Trulia Goes Mobile

The Real Estate industry is the latest one embracing web 2.0 technologies. Social networks for real estate agents, brokers and individuals interested in buying and selling their homes continue to rise in popularity. Trulia, for example, is a listing site for available homes as well as industry news. Trulia has upped their services by introducing mobile capabilities. Trulia’s mobile site is available through the Apple’s iPhone application, as well as via other Smartphones like the Blackberry. The free app lets iPhone-toting house hunters find listings and open houses in their vicinity.

Trulia looks to out beat competition from other sites like FrontDoor.com, which is owned by HGTV and StreetEasy.com, which already has an iPhone application (with 5,000 downloads, reportedly). Real estate seems to be the next industry to utilize mobile media to its advantage, reaching its users everywhere. While some speculate that this may hinder the effectiveness of a real estate agent, it may just be the tool that can connect possible buyers with an agent, facilitating the home buying process.