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Mobile CRM for Realtors
CellStory's beta version of an instant listings software product.
By DAVID SIMS
TMCnet CRM Alert Columnist
CellStory, which sells mobile marketing and sales applications, is announcing the beta release of a nifty product for real estate agents.
Called CellStory for Realty, it's a mobile CRM product that realtors can use to post an instant listing from the property itself.
Using a camera phone, the realtor can follow prompts and use templates to build, in plain English -- well, the real estate argot thereof -- web pages listings on-the-fly from any property location and deliver them over mobile phone directly to buyers and online property listings.
CellStory for Realty takes digital pictures, video and audio and combines the multimedia content with custom marketing language, and while still standing on the property realtors can build a professional listing in standard formats and zap it off to potential buyers and partners, as well as multiple listing sites, including their own.
In this reporter's eyes anything that requires less technical knowledge from the non-technological professions is to the good. Realtors can be wonderful folks, but they're rarely bit-twiddlers or the sort of gearheads who enjoy complex technological challenges, and any technology which lets them spend more time selling property and less time trying to figure out how to use the computer programs to do so is progress.
As CellStory President and CEO Bill Oliver puts it, "CellStory lets you focus on building relationships, not HTML pages. If you can use your phone, you can build a cellstory."
Time is a consideration for real estate agents these days as existing homes are selling in America at the fastest pace in history -- in June, according to the Associated Press, "existing homes sold at an annual rate of 7.33 million units, an all-time high and an increase of 2.7 percent from the seasonally adjusted sales pace in May, according to a report Monday from the National Association of Realtors."
The gain reflected a 2.4 percent rise in sales of single-family homes, which climbed to a record of 6.37 million units at an annual rate. Sales of condominiums also set a record, rising by 4.5 percent from the May level to an annual rate of 966,000 units in June.
"The strength in sales helped pushed the median price of an existing home to a new record of $219,000, a gain of 14.7 percent from the median, or midpoint, for homes sold a year ago," the AP reports. "That was the biggest jump in prices in nearly 25 years, since a 15.6 percent year-over-year increase in November 1980."
The complete product includes a CellStory Mobile application, unlimited usage of pre-defined CellStory templates for real estate and unlimited access to the CellStory design tools for the development of custom listing templates.
The way it works is the agent uses a series of prompts delivered over a cell phone. These prompts, or script, are customized by the user using a web-based, point-and- click interface. Once at the property, the agent launches CellStory Mobile and is prompted to input prescribed data and images in plain English.
When satisfied with the information presented, the agent selects a template to display the information from a library of pre-existing or user-defined templates. Attributes like color, image positioning, contact information and others can be modified on-demand.
Charter members willing to beta test it receive the full CellStory for Realty beta application, service and support for one year at $29.99 per month. CellStory for Realty will be released to the general market later this year for $49.99 per month. A 30-day free trial is also available at http://www.cellstory.com .
The beta version is compatible with all Series 60 Nokia camera phones. Announcements for support for PalmOS, Java, BREW and Windows Mobile phones will be made in Q3 2005.
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David Sims is contributing editor for TMCnet. For more articles by David Sims, please visit:
http://www.tmcnet.com/tmcnet/columnists/columnist.aspx?id=100005&nm=David%20
Sims
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