RISMEDIA, February 22, 2010—The national real estate brokerage ZipRealty released an updated version of its iPhone application that uses augmented reality to enable a person to look through an iPhone to see information about homes listed for sale and recently sold homes. The app shows homes for sale in more than 4,000 cities and neighborhoods where the brokerage operates and recently sold homes nationwide.
ZipRealty’s new HomeScan feature gives users the opportunity to look through their iPhone, via the camera, and see all the pertinent real estate data about the homes nearby. The app will overlay “for sale” home information on the image, including the address and distance to home. Clicking on a listing shows all details, including prices, interior photos, square footage and third-party value estimates. A “radar” embedded within the app quickly shows which direction to point the phone to see more homes for sale or recently sold properties–even if they are behind you–along with the same detailed information overlaid on the homes’ images.
“The ability to point your phone at a home, have HomeScan recognize it as ‘for sale,’ and then bring up all details–including interior photos–takes ‘on demand’ to a whole new level,” said Patrick Lashinsky, president and CEO for ZipRealty. “We’re excited about not only giving clients home information on the go, but really making the mobile experience come alive.”
Additional features include: With HomeScan’s radar, home shoppers can see a wider or narrower selection of nearby properties by using the ‘pinch and zoom’ gesture on the iPhone touchscreen; iPhone users have instant access to all MLS-listed homes for sale; Easily view price estimates for homes from Cyberhomes and eppraisal; Users can provide direct feedback on the application to ZipRealty via the Feedback tab; New clients will be able to register for a ZipRealty.com account through the application to view deeper information about the listing, comparable sales and neighborhood details; Users’ ZipRealty.com accounts will sync with the iPhone application after initial login and ZipRealty clients can connect with their agents directly though the application.
The application is free and available in the iPhone App store. iPhone users will need a 3GS version of the device and the latest software (3.1) updates to access the newest version of the application.
For more information, visit www.ziprealty.com.