QR Codes and Real Estate

If you've ever been in the market for a home, you may have run into this:

You're driving through a neighborhood during the week, spot the home of your dreams, but the ‘For Sale’ sign indicates the open house isn’t until the weekend. On top of that, all of the informational fliers about the home have been snapped up by other homebuyers.

What do you do?

If you're armed with a smartphone, you may be able to scan your way to a new home using an application developed by Comtactics, a Dayton-based multi-platform communications firm.

Introducing QR Real Estate

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"A potential homebuyer goes by, sees a few homes and finds one with the QR real estate code on it," said Shawntay Fields, Comtactics’ vice-president of information technology. "They scan the code, view the information on the phone, view the virtual tour of the home, get the pricing information and other amenities the house has and then they can send an e-mail directly to the agent."

The company’s ‘QR Real Estate’ application uses QR codes, which are two-dimensional bar codes that can be scanned and read by a smartphone, to make the first steps of buying a home easier and more convenient for the shopper.

"As you’re viewing the home on your phone you can click on the link that says ‘Virtual Tour’ and then you can see pictures from inside the home," Fields added. "So you can kind of get to walk it before you actually get to physically walk through."

The technology also gives potential homebuyers a digital introduction to the real estate agent for the home. "They can see the person’s photo, their contact information, phone number, e-mail address, and also just a short bio about the agent to kind of help build that relationship before you actually speak with them," Fields said.

QR Real Estate helps makes homes more accessible

QR Real Estate’s purpose is two-fold: not only does it aim to help homebuyers navigate the real estate market, it is also designed to help agents better market the homes they have for sale.

The technological leg-up can be especially important in real estate markets such as Dayton where more than 8800 homes in the area remained on the market at the end of September, according to the Dayton Area Board of Realtors.

"The idea behind this was to really enhance what they’re doing as far as their paper-based marketing, when they have an ad in the paper, or if they’re placing fliers for homes in different locations, even when they have a place near the home," Fields said.

"They’ll be able to attach QR codes to the homes that are for sale by placing the QR codes on the fliers, in their print advertising, or even on the ‘For Sale’ signs they place in the yards themselves."

Fields also said the QR Real Estate application is easy for agents to use. "They can create their QR codes all in one application so it’s like a one-stop shop for them, for their marketing, for their home sales," she said. Using ScanAlytics, a tracking tool also developed by Comtactics, agents can see how many times people have scanned their codes, which can help the agent determine where to better concentrate their marketing efforts.

With QR Real Estate, Comtactics hopes to make sure the next time a homebuyer spots their dream home, they can take the first steps to homeownership with a simple scan.

Podcast

Listen to this podcast to learn more about this can help realtors market their properties with QR codes! [display_podcast]

More about Comtactics

Comtactics is a multiplatform communications company based in Tech Town in the Dayton Aerospace Hub of Innovation and Opportunity. They have created successful marketing campaigns including, QR Code ScanVenger Hunt, Dayton Art Institute’s interactive art exhibits, Chain Store Age Magazine’s Dynamic Interactive Portal just to name a few. Comtactics focuses on helping businesses communicate with their target audience using traditional and emerging media tactics.

For more information:
Shawntay Fields
(800) 975-5161

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