Trulia to power WashingtonPost.com searches

The Washington Post hopes a new partnership with Trulia will help the newspaper's Web site become the "definitive source" for real estate information in and around the nation's capital.

Under the terms of a multiyear agreement announced today, real estate search engine Trulia will power a co-branded Web site to be launched in April at WashingtonPost.com.

The new site will provide tools familiar to Trulia users, such as the ability to search for properties including open houses and new listings by neighborhood, price and property type, and also view detailed maps, local price trends, and property descriptions.

The site will incorporate Washington Post news stories and tools like mortgage calculators to help users stay abreast of local real estate-related information and trends.

The partnership "will allow us to build the definitive source of information for buyers and sellers in Washington, D.C., and that is where our advertisers will need to be to reach the biggest audience," said Goli Sheikholeslami, vice president and general manager of Washington Post Digital. "We're very committed to being the go-to resource and indispensable destination for our local audience when it comes to all things real estate, and we think with Trulia we're going to be able to achieve that goal."

Sheikholeslami said the partnership between Trulia and Washington Post should prove especially attractive to builders, real estate agents and brokers, because it will help them generate traffic and gather leads.

"One of the key things about the Trulia experience is that although they provide a very fulfilling experience on Trulia.com, they also link out to broker and builder Web sites," Sheikholeslami said. "We like that approach very much. It's attractive to agents and brokers to know we are really trying to provide them with customers and leads and sending people to their Web sites."

Trulia CEO Pete Flint said partnerships like those with the Washington Post enable the company to extend its reach by distributing its technology across the Web.

Trulia claims partnerships with 93 of the 100 largest U.S. brokers and relationships with more than 100 media publishers it provides with Trulia co-branded Web sites.

ResidentialNYC.com, for example -- the public Web portal of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) -- is powered by Trulia (see story).

In May, Trulia launched its Trulia Ad Network, which allows real estate brokers and lenders to target home buyers and sellers on multiple real estate niche sites that are members of Trulia's publisher network (see story).

Flint said that while he could not discuss the specifics of the agreement with the Washington Post, publishers generally keep revenue they generate from the display of advertising. Flint called the deal with the Washington Post "a more significant relationship" that will involve revenue sharing between both parties.

The new site will roll out with Trulia's property search functions in April, with additional upgrades in the months to follow, Flint and Sheikholeslami said.

Users can expect to see social media capabilities such as Trulia Voices, localized for a Washington, D.C., audience, in the near future, they said.

"I'm not going to get specific on the rollout (date), but the Web is increasingly a social media platform, so we'd be crazy not to" build such capabilities into the co-branded site, Flint said.

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