Zillow and Trulia Release House-Hunting Applications for Mobile

Trulia and Zillow, two of the biggest competitors in the online real estate space, are continuing to push into mobile with the addition of more smartphone applications.

Trulia.com said it is now supporting iPad and Android in addition to iPhone. Zillow has released a BlackBerry application, adding to a portfolio that supports iPad, Windows Phone, Android and iPhone.

Both are trying to offer access to information to home buyers wherever they want it, and not necessarily when they are in front of computers.

Being accessible to users whenever they want the information will be critical as both companies may jockey for an initial public offering in the not too distant future.

San Francisco-based Trulia recently said it was prepping for an IPO as it continued to build out its management team, and Zillow was reportedly in talks with investment bankers to discuss the prospects of going public.

Trulia said the addition of iPad and Android applications builds off a base of more than two million mobile users, who visited Trulia.com from their phones last month. That represents a more than 300 percent increase compared to the year earlier, it said.

Both the iPad and Android apps will be slightly different from what was being offered on the iPhone. The iPad app will use the larger screen real estate to display a color-coded heat map that examines the differences in average listing price and sold price within a city or county. The Android app will allow users to add open houses to their calendars and scan QR codes.

Zillow said with the addition of its BlackBerry app, it will now cover more than 90 percent of smartphone users. The Seattle-based company said its services are used on mobile devices more than 6.5 million times each month with 23 million visits to home detail pages.

In addition to being able to search the BlackBerry app for homes based on a user’s location, they will also be able to filter searches by price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and other information. Homes will be viewable in satellite or street view, and will feature color photos.

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