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High-tech home sales: A new online frontier emergesApr 17, 2009 (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Stop at a house for sale by First Weber Group Realtors, make a call, punch in a number and get a 30-second streaming video of the house sent to your phone. You also can get information sent as text to your cell phone, or even more data by e-mail. "It gets the information out there to anybody and everybody who wants it right away," said Marilee Baranowski, an agent with First Weber. The service, called FrontRunner, was introduced last month and is provided for every house listed with First Weber. Many other real estate brokers are offering similar services, as new technology is changing the way houses are bought and sold. Many potential buyers begin looking for a home online -- and those searches no longer are limited to brokers' Web sites. They may begin on such sites as JSOnline.com, Google, Yahoo, MSN, Trulia, Craigslist, Homes.com, Zillow, FrontDoor and Cyberhomes. Brokers also can put their listings on JSOnline.com, the Journal Sentinel's Web site, for free. The site now has about 8,000 listings. Marketing tools Marketing a home is no longer limited to simply staging open houses, said Donald J. Moore of Houses100 LLC in Elm Grove. "It's getting into as many databases as possible." Real estate brokers are now making the information available to someone parked in front of a house. Houses100 is using technology that enables someone with a phone to take a picture of a code -- it looks like a crossword puzzle -- on a yard sign. That takes you to a Web site with information on the house and photos. "In 15 seconds, you are there," Moore said. Shorewest Realtors introduced a service last fall that provides information and up to six photos to anyone with a smart phone by dialing a number and entering a five-digit code. Someone with an iPhone also can get information on all the houses for sale within an area by going to a Web site designed for mobile phones. "It's like a miniature version of our Web site," said Joe Horning, president of Shorewest Realtors. YouTube videos That's just one example of the changes. Shorewest also put 4,250 videos of its listings on YouTube last month. "You have to have lots of options," said Tammy Maddente, co-owner of First Weber. "There is no longer just one way of doing anything." Technology also is changing the way real estate agents interact and communicate with their clients. "If you want to get a hold of someone under 25, you should text them," Baranowski said. In December, she and her daughter, Laura, moved to First Weber partly because of its technology. "We've seen in the last year or two how much technology is changing the way people buy and sell homes," she said. Web sites still are all-important, and as they've become more plentiful, they also have become increasingly sophisticated. Satellite and street views and information about the neighborhood and surrounding area are increasingly common. The sites also are easier to navigate -- an important marketing tool. "That's where people start," said Tim Vertz of Homegate Direct Realty. Scrolling a map On Homegate's Web site, scrolling over a map of the Milwaukee area shows pictures of houses and condos in a specified price range or other criteria, such as properties with lowered prices. The goal is to make people want to come to the site. And it means that the days of scrolling through page view after page view are becoming a thing of the past. Vertz and Chris Neville spent a year and a half planning the site. The hope is it will give them a competitive advantage. They now are talking to a vendor about iPhone applications. Technology also has enabled new business models. Homegate Direct Realty and Houses100, for example, charge a flat fee to list homes on the Multiple Listing Service and other sites. They also charge flat fees for other services, such as helping with the closing. (The buyer's agent receives his or her 2.4% commission.) The business model is feasible, in part, because people are spending more time online shopping for houses. Some of those searches are taking place from smart phones. And that's likely to increase in coming years. "You never know where the buyer is going to come from," said Moore, of Houses100. "You've got to be everywhere." To see more of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jsonline.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |