RISMEDIA, July 25, 2011—Have you ever received something in the mail that you weren’t expecting? If you have, and it was not a bill but something that you actually wanted, then you know how nice it feels to get something you otherwise didn’t think you were going to receive. Using a text-message, lead-generation service for your real estate listings can have much of the same effect.
When a real estate consumer is driving around a neighborhood or by chance sees a listing they are interested in, there is no better feeling than being able to get that information right away. Short of picking up the phone and actually getting through on your first try, a text message solution allows consumers to get instant information and pictures.
Take it a step further. There is a good chance that the real estate consumer who texts-in for information was not aware of you or your firm prior to that text message. Now you have just provided them the exact information they wanted at the precise time they wanted it by incorporating a text message solution on your listings. In addition, if you had a mobile website, where they were able to not only get information on the property that they were looking at, but search the entire MLS, use GPS to see the 10 closest listings to the one they just looked at and get all your contact information as the REALTOR® who has provided them this information, they would be thoroughly impressed. I would go so far as to say that if you were able to provide this experience to a potential real estate consumer, the chances you could convert them to a buyer or seller have just increased dramatically.
People are so entrenched in the information they can gather from their mobile devices these days that they expect to be able to get what they are looking for on a mobile device. This is the case even though most real estate websites are not formatted for use on the mobile device. People have turned to apps from companies like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com. There’s nothing wrong with this… in fact they have great apps, however, it presents an opportunity for you as the agent to take back this consumer.
You can become the destination for real estate information on the mobile devices of consumers in your local market if you format your listing information for mobile.
Eventually, you will be forced to as there will be more real estate searches via mobile than traditional desktop. Why not start now.
For more information on how this can be done go to: www.mobilerealestateid.com.
Seth Kaplan is the president of Mobile Real Estate ID. Contact him directly at Seth@mobilerealestateid.com or, for more information, visit www.mobilerealestateid.com.
