Trulia Buys Market Leader

In a release today, Trulia announced that they are buying Market Leader. As a result, Trulia has taken ownership of a brokerage. That means that they can compete with other online brokerages like Redfin, ZipRealty, Sawbuck, Movoto, and others. However, I do not think that is their strategy.

There is a persistent paradigm emerging in the portal business where these companies combine the portal with technology products and services offered to agents and brokers. Operating a portal that relies on ad spending alone does not seem to be sustainable for the type of growth and stable recurring revenue that investors require. Advertising has, and always will be, a volatile business.

Offering deeper levels of products and services to agents is a classic cross-sell opportunity. Move was the first portal to recognize this strategy, and has a suite of products that begin with Top Producer and expand from there. Zillow has followed the same path with their acquisition strategy of Diverse Solutions. Homes.com offers HomesConnect for agents and brokers, and powers many of the largest franchise sites in America.

With Market Leader's suite of products, Trulia can now provide agents with more leads, offer marketing on RealEstate.com, HouseValues, JustListed, as well as Trulia. They can move that buyer lead directly into agent websites backed by a full contact management solution, drip marketing, and excellent market analytic reports. For sellers, they have a full marketing suite with flyers, postcards, virtual tours and, of course, the ability to market that seller listing up through the portals – Trulia, RealEstate.com, etc.