RealEstate.com goes mobile
RealEstate.com is providing consumers access to its national database of real estate information right from their mobile phones.
The online real estate tool will do this via Smarter Agent's mobile application called Homes for Sale. The relationship will allow more than 50 million mobile phone subscribers to browse homes for sale from anywhere in the country.
"This is part of our larger strategy of bringing local specialized real estate information to consumers where and how they want," said Greg Hanson, vice president of product excellence at RealEstate.com, Charlotte, NC. "Mobile is a large segment."
RealEstate.com homes for sale listings data will be fed through an application programming interface.
This will allow consumers to view results on the RealEstate.com Web site using the Smarter Agent mobile phone application, Homes for Sale.
More than 50 million mobile phone subscribers from AT&T and Sprint will have access to nearly two million real estate listings from anywhere in the country via a GPS-enabled phone or through the handset's keypad.
This partnership with Smarter Agent marks RealEstate.com's entry into the mobile arena.
"We selected RealEstate.com to power a portion of our mobile application with real estate data because of their significant national reach, as well as their great depth of listings information," said Brad Blumberg, CEO of Smarter Agent.
"With their help, our mobile phone application provides a better user experience and allows subscribers to access nearly two million real estate listings available nationwide," he said.
Smarter Agent combines mobile location technology, such as GPS, with information about real estate.
Smarter Agent is the inventor of mobile location-triggered real estate search and has been granted 4 patents.
RealEstate.com is a tool for consumers who are buying or selling homes. The site provides access to nearly 2 million home listings, 97 million home values and a view into more than 22,000 cities reaching every metropolitan area in the U.S.
RealEstate is not the first company to bring this type of data to consumers' fingertips.
CellSigns Inc. made it easier for home buyers to make purchase descisions with the release of Mobile Agent, its real estate search tool for consumers on-the-go.
The tool helps home buyers see any home for sale and get property information on that home, including photos and detailed descriptions, via their handset. Real estate brokers and agents can deploy an SMS mobile access tool (see story).
"Consumers who have become acquainted with our tools and services online are requesting more information, in real time, no matter where they are," Mr. Hanson said.
"In this self service sort of world people want it right there and then," he said.