Real Estate Pros Can Offer Branded Mobile Web Property Search App to Home Buyers
By Benn Rosales
Finally, you can offer more than just service
Give’em a shopping cart!
You’ve seen them popping up all over the place, those sweet iPhone and Palm Pre applications, and your head spins because the only way you’ve been able to offer it to your consumer is by pimping someone else’s brand. Your alternative has been to either offer Zillow, Trulia, or others, but it’s not specific to you or your company, leaving you to make a financial investment and single out users by the type of phone they’re using– that’s all changing.
Smarter Agent is offering agents and brokers this exact functionality- a branded MLS mobile web search that you can offer your consumer regardless of the type of phone they’re using. Even sweeter is every landing screen the property hunter lands on- they are fitted with a call to see button, linking every listing back to you.
My mind is swirling with the concept
Imagine offering the ability to log on to the mobile version of your website to download a property search tool to help the home shopper directly from your sign rider?
You’re capturing opportunities by offering a real value that helps consumers to see every listing within the MLS while reminding them at every turn that you’re providing the tool to aide them in their home search.
Not only can you offer homes for sale, you can offer rentals, and even apartments if they’re listed in your local MLS.
No phone left behind!
Currently, regardless of the carrier or device, your customers can search in branded style with any phone under the sun, but if their phone is listed in the device list (for example iPhone, or Android), they’ll be able to search using the characteristics they’re accustomed to via application. That’s what I really appreciate about this tool- it’s not just branded to you, it’s branded to the device they’re using, meaning the learning curve is limited to actually use it.
I just tried out the mobile web version which essentially opens to all coverage areas, but you can narrow it all the way to the property address. The load time for my particular trial was exceptional, but I’m sure it boils down to your carrier and area.
Currently Smarter Agent is the only product on the market that allows you to brand the application to your business so you can freely circulate it to all of your past clients to share with friends, send it to your relocation clients to assist them while they’re hunting, display the application on your website and allow your website to become extended to their car while shopping neighborhoods, and more.
What’s it going to cost?
The agent end pricing is around $39 per month and there are discounts for large brokerages and teams- at first $39 a month seemed high, but when you consider that it isn’t often you get to offer something tangible to your web consumer before they click off to search elsewhere, that suddenly isn’t that much at all, especially when you get that call to show a listing.
For listing agents, this is the wow factor I’ve been talking about if added as a feature of your listing package so you can show that you offer not only iPhone applications, but applications for nearly every popular phone, and a web based application for those phones not covered.
So, if you’ve been looking for a way to offer your own branded smart phone real estate application on the cheap, this will probably do the trick- let us know what you think and if you’re already using Smarter Agent, let us know.
Scoop
I contacted co-founder Eric Blumberg by phone and asked if we could expect to see an application for Palm Pre, and he said to look for it by year end! We’ll let you know.