The Wall Street Journal released an article this morning talking about how more and more home buyers are using mobile apps to help them find the home of their dreams. The article is a quick read and very much a high level look at how real estate apps are popping up left and right.
At Coldwell Banker, we’re definitely seeing this trend within our customer base. For the first two months of the year, visitors to coldwellbanker.com from mobile phones has seen a 132% increase in traffic over the first two months of 2009 according to our Google Analytics report. Part of the reason for that is our focus on increasing awareness of the mobile version of our site which is formatted for any cell phone just by visiting coldwellbanker.com from your mobile browser.
Of course we have apps for the iPhone and Android as well, but to see a jump in the mobile visits to a website to us signals a growing trend. I personally debate whether it’s people seeing yard signs and pulling up the mobile site for more information or if it’s customers at the mall, in a meeting or just at home using their phone to search for homes during some down time.
Whatever the case may be I think all of us can see that our phones are much more than just devices we talk on and in some cases have become an essential tool in the home buying process.
I know personally that there are three things that if they broke today I would drop everything and get a new one. My phone is one (it’s an Android; the HTC Eris). The other two are my HDTV and DVR, but now I digress. Do you feel the same way?
P.S. Even this blog is formatted for smartphones!
Great post. Among clients of WhereToLive.com, I’m seeing similar behavior. Looking at the traffic sources of mobile visitors to real estate sites, it’s clear to me that people are using their phones to look up information about specific properties. For sites with strong SEO, this means highly qualified traffic from people sitting in their cars in front of active listings who are typing in the address or MLS ID of the property so they can “see inside” the house. They’re also typing in domain names from sign riders.
Hopefully for the listing agent/broker/franchise, the listing can be found on one of their sites, with a mobile friendly property detail page.
BTW, I’m an Android user too: HTC Hero. If I break or lose it, my next stop before doing anything else will be a Sprint store for a replacement.
@Ed – i agree with your assessment and interestingly enough more & more people are coming to our mobile via search than other referring sites so SEO and a mobile friendly detail page are essential.
BTW, side note, if you haven’t already you gotta download Bebbled app for Android. so addictive.