Madeleineevers,
As an individual you cannot post your home for sale on Trulia. Trulia currently gets its postings through arrangements strictly with individual Realtors and Brokers, that's why it doesn't have all the listings that you will find on the local MLS, only the listings for the individual Realtors and Brokers who have partnered with Trulia to post their listings on Trulia's site. For sold information, Trulia pulls from public records (tax records, etc), not just from Realtors and brokers

There are many realtors who can post on Trulia for you. For example, all of the Coldwell Banker Gundaker (CBG) agents are shown on Trulia, because our company has a partnership with Trulia - we also have a partnership with Yahoo, Google, Realtor.com to have enhanced listings (we have more pictures than many other companies have & buyers stop and look at listings with more pictures), Coldwell Banker (our international website), OpenHouse.com & a host of others

One thing to keep in mind is that many of the Real Estate Brokerages and Realtors that have company and individual websites that pull from the MLS, will pull the entire MLS, since they want to show their clients all the listings on their own website, rather than have their clients go to another website - ie they will pull everyone's listings, not just their own. This is how someone can claim that they are posting your listing to 500+ websites - they know when they list your home in the MLS, that all the other brokerages & individual realtors who have their own website are going to pick up that listing on their website

At the same time, there are other Real Estate Companies &agents that will only show their own listings on their own websites & that is an important point to keep in mind. It's great to show your home as an individual listings, but do they have the entire local MLS on their website - if they don't buyers won't come & STAY, & if they don't come & stay, they won't find your listing

In addition to the Realtor & Brokerage websites, there are websites on line that have agreements that will allow them to show all the listings in the MLS (Realtor.com is the main website that will show everyone's listings) while there are others (google, yahoo, trulia, etc), that currently only have agreements to show the listings that belong to the specific agents & brokers who have agreements with them

I get offers from several websites daily to advertise my listings both for free or for a fee on their website. If I choose to use them, I have to upload the data, maintain the data & they will provide the webspace - they will get the webhits, they will use my listings to attract attention to their website, and to solicit traffic & advertisers. These are often the websites where the agents or home owners post the data one time & never get around to going back & updating the data, so it sits out there unattended & years later it is still out there saying a home is available at X price when the home is sold or is at a different price. Then a new buyer comes along, finds the ad &tries to track it down, can't find the home & gets very frustrated. I will grant you that some Real Estate Brokerages don't always update their MLS data, but the MLS system does have checks & balances in place to help check that data is kept updated (for example, when the expiration date of a listing hits, if the agent doesn't update the listing, the computer system will cancel the listing rather than leave it active) & hence the datafeeds that draw directly from the MLS system are far more accurate than the systems which require an individual agent or broker to sit down & type in the information for each listing each time something changes with that listing or to manually update, change or withdraw the listing from the system when it sells

As you are looking at websites, all of these factors can be an important points to keep in mind. Online marketing is the most important thing that we do for homes today, as it introduces the home to the majority of the buyers. CBG adn their agents spend our money to enhance our listings on line, because the first showings of a home today are actually virtual showings on line from the MLS & our on-line partners. There is of course more to it than that - the pictures that are put on line need to really showcase your home to make sure that it shows the best points of your home, the comments need to paint a picture with words that gives them a feeling of home & once you get them inside the door, you need to make sure that the home is truly ready and extremely competitive when compared to the other homes in the area - all things your individual realtor will help you prepare your home for.

Please let me know if you have any other questions. I believe in answering your questions and helping to ensure that you are an educated buyer and seller in today's market. I'm here to help

Having a strong internet presence is one of the most important marketing strategies in today's real estate market. Trulia is an excellent site with Virtual tours and syndication to other sites. If your home is listed with a real estate agent, I'm sure they would be happy to include your home on Trulia. Make sure that the quality of the photographs are outstanding.

If you have not made your choice on which real estate agent to use, my marketing system includes this site and numerous others.

Madeleine,

If you are attempting a FSBO and tire of it and decide to go with an agent, check out the link below. It is to an old friend's site. Tell Nick, Roy & Amelia said "Hi from Austin, TX. Yee Haw"

http://www.nixland.com/sitemap.shtml

I am a Realtor in the Wentzville area and would be happy to market your home if you do not already have a Realtor. As part of my marketing efforts your home will be listed on over 900 web sites, as well as the TV real estate show, direct mail, flyers and open houses if you desire, among many other methods. Please contact me if you would like more information through my web site listed below.

Madeleineevers,

If you are not represented by an agent, you may place an ad in the blog section. You may also ad links and upload photos. Unfortunately it will get buried in a hurry given the blog machines that some of the agents are. Also, if you are doing a FSBO, the blog below may be of some interest to you. Even if you are not, there is some info in it that you may be able to use to supplement your agent's marketing efforts. However if you are represented, make sure you inform your agent of anything you plan to do on your own beforehand.

http://www.trulia.com/blog/rockinblu/2008/08/thinking_about_…

Only a Real Estate Agent can list your home on Trulia. If your home is listed with a Brokerage, make sure your agent gets it listed on here.