Comments on: Truly A Trick or Treat: Real Estate Search Results

By: jfsellsius

jfsellsius — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:32:43 +0000

Right back at 'ya, Ken.

By: jfsellsius

jfsellsius — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:25:54 +0000

No, these came from listings.point2. RealtyTrac sends foreclosures which were at the end of the search results, despite their somewhat more detailed description.

Methinks Sami, in his post, is trying to get agents to beef up their listings descriptions with the promise that Trulia will rank them higher when in fact, even crappy featured listings will ALWAYS rank higher than any kick ass non-featured listing.

I think Trulia just wants agents to help feed Trulia's SEO beast to continue to outrank agent's websites on Google.

By: jasonsandquist

jasonsandquist — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:18:58 +0000

Also, aren't those undisclosed address listings the ones that RealtyTrac pumps in? You know that one company that ones you to fork over $40 a month for basic information that could be found on the counties website.

By: jfsellsius

jfsellsius — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 22:02:37 +0000

Exactly! But Sami says Trulia ranks listings by "quality" (implying this applies to the unwashed, unfeatured mass of listings). According to slingin' Sami:

"...the initial search results (aka "the default ranking") that consumers see before any custom sorting are ranked to surface the best content first..... "Essentially, the cream rises to the top and the least comprehensive listings are most likely to be found on the bottom." (link to post here: http://tinyurl.com/yj8q2a2

But my test showed this NOT to be the case for non-featured listings. The crap rose to the top, not the cream.

BTW, Trulia's listings in my search were not listed by highest price:
449, 475, 450, 455, 459, 449

http://www.trulia.com/for_sale/Staten_Island,NY...

By: Ken Montville

Ken Montville — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 21:28:11 +0000

You mean it's surprising that people who pay money go to the front of the line? I thought that was the whole idea. What pay a nickle if I'm going to fall behind someone who is feature-rich or a good copywriter with lots of photos.

Trulia isn't the only one that ranks listings by price. My own humble MLS (MRIS) has it's own IDX (homesdatabase) and it always ranks by highest price at the top (meaning the top of your search criteria).

I dunno, Joe. To me this falls under: "So, what else is new?"

By: Ken Brand

Ken Brand — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:32:10 +0000

Joseph, you're one-of-a-kind. CHEERS;-))