Online Real Estate Technology

“The world just got a little smaller” that’s how the official media release from Google opens, Google Earth now available for download to your Ipod Touch or Iphone. By downloading and adding this to your Iphone you’ll be able to search for local businesses and using the MyLocation feature you’ll be able to zoom in on your exact location in the world. Here’s the link to the release for further study http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/10/google-earth-now-available-for-iphone.html

So how will this affect real estate searches in the future?  Being able to find information on the local area is very valuable to property searchers, information on schools,employment,suburb data etc is very valauble and now with Google releasing the Google Earth application for the Iphone it all has gone mobile. There’s an interesting post on using Google Earth in a real estate application and if you’re interested in reading more about this, click on the link.

http://blog.unionstreetmedia.com/technology/4-ways-to-use-google-earth-for-the-iphone-for-real-estate-internet-marketing/ 

As always let me know your comments

A little while ago Telstra canned the mobile phone search platform in Australia due to lack of interest from the consumers, which was understandable given the current mobile phone screen sizes, well what a difference an Iphone can make. I wrote a post awhile ago from domain.com.au about their listings being available via Iphone, well really all of the portals can be found via the internet of course, but just recently some very exciting mobile innovations have been released in the US, one, is a product called the Puluwai mobile real estate search, this being available for download to your Iphone or Ipod touch and allows you to search for a property either by location or via the Iphones GPS function, this software is not currently available in Australia yet but is available in NZ, but news today from a Canadian company called Utopria, who have launched a new real estate search tool for the Iphone. They have taken the listing flyer and single property web site and brought them together for the mobile search platform. Here’s how it works, put into the Iphone a property website found on a yard sign, using Safari on your Iphone, and Mediapod,(Utopria’s) software program,(see screen shot), will deliver a specially formatted version of the listing page to your Iphone. The system delivers all the relevant information such as agent brand and phone numbers etc, but where this really starts to deliver is the ability of the agent to embed a video which introduces them and the property. The agents contact information includes email and phone links that dump directly into the phones applications.

Another nice touch is that buyers can also choose to view surrounding schools, restaurants, parks and shopping outlets from a drop down menu and then have those instantly mapped into the Google Maps application on the iPhone. (To which you could then get directions, using iPhone’s location awareness)

If you were wondering about the impact of the Iphone on real estate searching well here is a little glimpse of the future. However a video is worth a thousand words, so I’ve included a link here for you to watch on how the application works. I’m sure when you’ve seen this you’ll be as impressed as I was.