Ever hear a talking house?
Mike Wagener, a real estate agent (www.mikewagener.com) with Coldwell Banker who lists homes in the Arlington Heights area, can make a house talk.
A company called Radio Technologies, based in Fond du Lac, Wis., makes a radio transmitter that shoots a recorded message about 300 feet to a car’s radio. It’s called Talking House (www.talkinghouse.com).
“My sign in front of the house says this is a `talking house'” and gives an AM radio frequency to tune in, Wagener said. “So a person driving by can hear complete features of the house: bedrooms, baths, details. Of course they hear a phone number, and it says, `Call Mike Wagener to set up a viewing.'”
The transmitter is about the size of a VCR and is placed inside the seller’s home.
The technology really makes a difference in his business, Wagener said.
“The people that call me are qualified,” he explained. “They know about the house, they know that it meets their needs. And they call me because they want to see the house.”
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The cost: about $2,000 for five transmitters–enough, obviously, to make five houses talk.
A high-tech entrepreneur in his former life, Wagener put his sales, marketing and technology knowledge to use when he began selling real estate about two years ago.
To keep track of his clients and prospects, Wagener uses a Web-based system called Top Producer (about $40 per month at www.topproducer.com).
It keeps his contacts’ information, including the showings that have taken place and those that are scheduled. Top Producer also lets Wagener maintain a calendar and task list.
The system automatically creates password-protected Web pages for each client, where they can log on to see the activity on their home.
“That obviously makes me accountable,” Wagener said. “If they go there and see that there has been no activity for a week, they’ll ask what I’ve been doing.”
Wagener’s customers can even see his notes of their reactions to homes the customers have viewed. He types the reactions in every showing to help clients remember what they’ve seen.
But the system’s key benefit is that Wagener can access the information from any computer that’s connected to the Internet–as well his PalmOne Treo 600 hand-held device.
“So I don’t have to worry about hauling my laptop around. I can just find a public computer and reference anything from anywhere.”
In general, Wagener can’t imagine how people sold real estate without technology.
“I don’t know how I’d do my job right now without the Internet,” he said. “Technology allowed me to get up to speed in real estate very quickly.”
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