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?