Hi Crystal,

Except in rare cases Trulia does not receive listing information from the MLS. Listings are submitted to us by brokerages, brokers, agents and web vendors.

From what I've seen properties listed on our site as active that are really sold come from web vendors. Generally it seems like agents create single property sites or listing virtual tours but forget to update them once the property has sold.

Please note however that you can easily report these errors to us using the red flag you see on the listing detail page and we're always working to improve our filters that allow listings onto our site.

Best Wishes,

Emily Gibson
Customer Service Representative

There are specific rules that govern listings placed on an MLS by a realtor, one of which requires that when a house is sold, the listing be updated. This site and others like it are open to the public, which in my view makes it more difficult to require that people update their listings when a house sells or the price changes, etc. I think Trulia is a very good site for locating properties for sale and to become familiar with price trends. You can find a bargain this way, but may spend a little more time working through some of the listings that are not accurate. As an investor, I chose to get my real estate license and subscribe to an MLS service so that I could access all properties for sale in a quick and reliable way. I agree with Mr.
Thomas that, at least for the time being, you can be sure that you are fully aware of everything for sale by working with an agent. Many will be happy to send you MLS listings that fit your criteria without trying to hard sell you on their services. Good luck.

Sometimes the feed that is being driven to the site may be only as good as where the multiple listing service is coming from. In Steamboat, we have a pretty good, up to the minute feed that is controlled by the board of realtors. We are in the process of looking into licensing this feed to other sites, but for now we only license it to homes.com and realtor.com. I can look into if this has affected Trulia's search capabilities because this just happened recently. So....that means you might now be getting accurate stuff. Happy to help.

All that I can say is that to get the most accurate up do date and most detailed information on the R.E. Market is to speak to a Realtor.