There are two ways to get involved.  First, ask your questions on this Trulia Voices thread. Then join us on August 28th at 12pm PDT when Tara-Nicholle Nelson, Trulia’s Real Estate Realist, and our community of real estate pros will answer your questions.

Participating in a Twitter Chat is simple. Remember the conversation is in real-time, so mark your calendars for August 28th at 12pm PDT!

Twitter Chat Tip: Use an application like TweetChat to keep track of the conversation. Use the hashtag #TruliaChat to join in.

We will be asking your questions throughout the course of an hour via @Trulia, so don’t forget to submit yours on Trulia Voices here. To learn more about Twitter Chats, see these helpful hints from TweetChat.  And of course, if you have any questions or feedback, email us at community@trulia.com.

The Trulia for Agents Android app lets professionals to check-in to listings

Since the first day we launched our Trulia for Agents iPhone app, we’ve heard hundreds of agents ask for a version of the app on their Android phone.  Today we’re excited to announce Trulia for Agents is available on Android!  The new app includes our two most popular features: immediate lead notifications and listing check-ins.  Agents can download either the new Android app from Google Play, or an updated version of the iPhone app from the iTunes store.

Trulia for Agents lets agents manage a list of their clients and respond to leads from anywhere.  The app immediately alerts you when you’ve received a new lead from Trulia, helping you respond quickly and make more connections with prospective clients.

Agents using the Trulia for Agents app can also check-in to the listings they tour and broadcast their local knowledge to buyers and sellers searching for properties.  Every listing check-in  appears on the agent’s Trulia profile, allowing consumers to find agents who have the inside scoop on local properties.  Listing agents are also notified when other professionals check-in to their listings, allowing both sides to connect about clients that might be a fit for the home.

We built the Trulia for Agents app because we know successful agents spend most of their time out of the office working with clients and touring listings.  Download the app so that you can check-in to listings, get alerts about your leads and start meeting new clients today.

Innovate. Make a Difference. People Matter. Act with Integrity. Customer Obsessed. Trust & respect each other.

Fully understanding that People Matter is the key to any company’s success and each day our senior management strives to push the envelope for our Trulians so that we can offer a fun, innovative and exciting place to work.

How are we doing, you ask? Well, our Trulians have spoken.

Based on employee feedback, Trulia has been named one of the Bay Area’s 2012 Best Places to Work by the San Francisco and Silicon Valley Business Times!

From our excellent company benefits to our fun Trulia traditions –which include monthly company happy hours, in-office massages, Mind Body Spirit Day, weekly yoga and meditation classes and more – we strive to provide the best perks for our hard working Trulians and we’re glad they agree! Thank you to our employees for honoring Trulia with this awesome recognition.

Want to be a part of the fun? Check out our current job listings! We’re hiring various positions in all our departments and we look forward to hearing from you!

Here’s our VP of Product, Lee Clancy, talking about Trulia’s relationship with Akamai:

What can you expect in the updated iPad app?

First of all, we’ve improved the speed of our app for users on 4G LTE networks. You’ll also see optimized “retina”-true icons and graphics.  And our heatmaps look fantastic on the new iPad, too. Here are a few examples:

Get more info about the new iPad (and a nice Trulia example) at Apple.com – click here

Trulia Mobile is proud of our commitment to innovation and we will continue providing the real estate information you need. That means more detailed property data, lots of huge photos and “the inside scoop” on local info such as amenities and schools–all in an effort to help you find your next place to live.

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming months. We always have great new products and features in development to make your on-the-go real estate experience the best it can be.

p.s. Let us know what you think of the new iPad app – email us at ipad@trulia.com!

-Steven Yarger

Trulia Mobile Product Manager

Let’s take a quick walk through a live example. We’ll claim a property as a homeowner, update the home’s public profile, make sure it’s accurate and complete, and then check out the Trulia Estimate.

On our new homepage, if you’re in an area where Trulia Estimates are available, you’ll see an option to search for your home. Just enter your address and we’ll take you directly to the public profile for your house.

When you get there, you’ll see a Trulia Estimate prominently displayed near the top of the page.  As a homeowner, you can claim the property and update the public profile by adding more home features. You can also correct any inaccurate or outdated info, which helps us provide a more accurate estimate.

Here’s how: Under “Edit Home Facts,” select the option to “Claim This Home.”

At this point, you’ll register or login to Trulia — this helps to ensure only true homeowners are making property edits.  Just confirm some contact information and you’ll get a verification email, at which point you can edit public facts about your home.

This is where you can add or edit your home’s characteristics. The more data we have, the more accurate the Trulia Estimate will be. Once you’re satisfied with the details you’ve provided, click “Recalculate Estimate” and we’ll update it in real-time. Publish the edits to your home’s public profile so it’s up-to-date, and you’re good to go!

When you’re finished, you have the opportunity to provide feedback on our Trulia Estimate. Tell us: was it too low, too high, or just about right? You can also submit your own estimate with an explanation — maybe your home has unique features or there are new comparable sales in the area that we should consider.

Keep in mind that while Trulia Estimates are a great starting point for consumers, these estimates do not replace the valuable expertise and local market knowledge provided by real estate professionals. On each page, you have the option to contact a real estate agent to get a professional estimate based on local comps, active listings, price trends and other factors. Connect with a real estate pro to get the real inside scoop on your home and local area.

In the meantime, we’ll be working hard to make Trulia Estimates available for more homes, in more areas, based on richer data.  To see the complete list of areas where estimates are available today, click here!

Through this partnership, all Alain Pinel listings will get premium placement on Trulia. Alain Pinel Realtors is confident that this will give them greater exposure among luxury consumers and further enhance their brand awareness throughout the Bay Area and nationwide.

Rainy Hake, Executive Vice President with Alain Pinel Realtors, said they are focusing their online strategy on reaching buyers where they are looking online, and Trulia’s user-friendly site and mobile presence will help them deliver on that strategy. “The sellers we represent expect the very best from us, and our Trulia partnership enables us to continue delivering that high level of value,” she said.

Alain Pinel Realtors is the largest privately owned, independent residential real estate company in California. The firm was ranked the sixth-largest residential real estate firm in the United States based on its sales volume in 2010, and has been consistently ranked in the top 10 firms in the country.

Photo Source: SF Business Times

Even during our rapid growth, Pete continues to do lunches with our new employees every month, constantly makes himself available to our customers and in the past 12-18 months has recuited and built a top-notch management team to help Trulia continue to scale.

Please take a moment to congratulate Pete on this latest honor. (You can tweet at him here: @PeteFlint).

Check out the compilation of our work that was on display on a touch screen monitor.

To see the touch screen monitor in action, check out this video.

When Pete and I co-founded Trulia more than seven years ago, we knew that we could dramatically redefine the real estate experience for consumers as well as real estate professionals.  The consumer problem was obvious and we had a good sense of the direction to go. We believed that as long as we hired the very best people, nurtured a unique company culture and worked very hard, it would all be possible even if the economy threw a curve ball … as it did in 2008.

In fact, the part of our business that makes me most excited about our future is the IMPACT culture we created and the 300+ Trulian strong team that we have assembled. In the last 24 months, we’ve significantly built out our senior management team, attracting some of the best talent in Silicon Valley. The accelerating growth in the last two years is a true testimony to the strength of our core business and expanded leadership team, including my COO successor Paul , who joined the team a year ago.  This makes me very confident about the future ahead of us!

It is still Day One and I believe we are in a unique position to further accelerate our growth for the benefit of our users and customers, given our team, scale and the momentum in our business. Personally, after 7+ exciting, busy and fulfilling years building Trulia, I’ve decided that I can best help Trulia achieve all of this in the future as a board member. Practically speaking, this means that I will step out from my operational role at the end of Q1.

When we decided to build this company we knew together we could accomplish great things. I will miss working with all Trulians day-to-day but I am looking forward to helping our teams succeed in my role as a board member!

What’s next for me? First, and most importantly, I’m excited to continue to help Trulia expand and grow in my new role. Second, I will take some time to travel, learn new things and spend more time advising the next wave of entrepreneurs both in Europe and in the U.S.  I have had amazing mentors along the way and I look forward to giving back to the next generation. But before all of that, I will need to rest and recover a bit. In my case that means I will be mountain biking with my wife to the base camp of Mt. Everest in April.

If you want to get in touch with me, you can always reach me at sami at trulia dot com.

Onwards,
Sami