iPhone owners rejoice -- Trulia, the popular home listing site, comes to your phone to allow you to search on-the-go.

A recent article in Newsweek brought to light the recent changes in the process home buyers face now that we’re all technophiles armed with smartphones, MapQuest and a speedy cable or DSL Internet connection. While many buyers do still rely on realtors, brokers and agents to assist them with their search, it’s estimated that more than four of our five home buyers now start looking for a new home online.

Today we’re addressing one of the fastest growing segments of home buyers — those who own smartphones, specifically, Apple’s new must-have toy, the iPhone. As a somewhat fanatical user of this little beauty, I’ve always known that Realtor.com has had a search site specifically created for the iPhone.

But I was delighted to read in the article that Trulia — the very popular, up and coming real estate listing site has an actual application (or “App” as we iPhone owners call them) that allows you to search and review listings right on your phone. According to reviews and information from the Newsweek article, home buyers using the App can now:

• Search for homes by current location (we hope it uses the iPhone G3’s GPS abilities to determine what’s close).
• Ability to map your trip to a home from your current location (again, GPS is the key here).
• Ability to view current open houses.
• It’s easy to call or e-mail the listing agent.

In fact, if you’ve seen Apple’s TV spots (or online, interactive banner ads, primarily on news web sites) that advertise their phone, you’ll be familiar with the format of this knock-off video that Trulia created for their new offering:

Initial reviews on the Apple iTunes’ App Store were a bit lukewarm (it always seems these days that there’s a bit of a learning curve associated with this new type of software development — future versions always seem to behave much better and the better developers are quick to address user’s feedback). In short, critics panned the App:

• There’s no MLS record referenced or provided.
• If you have an account on the online version (where you can save searches), you can’t log onto your account with your iPhone. We’d anticipate this being fixed soon.
• Maps can’t be moved or zoomed (we iPhone users love the “pinch”) — they seem like static images.
• Searching could be improved with search criteria like keywords and zip codes.
• You can’t view multiple photos for a particular listing.

I should note, I’ve been in contact with “Rudy,” the self-proclaimed social media guru over at Trulia who had some clarifications for me:

• Your location is automatically detected using the built-in GPS of the iPhone. This allows you to search for properties from 0.5 – 10 miles of the exact location you are standing in.
• You can map your route and get step by step directions from your current location to the selected listing.
• The App uses the iPhone’s “pinch” feature. You can zoom in and pan around the neighborhood around your selected listing. The “map” tab just shows the listings on a map and when you click on it it takes you to the details of the listing.

Rudy went on to tell me, “After you are on the details screen, click the arrow in the top right of your iPhone and you will see a number of tabs to choose from — Email to friend, Contact agent — here you can call or email the listing agent directly (great for the consumer and for the agent — an immediate contact), show hte listing on Trulia Map and Launch Google maps. Just click on the link that says ‘Launch Google Maps.’ There you will be able to zoom in and around the neighborhood and get driving directions.”

As noted, it’s a fun tool to use when you’re out and about with your trusty iPhone. As with most new iPhone Apps, keep your expectations low forversion 1.0 and hope that little update button on your iTunes lights up soon!