RE/MAX real estate agents and brokers in New Jersey have their own branded LBS applications, helping clients find properties within extremely targeted areas–and helping to determine who gets the commission.
The apps were created by Smarter Agent, the mobile location-triggered real estate search technology company. Some 3,000 agents and brokers now offer the apps for iPhones, Android phones, Blackberrys, and even Palm devices. They offer various search options–using GPS, address, city or zip code–to see the price, photos, square footage, estimated mortgage, taxes, features, and maps of any home, and also let buyers refine their search according to criteria like the number bedrooms or bathrooms.
The strategy of offering apps for multiple handsets (and also for computers) is smart. Nielsen recently reported that 32 percent–a plurality–of U.S. smartphone buyers chose Android, 26 percent the Blackberry, and 25 percent the iPhone. Meanwhile one company recently found that in 33 countries, 19 handsets served more than 88 percent of ads to its mobile application over a three-month period–most commonly devices from Apple, RIM (Blackberry), Nokia, and HTC.
“RE/MAX prides itself on its agent-centric business model… each agent and office has their own mobile app to ensure maximum public exposure of their client’s properties. The result is that client properties are not just promoted through the hundreds of office websites and thousands of agent websites but now by both PC and all mobile phones,” Jeff Snyder, co-owner of RE/MAX of New Jersey, said in a release.