of guy who is everywhere - a true Trulia evangelist. It keeps me coming back...

Next steps:
1. Sell the Durham, NC house.
2. Buy a house in Salt Lake City, UT

Thanks Trulia.

DJ Waldow
Lifetime Trulia Fan