RISMEDIA, June 15, 2011—RE/MAX Northern Illinois, an independently owned and privately held RE/MAX region—which encompasses the top third of the state of Illinois—recently introduced property videos and virtual tours to its popular mobile website, m.illinoisproperty.com. It is one of the first real estate brokerages to incorporate these two popular property features into a mobile search platform.
According to the company, M.illinoisproperty.com is a unique mobile platform because it allows the consumer to conduct a real time real estate search that does not need to be downloaded from an application first.
M.illinoisproperty.com works with virtually any mobile device so compatibility is never an issue and the broadest consumer audience can be reached, the company states. In addition to search capabilities, every RE/MAX listing has its own website address, phone number extension and QR code, which can be promoted in agent marketing materials and allows interested buyers the ability to access property information through their phone while at the property.
“Since we launched our mobile real estate platform in May 2010, we have seen mobile search go from 0 to 10 percent of all real estate searches conducted on illinoisproperty.com,” says Casey Reagan, Chief Technology Officer with RE/MAX Northern Illinois. “We believe the mobile search trend will continue at an exponential pace as smart phones become the norm, mobile browsers become more advanced and tablets become more popular. That is why providing property videos and virtual tours on our mobile platform were a critical first step in getting mobile real estate search on par with the desktop experience.”
According to the press release, each of the thousands of agents and more than 100 offices in the RE/MAX Northern Illinois network have their own mobile Website, which makes up the m.illinoisproperty.com mobile search system. Agents have the option to provide each listing with a unique website address, phone number and QR (Quick Response) code to make it easier for the public to get direct access to specific properties details on their mobile device. RE/MAX agents also have the ability to promote their listings on their Facebook page and post property videos on the network’s YouTube channel, thus utilizing the popularity of social media for the benefit of their clients.
In addition, the new emerging QR Code technology is also compatible with the m.illinoisproperty.com system. QR Codes can be placed on For Sale signs and marketing materials. Consumers simply take a picture of the code with their smart phone and are immediately directed to property details including the video or virtual tour.
“The public can now access a vast amount of property information that is proliferated to the public through a variety of different formats, including social media, and take that information with them wherever they and their phone wish to go,” summarizes Reagan.
CirclePix Marketing Solutions, Inc., a strategic partner of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, along with Reliance Network, the technology platform partner, have been instrumental in helping integrate these two key, new features into the website’s mobile search experience.
RE/MAX has been the leader in the northern Illinois real estate market since 1989. The RE/MAX Northern Illinois network consists of 2,300 sales associates and 110 individually owned and operated RE/MAX offices that provide a full range of brokerage services throughout the northern one-third of Illinois. Its http://www.illinoisproperty.com and http://www.remax.com websites are leaders in consumer visits among real estate franchise brands. Its mobile search, m.illinoisproperty.com, allows users to conduct real estate searches on any mobile device with Internet access. The northern Illinois network is part of RE/MAX LLC, a global real estate organization with 90,000 sales associates in 83 nations.
