43 Percent of Trulia’s Audience is First Time Homebuyers

photo credit: ralphunden

Today we announce the results of a comScore report, which shows that Trulia has the highest concentration of first-time homebuyers among the top real estate search engines. According to the report, 43 percent of Trulia’s audience consists of first-time homebuyers. Realtor.com’s audience has 31 percent first-time buyers and Zillow’s has 28 percent, making Trulia the #1 site to reach active and engaged first-time buyers.

According to the National Association of Realtors, nearly 50% of homes were purchased by first-time homebuyers in 2010. First-time homebuyers are new to the home search process and typically need more guidance than repeat buyers.  Savvy agents are using Trulia Voices and Trulia Pro as platforms to share knowledge and connect with first-time homebuyers on a daily basis. This is proving to be a good lead generator for agents that are active on Trulia.

“Out of all of the people who’ve contacted me through Trulia, about 90% have been first-time homebuyers,” said Deborah Bremner, an agent in Brentwood, CA. “What makes Trulia so appealing to homebuyers is that it allows a consumer who’s looking online for an agent to choose who they want to work with. On other sites, you don’t necessarily know the caliber of the agent you’re reaching out to, but with Trulia, you can determine who sounds like someone you’d like to work with. My client was extremely happy with the experience of being able to pick her agent on Trulia.”

“It’s not surprising that Trulia has the highest concentration of first-time homebuyers. Trulia serves as an invaluable resource for prospective buyers, providing rich home search data and access to more than 500,000 registered real estate professionals,” said Georg Gerstenfeld, VP of Business Services at Trulia. “Our goal is to help consumers make smart real estate decisions and connect them to agents who can help them through the home buying process.  Not only are agents providing consumers with valuable knowledge, but making these connections with buyers seeking help allow agents to win clients and close deals.”

Since being introduced in early 2007, more than 1.5 million contributions have been made in the Trulia Voices community. It is the largest and most active real estate community on the web.

Methodology

The first-time homebuyer data was pulled from ComScore’s November 2010 Plan Metrix report.  Per this report, a first-time homebuyer is defined as someone that bought their first home in the past six-months, or is very likely/somewhat likely to purchase a new residence in the next six-months.

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