Real estate-related sites Trulia, craigslist and HotPads.com made PCMag.com’s "Top 100 Web Sites of 2009," along with a number of other portals, applications and tools that could also be useful to tech-savvy real estate professionals.
Known for its listings and "heat maps" — graphical representations of housing market data — Trulia was the favorite real estate site of PCMag.com editors, despite its uncanny ability to "either make your day or destroy your week, depending on whether you’re shopping for a home or considering selling," the publication said.
In recent months, Trulia has climbed the rankings on a list of top real estate-related Web sites by market share maintained by Internet metrics company Hitwise, reaching fifth place in June (see story).
Also making the PCMag.com’s list in the "Classics: Shopping" category was craigslist, for helping users "hunt for a new house or apartment, buy and sell used stuff, and even find your long-lost love!"
User-generated rating site Yelp — perhaps best known for its restaurant reviews, but which also allows users to rate real estate professionals and other service providers — also made the "Classics: Info" list.
HotPads.com made it onto PCMag.com’s Top 100 in the "Undiscovered: Shopping" category. The site was singled out for its "handy map full of listings for rentals, sales, foreclosures and even vacation rentals and hotels."
Other Top 100 Web sites and apps with potential real estate applications included the microblogging site Twitter, which many real estate professionals are using to build relationships with clients. Twitter is already established enough to be included in the "Classics: Apps" category, along with Google’s "cloud computing" office suite, Google Docs. …CONTINUED
Facebook — another social networking site that real estate professionals have discovered, as it presents a free venue to market their services — made the list in the "Classics: Fun" category, having established itself as the "preeminent social network … (that’s) fast becoming the hub of all social interactions on the Web."
The "Undiscovered: Apps" category included several tools for users of Twitter, including Gizapage — a single dashboard for controlling profiles at Twitter, Facebook and other social networks — and Seesmic, which employs a multi-column view for keeping up with Twitter feeds.
Also singled out for accolades in the undiscovered apps category was TinyChat, which allows users of different instant-messaging (IM) services to create an instant chat room that also supports audio and video.
For real estate professionals looking for the latest iPhone app, 148Apps made the "Undiscovered: Tech" category for rating and reviewing iPhone apps. A sister site, 148Apps.biz, was recommended for business apps.
Real estate professionals struggling to keep up with changes in laws and regulations — or hoping to play a role in the process — can check out Legistalker, which makes it easier to track pols in the media and on sites like Twitter. Legistalker made the PCMag.com Top 100 list in the "Undiscovered: Info" category.
***
What’s your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor.
