PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 12 -The race is on in real estate and other consumer-driven marketplaces to capture a new breed: the mobile consumer. Gone are the days when people wait for information, or even a call back. To compete in today's marketplace, real estate agents and brokers need to leverage the tools in their hands. That is, their cell phones.
According to Real Estate magazine, "Dave Geipel and Mark Ford, of QWASI, Inc. are onto big things with newly released SMS/MLS." The newest tool of the trade for real estate, SMS/MLS is harder to say than it is to use. SMS (short messaging service or text messaging) brings the MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, to the cell phone. Through partnerships with brokerages, the SMS/MLS system allows buyers to access property information on all active listings.
Similar to CellSigns, the first product launched by QWASI in 2005, a buyer simply sends a text message and receives property information on his or her cell phone. SMS/MLS takes the technology one step further by enabling a broker to provide buyers with access to all listings via a cell phone. Buyers can search for homes by address, neighborhood, MLS# or CellSigns ID. As with CellSigns, they can schedule showings and request call-backs, but this time, the sponsoring brokerage will get the call. What broker reciprocity does for real estate websites, in that it allows competing brokers to post one another's listings, SMS/MLS does for the mobile real estate market.
CellSigns and SMS/MLS both depend on a buyer's ownership of a cell phone. According to a USA Today poll, March 2005, 79% of the US does. The median age of a text message user and the median age of an Internet homebuyer are identical: 38-39 years. According to Geipel, "We've created our mobile search tool to empower the home buyer while they are out driving around neighborhoods. We allow the broker to offer a powerful service for the buyers in a channel they could never reach before."
"It's easy to use in that you don't need a special device (like a smartphone) or special software and you don't have to download anything," says Geipel. And it is cutting-edge. Ford states, "We have created the only real estate text messaging search tools available anywhere. Previously, attempting this type of technology was limited to companies like Google and Yahoo!. These new tools put the REALTOR and the real estate industry at the forefront of the hottest technology trends we have seen since the Internet."
In a tremendously competitive industry the need to differentiate cannot be overlooked. According to Ford, "With a suite of mobile products that address the needs of the broker, agent, and consumer, we are taking our industry to the next level."
SMS/MLS will be introduced at Inman News' Real Estate Connect NYC Conference on January 11-13, 2006, Marriott Marquis, New York.
About CellSigns and SMS/MLS
Philadelphia's QWASI, Inc. has created the real estate industry's only interactive lead generation system that empowers buyers to receive property information via text messaging and qualifies leads for agents. Developed by agents for agents, CellSigns and SMS/MLS utilize the latest in SMS text messaging to deliver information to customers on wireless carriers including Cingular, Sprint, Nextel, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Powered by QWASI's patent- pending technology, text messaging is now made interactive. The exclusive Text-for-Email solution allows buyers to send an email address via a text message and receive a brochure via email on the property of interest. Visit http://www.cellsigns.com and http://www.qwasi.com for more information.
Contact: QWASI, Inc.
Chad DeBolt
877-747-9274
cdebolt@cellsigns.com
