- Promote at a lower cost: brands, buildings, projects, deals, events, thought leadership and expertise while managing their reputation and improving client interactions

- Improve productivity and loyalty: extend their events or the events they are speaking at by engaging attendees as well as others before, during and after 365/24/7

- Educate: with a one-stop commercial real estate site including CREOpoint and partners vital global news, videos from the best library on the web and thought provoking blogs and twitter feed

- Generate quality leads and accelerate sales process: network with vetted industry leaders and improve their traffic and productivity thanks to searchable member profiles and discussion threads

- Collaborate: see what’s on their peers’ minds, let clients interact between each other and solve problems in user friendly open or private dynamic online peer groups

- Listen: research, manage knowledge and co-improve their services fast

Key to adoption was that we designed http://www.CREOpoint.com with SmartPhones in mind. Hope that helps.

JC Goldenstein
Founder and President
http://www.CREOpoint.com
The exclusive online meeting point for commercial real estate leaders worldwide

- Promote at a lower cost: brands, buildings, projects, deals, events, thought leadership and expertise while managing their reputation and improving client interactions

- Improve productivity and loyalty: extend their events or the events they are speaking at by engaging attendees as well as others before, during and after 365/24/7

- Educate: with a one-stop commercial real estate site including CREOpoint and partners vital global news, videos from the best library on the web and thought provoking blogs and twitter feed

- Generate quality leads and accelerate sales process: network with vetted industry leaders and improve their traffic and productivity thanks to searchable member profiles and discussion threads

- Collaborate: see what’s on their peers’ minds, let clients interact between each other and solve problems in user friendly open or private dynamic online peer groups

- Listen: research, manage knowledge and co-improve their services fast

Key to adoption was that we designed http://www.CREOpoint.com with SmartPhones in mind. Hope that helps.

JC Goldenstein
Founder and President
http://www.CREOpoint.com
The exclusive online meeting point for commercial real estate leaders worldwide

Also consider that the data fees for a Blackberry are higher than MLS fees. Some MLS fees range from $20 to $50 per month depending on the market and the services offered.

MLSs are certainly not monopolies. They compete for members along the edges of their regions, and in some cases there are compelling arguments to merge. They are in a foot race to offer the highest level of services at the lowest possible price.

Mobile search is very nice to have, but for many agents it is more of a vitamin than a pain killer. Life without mobile MLS would make little difference in the performance of a REALTOR. They can always call someone to look up something in the MLS in a pinch. This is why I feel like mobile search is more of a consumer application.

For consumers, looking at listing information is fun. Millions of people look at listings online every month for pure entertainment. There are far more people searching for homes every month than the number of people conducting transactions. It is anyone's guess, but I would suppose that only 1 in 10 visitors to a property search website are actually in the process of buying or selling a home.

Consider the zestimate effect – people look up the home values of friends and business associates all of the time. As for mobile – I love to cruise around Pebble Beach, Malibu and San Diego and watch the listing information pop up on my phone as I drive past dream homes. My wife thinks that I am a sicko – but I explain that I am a consultant – I need to have a grip on how this stuff works.

Again, there is no chance that the MLS could ever compel a subscriber or participant to purchase a particular phone. But they could include it as part of their core service or optional service (which would force a rather significant doubling or tripling dues.).

Now, it occurs to me, Victor, that an MLS more than any other entity has the power to enforce technology standards. Yes, the users will bitch and moan about it, but the fact is that today, the MLS is a de facto monopoly within its area — somewhat like how cable TV used to be.

Why couldn't an MLS — like Trend — simply say, “Our mobile platform is BlackBerry” and urge its members to switch to that platform? If their mobile app is really providing the value it should be, then professionals whose livelihood depends on data access, would switch. Spending $400 on a mobile device if you are a working real estate agent is not an undue burden.

I rather think MLS's and brokerages should stop trying to support all of the wide variety of platforms out there and just pick one — then deliver an optimized superior experience to that platform such that the users are able to get business value from the mobile app.

-rsh

The first consideration is delivery of the application. The call to use mobile search needs to be marketed. For B2B – this would ideally be marketed within the MLS system to remind agents about the product, combined in training classes, etc. For consumers – the best place is on the yard sign, MLS consumer website, on the broker website, or all of the above.

The second consideration is related to delivery of the experience. Mobile devices have voice, text, browser and two types of installed aps – open and closed. Agents use as deep of a variety of mobile phones as any other consumer.

A solution like VoicePad works on voice – which works on all phones.

There are a variety of solutions that work on text

There are another variety of solutions that work on mobile browsers – some use cool java interfaces, others use flat html

Lots of solutions have the ability to load an app on a smartphone – think iphone, blackberry, android, windows mobile, symbian, etc. Smarter Agent offers the ability to get the application onto the deck of phones like the motorola razor through the carrier store (I think that they have an exclusive here).

Pretty complex stuff….. and pretty expensive if you want to support a significant variety of phones – especially if your goal is to provide an app that is both agent facing (MLS data) and consumer facing (limited MLS).

Perhaps this helps your readers to understand why a lot of companies only offer an iphone app for consumers – it is cool and simple to deploy, but it addresses a small audience of consumers. I know some major companies have mentioned 300,000 downloads – but that number is unconfirmed and may include upgrades – which brings me to my next point.

Most MLSs choose mobile browser apps.

Keeping your mobile search application current across many mobile browsers and platforms and carriers is really expensive – requiring both deep and wide domain development expertise.

This post was mentioned on Twitter by robhahn: New Notorious: http://bit.ly/4E0HHk Future of Mobile in RE is B2B not B2C…