Trulia plays games with new iPhone app for agents
Trulia has released an iPhone app for agents.
It’s pretty simple, really. Agents can check-in to properties, receive push notifications for new leads from Trulia, organize contacts and search for property.
It’s a good idea. Agents are Trulia’s customers, after all, so why wouldn’t they want to engage them in this way?
But what is most interesting here is that agents earn badges and points – those potent bits of ego-tickling ephemera – for doing things within the app. Trulia then creates a “Leaderboard” ranking agents by these accumulations.
This is going to be an interesting experiment in “gamification” within real estate.
Turning apps into games where users earn points, badges, rewards and recognition as they check-in, level up, or connect with others has been engagement catnip for apps like Foursquare, Get Glue, Scvngrand others. It’s also been over-hyped and applied in ways that are pretty silly.
But I think game mechanics can be potent in real estate. ActiveRain was early on this, offering points for activity within the network. They grew like a weed. But there hasn’t been a large-scale play in this vein since.
Picture the festive army of Realtors at the NAR show wearing ribbons, badges, blinking lights and other tokens of status. Consider the affinity for designations and their display that marks our industry, or the competitive drive that makes a real estate office buzz.
Now look at the visuals for the Trulia app below. Points. Badges. Faces of other agents staring back at the user. It’s a brilliant taunt.
Now politically… this could be a little touchy. Because agents are the customers of someone else: their broker. And brokers provide the listings that make Trulia possible. To the extent that brokers perceive this as diminishing their gravitational pull over agents, it’s going to raise some hackles.
But hackles or no hackles, we should keep an eye on how this plays out.
Here are the screen caps:
About Brian Boero
Brian co-founded 1000watt in 2007 with Marc Davison. Prior to that, Brian was CEO of VREO, Inc. and was President of Inman News for 8 years.
This is brilliant.
Thanks! Tell us more!
Matt from Trulia
Stephen from Trulia here — Brian, great post. One benefit of agent check ins that I think is missing from your article is the value they provide to consumers.
Trulia will be displaying listing check ins on every agent’s Trulia.com profile, helping buyers find agents who have actually toured listings in a neighborhood. We think of listing check ins as another way for agents to show consumers they are a neighborhood expert and, at the same time, help consumers build trusted relationships with agents. Yes, the app check in feature is a ton of fun for agents (and a little competitive), but it is also a new way for consumers to meet agents who can provide the inside details about properties they may want to buy.
Its still a silly game and has no relation to the competency of an agent. A newly minted agent with a lockbox key but no clue how to write a contract or close a transaction can spend all their time previewing listings and gaining points, but that doesnt make them the best choice for real estate transaction. No different than the AR agents with a bazillion points who do very little business.
Hi Bob.
Thanks for the reply and you have a great point. The points and leaderboard are a great way to track your activity in your market and gauge your activity relative to your peers. The act of checking in helps build your online reputation within your market and show your prospective clients that not only are you a great agent but you have seen [this much] of the local market – here’s proof.
Even more, if you tour a home that one of your clients might like, you can check in and share the listing with them along with some inside knowledge about why they’d like it. Thanks for the great feedback and please feel free to reach out to our team with more feedback as you use the app.
The real reason to blog post, answer questions in the real estate on line arena is not for points, badges, blue ribbons. It’s the reach, frequency and intensity broadening of your real estate signal. To amplify, to provide bare naked, nothing held back full exposure for your real estate message, no games, delays. Heavy duty full A-Z exposure to more catch more eyeballs, tickle more ears drums. The big three video channels, check realtor.com, zillow and trulia and whoa. All under 600,000 views. Yikes.
Trulia needs to put the elves to work on their video channel especially, in a distant third with tad over 200,000 views only. Video, that’s what real estate buyers want. Show me, tell me and don’t keep me in the dark with light me up, drive through quick “home and area information delivery”.
I almost could not believe the ridiculous comment from Stephen of Trulia. It does not even pass the straight-face test. Let me understand this correctly – I’m going to go to Trulia to check on listings in my area so that I can become an “expert” in the area? Say What?
Collecting points, badges, etc (as said above) is just a silly game and has nothing to do with the quality and skill of an agent. It has more to do with someone who has too much time on their hands.
And finally, when it comes to sending property information to a client, there is NO WAY I’m doing it from Trulia. That information will come from our MLS or our own website where we can control the message and provide information that we KNOW is what the client is looking for. And without all the extraneous advertising.
Hi Michael.
Matt from Trulia here. Stephen is not saying that by earning points you become an expert…of course not. Your hard work day to day makes you a local expert. Trulia is giving you a way to show it.
What he is saying is that, with this new app, you can quickly check into homes you tour, which is a way to demonstrate your activity in the local market. Because we will show your check in on your Trulia profile, you will be able to show that market activity to buyers and sellers. This way they know that you work diligently to learn the inventory of homes and build up incredible knowledge, which is why they hire you in the first place.
If you also think of a client who might like the home, you can share your check in and the inside scoop with them – sharing the listing gives your client an instant reference to the listing you’re talking about so they don’t have to do work to track it down themselves. We welcome you to share the listing from the MLS, but if you want an instant option tht works while you’re out in the field Trulia has provided you with a great tool.
What flavor is that Kool Aid?
@truila – Very cool. Like the listing check-in idea. I have a feeling there will be a lot more apps that will have this type of feature in the near future. I admire that you aren’t “drinking your own koolaid”. You openly acknowledge that your product is what it actually is, and not some magical app that will make you a super agent – its a breath of fresh air in the industry.
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“That information will come from our MLS or our own website where we can control the message and provide information that we KNOW is what the client is looking for. And without all the extraneous advertising.” ~ Jim J
@michael – I don’t understand your comment, because if you have a client under a contract then why are you concerned about the advertising on truila? Forget the contract, because we all know that happens almost none of the time. If you are a great agent, why care about the advertising? You really think a client who is satisfied with you as an agent will bail based on a thumbnail headshot and a line of text of another agent?