Whether voice is ubiquitous, one must research what consumers (today’s buyers) prefer and it’s not picking up the phone and dialing. See: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-10048257-94.html (trend and gap continues to widen since Nov 2007). As Rob Luna stated above, this trend is obvious. http://post.inman.com/t/19348/100989/2414/0/ Inman News recently reported (this week) that the most homes sold are first time home buyers. Further, NAR: http://www.realtor.org/press_room/news_releases/2009/11/survey_record reported since end of last year the same.

One of the complaints we hear with IVR is the lead quality, and buyer experience. Around the US, when agents are shutting down their toll free services and switching to Goomzee, they tell us that when they used to call back leads they’d often have to explain the property all over again, and it’s an uphill battle to convert because the lead is already “cold”. Just like Internet leads, the key problem is follow-up. Gary Keller’s book, “Shift”, does a nice job explaining the importance of lead conversion/follow-up and call capture.

Alternative (non-voice) mobile solutions send the content to the buyer’s screen. This allows them to read/view content, optionally contact the seller, and in some cases share with others. It’s much more interactive and puts the buyer back in the driver’s seat, ultimately making things more efficient for the seller. As noted above, however, reaching consumers is a problem and the carrier plans (non data) and phone penetration limit the benefits. This will change over time.

Text messaging, a global standard, facilitates a “conversation” with the lead in an unobtrusive manner, appeasing both parties, and makes the sales process more efficient. Unlike the app/web solutions, text leads cannot be faked so the phone numbers are accurate. Further, some things like lead follow up can be automated to keep leads “hot” and solve the fundamental problem with lead/call capture. As noted above, there is simply no better way to reach today’s consumer (buyer) than SMS.

At Goomzee, we have Apps for popular phones but have learned over the past 10 years that native applications serve a specific purpose, and for broad-reaching solutions it’s best to stick with standards that limit barriers to adoption, usage and training costs. It will be fun to see how the mobile ecosystem evolves in the next few years, and how REALTORs will take advantage of the new category: iPad.

I guess in terms of delivery, I would think that the landscape looks like this.

Voice would be the one that works on all phones (Like VoicePad).
TXT would come second (Like Goomzee)
Apps for smartphones and dumb phones (Like Smarter Agent)
Apps for Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Symbian, WinM0 ( Like Boopsie)

Somewhere in the mix is the mobile browser – which becomes more app-like every day (see Goomzee or Kurio demo).

A broker gave me a statistic of his company’s experience. They acquire 1 customer per month through their TXT product for every 30 yard signs. Not exactly a comprehensive survey result, but at least we know it is working for them in New England (Top 500 Broker).

A broker without a mobile offering today is like a bike without a seat.