Saturday, July 28, 2007

Realtor.com Mobile - Using Cell Phones and PDA’s To Find Homes

An article in RISMEDIA details the launch of Realtor.com Mobile, a free application that will give both consumers and realtors the ability to search for real esate listing from a cell phone or PDA.

Realtor.com mobile has some cool features including the ability to have a picture and the details of a property sent directly to a mobile device if there is a for sale sign on the property. The properties can also be saved in a favorite folder on
the mobile device to be reviewed at a latter date.

3Dwalkthroughs.com is confident that Realtor.com Mobile will expand its offerings as the technology improves across all mobile platforms. The increased capabilities will surely include sending video, 3D Floor Plans and other more immersive media.

Please enjoy the article from RISMEDIA below.

RISMEDIA, July 30, 2007—Realtor.com just launched the next generation real estate search technology, Realtor.com Mobile. According to Realtor.com, with a free and easy downloadable application, consumers and RealtorsR can now perform searches for real-estate listings from their cell phone or PDA anytime, anywhere.

To begin using Realtor.com Mobile, house hunters take their Windows
Mobile enabled cell phone or PDA, go to [1] http://Mobile.Realtor.com, download and install the application and begin their search.

“We developed Realtor.com Mobile because more people are using hand held devices to access information on the road,” said Realtor.com Senior Vice President, Product Development, Joe DeTuno. “Through this new mobile technology, consumers now have current listings with property details at their finger tips whenever they want it.”

Instead of cruising neighborhoods or searching ads, consumers can now use Realtor.com Mobile to search for homes using criteria including city, state or zip codes, price range, as well as number of bedrooms and bathrooms. If a prospective home looks interesting and is close by, a simple touch of the “Contact Details” feature connects the house hunter with the listing agent or broker.

“One of the more exciting elements of Realtor.com Mobile is the ‘Homes Near By’ feature,” said Realtor.com President, Errol Samuelson. “If you’re walking or driving through a neighborhood and see a ‘For Sale’ sign, one click of a button delivers a photo with all of the property details right to you. With another quick click, you’re connected with the listing agent or broker. There’s no waiting or wondering because you have instant results. We think the mobility, immediacy and convenience of Realtor.com Mobile will revolutionize the way people search for homes.”

Similar to the Web site interface, Realtor.com Mobile features a user-friendly Home Page with several new search and save options. The Homes Near By search feature expands this locator function by searching for listings that meet the selection criteria within a 10-mile range. The Find a Home search option lets you search listings in a particular city/state combination or zip code, with an additional filter allowing for specifications such as number of beds, number of baths and price range.

Favorite listings can be stored in a Saved Items search folders for future reference and comparison. To use the Homes Near By feature, consumers need to be equipped with a GPS-enabled mobile device that runs Window Mobile OS.

To help find and view homes or neighborhoods, Realtor.com Mobile also offers maps and driving directions to each home for sale in the area. Through this feature, house hunters can view the home on a map, get driving directions and plot the most convenient route for multiple homes, creating their own home tour. This feature allows house hunters to save information and access it online or offline. In addition, consumers can save the most commonly used addresses such as home and office, as well as the most commonly viewed listings, to avoid retyping or remembering previous searches.

Realtor.com Mobile can be used with devices running Windows Mobile 5.0 OS,
including HP hw6965, HP hw6925, Palm Treo 700w (or Palm Treo 700wx), AT&T
8525 , Cingular 8125, O2 Xda Stealth and Audiovox XV6700.

No comments: