Smarter Agent realty app hits all carriers, eyes interstitial ads
By Chris Harnick
Smarter Agent, a provider of GPS and multiple-listing-search-service applications to consumers and real estate agents, is now on every tier-one U.S. carrier after signing a deal with Verizon Wireless.
Smarter Agent has already been on Sprint, AT&T and T-Mobile for some time. The application is also now available on Google’s Android platform, joining BlackBerry and iPhone applications.
“What we’re announcing for the lack of a better term is that we have just done the mobile hat trick,” said Eric Blumberg, founder and president of Smarter Agent, Camden, New Jersey. “Most people are looking in their rearview mirror and doing an iPhone app.
“Just putting out an iPhone app is saying ‘We just want to do business with people who drive a Mercedes,’” he said. “If you really want to market and sell, you want to meet all of the 200-plus million cell phones in a robust, easy fashion.
“We tried to solve the fragmentation problem in reaching mobile consumers in a very unique way so that any agent can give out the same app and rebrand it with their own information to have all their local listings.”
Smarter Agent creates mobile, location-aware search applications and claims its location-triggered real estate search is now the largest mobile real estate portal in the world.
Finding the consumer
Coming soon to the application are interstitial location-based advertisements, because Mr. Blumberg said that banner ads take up too much of the screen.
For the month of October, Smarter Agent claims that its average users logged 12 sessions. Mr. Blumberg said that for every session consumers saw between 40 and 50 properties.
Fifty percent of the time the consumer finds properties based on their current location, but Mr. Blumberg said the other 50 percent of the time they are searching by address or city.
Mr. Blumberg said that the big draw for realtors is that real estate agents can brand the application for themselves and give out links to consumers with specially designated short codes.
Within listings there is a call-to-see button that lets consumers call their local broker.
Smarter Agent said that its platform provides agents and brokers with a mobile marketing strategy to help them stay in front of prospective homebuyers.
Smarter Agent’s Homes for Sale application features three location-aware real estate search options: Homes for Sale, Recently Sold Homes and Apartments for Rent.
The application lets users search every public multiple listing service in more than 300 markets.
Besides searching by location, consumers can also search by address, community name, city or ZIP code.
Search results show price, square footage, estimated mortgage, interior and exterior features, taxes, an interactive map, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and pictures of the property.
Mr. Blumberg said that the application spans demographics, but particularly it will help realtors reach Generations X and Y.
According to Smarter Agent, six out of 10 homebuyers are ages 28-45 and that age bracket is often early adopters of technology.
“Generation Xers are getting the app because they are early adopters,” Mr. Blumberg said. “Gen Y has no loyalty, so if you want to reach them, you have to go mobile.
“Realtors need to be on mobile,” he said. “The Realtor needs to move to where the consumers are.”