Six ideas for Australian iPhone real estate applications

3 minute read

I believe the iPhone will be the device to shift real estate onto mobiles in a real way for the first time.

With the iPhone, we’ll see significant numbers of people browsing real estate on phones, even if a computer is nowhere in sight.

Here are a handful of ideas for tools to offer iPhone users to take advantage of this opportunity:

**Give me a widget that plots on a map all the current open for inspections near the spot where I am standing at the moment, or near the postcode I decide to search on. Better yet, use Google Maps to display the easiest route for visiting all of those OFIs from my current location. With this feature, I could go have a coffee in, say, Palm Beach on Saturday morning and then visit a few for-sale homes to see if there’s a vacation property that catches my fancy. (as if!)

Watch this video to see how easily an iPhone could show a route to open for inspections.

**Give me a a widget that shows recent sales and listing prices on the street that I happen to be walking down. (for free) With this feature, a quick walk around the neighborhood would be enough to understand the local value equation. And, it would do so in a much more tangible way than a written market report.

**Let me sign up for email alerts (regarding new properties coming onto the market) for the suburb I happen to be standing in right now. Let’s say I’m visiting someone in an area I hadn’t considered living in, but I end up quite liking it. With this feature, I could sign up and start receiving email alerts in seconds.

**Even better, let me sign up for email alerts about properties within 10 (or 50) meters of where I happen to be standing at the moment. If I like a particular street, building or corner, I’ll always be among the first to know when something there comes on the market.

**Let me download all the new videos of the properties matching my search criteria each week, for viewing on my iPhone when I’m riding the ferry, train or bus home at night. I could even watch it at home at night by plugging my iPhone into my TV. It’ll be more interesting than whatever is on TV that night, I guarantee it.

**Give me a cool “webclip” (or shortcut) icon so when I add your website to my iPhone’s desktop there is an attractive icon to jazz up my phone. (From futureofrealestatemarketing.)

Those are my ideas for the moment. What ideas do you have?

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6 Comments

  • snoop
    Posted April 18, 2008 at 1:58 pm 0Likes

    Hard to see any of this stuff being value until the phone companies have unlimited data plans.

  • PaulD
    Posted April 18, 2008 at 2:18 pm 0Likes

    I think the VoiP providers will see an opportunity there and take advantage of it.

  • Dave Platter
    Posted April 18, 2008 at 2:53 pm 0Likes

    Snoop, I think that’s a smart insight.
    Adam Turner at Gadgets on the Go blog writes today about the robbery that Aussie telcos call “data plans”.

    Here’s the link:
    http://blogs.smh.com.au/gadgetsonthego/archives/2008/04/ringing_up_mobile_data_bills.html

    dave

  • Glenn Batten
    Posted April 18, 2008 at 3:27 pm 0Likes

    Most of those don’t seem that bandwidth intensive. In fact, most if not all could be done on a modern smartphone with GPS without that much of an issue. Admittedly the experience would not have the “cool” factor associated with iPhone.

  • Dave Platter
    Posted April 21, 2008 at 11:28 am 0Likes

    I just saw this post on futureofrealestatemarketing:
    http://www.futureofrealestatemarketing.com/terabitz-creates-mls-iphone-site

    It talks about iPhone apps created by US companies Realtor, Trulia and Terrabitz.

    Here’s the key statement in the post:

    “It only seems natural that mobile search will be the next evolution of real estate search – being tied to desktop seems at odds with the mobile nature of a real world hunt for a home (see House Hunting On The Go).

    “Ultimately, the killer app here will be one that bridges both worlds. One where I can start my search on line, send it to my phone, plot a route to take me round the neighborhoods, rate the properties while on the road (good/bad) and have it sync back to my desktop on my return for follow up.”

  • Dave Platter
    Posted April 21, 2008 at 2:44 pm 0Likes

    Ben Barren turned me onto this post, which described what the iPhone can do for social networking. Check out the images!
    http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/04/09/i-saw-the-future-of-social-networking-the-other-day/

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