I like this but it is becoming spam heaven. One item I've asked Trulia for is to allow only ONE post per Realtor/Licensee per thread!! Yes, I'm very "Ruthless" about that!! Isn't there a hint somewhere there? "Ruth---------------Less!? Smoochers darling!

I'd like to thank Deborah, RealtyExec for awarding Deborah Best Answer, Sylvia and Elvis for understanding this from the consumer perspective. And I would also like to thank Deborah and everyone else for helping me understand this from the Pro's point of view.

So where should I ask my challenges/philosophical questions for agents to think outside the box?
Sincerely,
Ruth

As probably the only agent in my region who can honestly say that 100% of my income and leads are generated through my websites, I understand how important “flow” and “navigation” is to any website’s performance. I’ve only been a member on Trulia since Jan. 20th, but Trulia does seem pretty well designed.

It’s a great idea and tool to help the consumer, while also providing the opportunity for agents to obtain a lead or two. I’ve already been able to possibly generate three leads.

I’ll have to remain a member for several more months before I am able to honestly provide a comprehensive opinion but on face value, hats-off to Trulia for a job well done!

Frank Biganski, Realtor ABR http://www.mrtownhome.net

Hi,

First, I applaud Trulia for trying to obtain and respond to feedback as they make changes and decisions.

I have participated long enough and often enough to hear the debates go back and forth as it pertains to RE ProRE Pro discussions. I have seen a RE Pro ask a question and receive multiple TD and extensive negative comments, because the participants on Voices thought that the question was inappropriate because it was not about the consumer. At another time, I have seen a RE Pro ask a trade related question that had no consumer content or value, and the results were multiple TU and thanks for bringing up the subject. Go figure! Obviously, the results varied depended upon who participated on the thread, and the interpretations of how those individuals viewed Voices.

Individuals hold various view on what they think Voices should be:

OPTION 1: Consumers ONLY should ask questions. These folks believe that agents should never ask questions and their criticisms can be found on threads with quotes such as, “Why is an agent asking what she should already know?” (My opinion: If the thread delivered relevant content for the consumer, it was fine by me. It’s all about consumer relevance.)

OPTION 2: Agents and consumers may ask questions about anything. These folks find it interesting and informative, even when an agent asks a question that has not relevance to a consumer as it pertains to real estate. i.e. about which real estate specific website developer one agent may favor over another. Is Advance Access or ala mode X Site better? (My opinion: That which clearly fails the litmus test for consumer content, if it becomes prevalent on the board, would dissuade consumers from coming to Voices if there is only one Voices Board.)

OPTION 3: Agents and consumers may ask questions, but content needs to be consumer relevant.

Option 3 would have gotten my vote, and still does. I would not have split Voices into 2 sections, as I do not think it will solve the problem, but rather only complicate it. I would have focused energy on the consumer content value of Voices, tolerated any participant’s questions and answers, and not split off into 2 sections. I would have let Active Rain, or another AgentBoard have their day and success in that segment, and driven more Trulia energy on developing the very best consumer board out there. You can’t be all things to all people. In my opinion, choose your audience and your target, and focus energy there. Divided efforts, even with unlimited capital will yield compromised results.

I suspect on the new Voices there will be challenges in deciphering whether certain threads should be Consumer, Using Trulia, or Agent2Agent. I don’t expect that the division will terminate all discord. I anticipate that I may miss certain threads as a result of the division. Example: http://www.trulia.com/voices/Agent2Agent/Can_a_non_Agent_ask…

I do applaud Trulia for their interest in user feedback. It seems that in an effort to quickly respond, some important issues were overlooked. A deeper look and evaluation before implementation of change might provide better execution and decisions. It seems that there are several open issues that need more immediate attention without inviting more projects into the fold.


Regards
Deborah

So what if I answer? Or how about even post a question?

Wallace:
Anything you say on Trulia Voices is released to the world. Just search "horacio alger" on Google and look at the second page starting "Philosophical question: Is the American Dream advantageous or detrimental?" Or how about searching "wallace in asheville".

I'd just like Trulia to read over this post again:
http://www.trulia.com/voices/Using_Trulia/Getting_Frustrated…

I'll continue to avoid Agent2Agent after I post a question. I made the exception of coming on here because an agent asked me to. What Trulia needs is a "Discussions" section, not an exclusions section that isn't exclusive.

Ruth

I still find myself bouncing from the three different areas of questions. Jury is still out.

Only my suggestion -- only allow access to those whose profile that says Real Estate Pro. It would clearly designate that Voices is the place to interact with buyers and sellers and that A2A is a private area for agents to discuss the business, referrals, etc. I'm, not sure I would want a client to know I asked for advise about how to handle a difficult client for example. Or maybe if I am too direct with some of my voices answers I could get feedback.

Not crazy about it, thus far.

The separation of Agent2Agent is not really separate. It's right there on the front page, so Just another group of threads for people to scroll through... I didn't really think it should be PRIVATE, just more separated, and the "using trulia" section is the same...

we're already seeing mixing of questions into the wrong threads, it's kinda unclear, so that means everyone has to cruise all three thread groups to find overlooked questions and answers.

Good idea conceptually, I'm not sure the actual functionality has arrived yet.

I have been off line for a few days so when I opened up today I was quite surprised. The jury is still out for me as I need to surf a bit.

Thank you all for your feedback! We are always very happy to hear from you and your feedback is key for the evolution of the community.

The main purpose of Trulia Voices remains to allow consumers to get in touch with Real Estate professionals to discuss matters that are of interest to them and get advice. You can access all this content on the Q&A section.

As the community grew, we saw that agents wanted to ask advice, socialize and ask each other questions, we didn’t have a place for them to do that. So, we created this place, and we made it easily accessible.

The experience is still very similar. If you are interested to have a question answered by a Real Estate professional only, you can just place it to the Agent2Agent category. Similarly, if you are interested in seeing what your peers are talking about, you can go to Agent2Agent section to have a look.

We are committed to providing the best experience ever in all different areas of Trulia. This is a promise that we make to you and you will see it happening during 2008!

Maybe I am biased, because I am used to the old format - hard to chance those old habit.

Sorry, I personally like Trulia because of the mix of consumer and realtor voices and I am not sure i like the segregation of the two.

We have agents asking questions and consumers chime in from their own experience and vice versa - although you get complaints from time to time about how consumers just want to hear from consumers and how Realtors just want to hear from Realtors.

There are also many heated debates at times, but as long as everybody keep their post professional, I rather enjoy them.

I also don't know how Trulia select the old questions to put into Agent2Agent - just because it says 'HI Realtors?' or only the ones with 100% Realtor answers?

I will keep doing what I did, so this means I will have to go on Trulia by taking a few more steps. If I want Realtors only, I'd go to Active Rain.

I think Trulia will do better by improving their Find Homes page content, sort order, contents, and Real Estate Guide to include more areas (Being a Real Estate site, how can we confuse two major cities from two different states because they are named the same?), logical areas; and member search and how they are displayed.

Making things work correctly first before doing these fancy changes is where Trulia should spend their time on.

Sorry, got my old Systems Development hat on again. I think I will stop here.

Sylvia

Great!! I already surf with interest the standard voices pages probably too much. My wife has gone up to bed without me hours ago. Now I've Agent2Agent pages to suck me in now too.

But really, I think it a great place to talk shop and read insights from other agents. I look forward to reading, learning and answering. I was a little surprised at first to see that non RE Pros can come in too, but it is no problem. I figured that registrants as buyer, seller, or just looking would not even see the Agent2Agent link, but they do. So, I guess Trulia is migrating old RE Pro topics from standard voices over to this column?

I wonder if it will take away from some RE Pros attention to the standard voice? If it will be detrimental to the amount of prompt and multiple opinion Pro answers for consumers on the 'old column' ?

All: Thanks for the feedback. We're compiling all the input from our users and we'll be releasing improvements to Voices in the next couple of weeks.
Realtyexec: the selection of questions in the Agent2Agent and Using Trulia sample boxes on the Voices home page is a sample of the most recent questions in each respective category, so the content is fresh and relevant.

Thanks The only thing im having trouble seeing in New Questions on the Box at the bottom of the screen. It is showing random agent2agent questions but not most recent like the top 5 questions. Ill get used to it.

I think it's great; I've already learned a lot from everyone here!

hi,

This is Vicky from Trulia.

Thank you for your feedback on Agent2Agent. There has been a lot of demand to create a section within Voices where Real Estate professionals can communicate, so we are very glad to hear that you like it.

Here are some tips:
- The Trulia Voices Home page, gives you a snap shot of the activity in all categories
- The ‘Q&A’ , ‘Agent2Agent’ or ‘Using Trulia’ link on the horizontal navigation bar on the top of the page will take you to the homepage of each category
- If you are interested for a specific location, you can search by location on the left navigation bar
- If you are interested in accessing location specific Agent2Agent content, you should search for a location on the left column and then click Agent2Agent category just below the search box

We are all very excited about this new functionality and we are looking forward hearing from you
Vicky