GPS - the killer app for mobile services in real estate

In the real estate industry there is a saying that it's all about 'location, location and location'. If that is true, then the possibilities are endless when GPS functionality is coming to the mobile devices.

Here are a few examples of the applications that have been released over the last 6 months.

Layar

This is a very impressive solution where you point your mobile phone's camera on the buildings and get information about apartments for sale. You've to see the video below.

From the Techcrunch blog post:
"Layar is a so-called ‘augmented reality browser’, an application that turns you mobile phone’s camera viewer - only on Android-powered phones for the time being - into a full-fledged information portal and local business search engine. It essentially puts an information overlay on top of your camera view, bringing digital data of various sorts into play whenever you’re looking at or for something in the real world.

Imagine being on the look-out for a great new place in a street nearby your current apartment or house and seeing all the real estate listings, with some details and pricing included right from your mobile device as you’re walking down the street. Imagine watching status updates your friends pushed to social networks roll in with location information attached to them (e.g. ‘Tweets Nearby’). Imagine finding information on ATMs, public transport etc. in a city you’re visiting just by starting up the camera on your mobile phone. And thanks to an integration with Google Local Search, how about being able to look up contact information and reviews for businesses (e.g. restaurants, bars, etc.) in your direct neighborhood with one-click dialing capability?"

It's created by the Dutch company Layer for the Dutch market. More about the service at Techcrunch, weconverse (swedish), Engadget and ReadWriteWeb.

Zipcar

The US based car pool service (also in London) showed off a great iPhone app at the latest Apple keynote. Below is a CNET video from the event.

I like the quote in the beginning "25% of our Zipcare members he says that his life is on their iPhone". Additional reading at Springwise and Wired.

Zillow

The famous US based automated valuation service for single family houses has released a great iPhone app using the GPS functionality.

More reading at Zillow, PropertyPortalWatch, and Drew Meyers (Zillow employee).

Taxi Madrid

"Taxi Madrid is an useful tool for taxi cabs travelers to calculate routes, distance, time and fares on map.It will use GPS to determinate your actual address and calculate all the taxi ride cost to the point you want to go." From the blog.

Further reading at TechCrunch.

To sum up

Those where just a few teasers on what could be done using the GPS functionality in mobile devices. More examples could be found in the Wired 'Inside the GPS revolution' article.

I believe there will be great efforts to create location based applications for the real estate professionals in the near future. Just wait and see... 

The new Hemnet - version 2.0 or 1.4?

In the web industry the use of term '2.0' comes with a large responsibility.
There has to be a significant update.

 

Therefore, I was a bit disappointed today when the indeed anticipated 'Hemnet 2.0' version was launched. (Hemnet is the largest residential search engine in Sweden, more here.) I was expecting more. (So did 100s of people on Twitter.) Anyway, let us go through the new version. 

  

Faster and better search

In the earlier version the search was divided into three different pages. In the new version it's done direct on the starting page.

 

It's also easier to do changes to the search options and start an new search when the search bar is always on the top of the page. (However, it would have been great if you were able to minimize the search bar if needed in order to scroll less.)

    

     

An improvement is that the search parameter 'size of land' has been added.

 

Better 'account'
The biggest improvement has been done to the functionalities in the account area 'My Hemnet'. You're now able to easier create 'default' searches, save listings of interest, get updates through RSS and see changes done to a listing.

  

  

More data
One thing the new services on the market (like Booli and Boliga) has forced Hemnet to do is to be much more transparent about data like number of days on the market. Over the last weeks this data has been added to Hemnet and this continues.

 

 

The graph below displays a specific listing (in blue) in comparison with sold (red) and listings (green) regarding number of days on the market (Y-axis) and asked price in million SEK (X-axis).

 

 

  

 You're also able to see the price for listings in the area that has been sold.

  

   

      

       

The not so good

First impression isn't great. The starting page, with all flashing banners about Hemnet (?), is very confusing. Nothing new with the map (or have I missed something?). The usability and design has lot to ask. It is confusing how to find the detail statistics. And so on...

 

However, the biggest disappointment is that Hemnet is not able to make an overall better solution. The possibilities are endless with their position and all their data.

 

To sum up 

A great initiative to make improvements, but in my book it isn't a version 2.0.

More a version 1.4.   

 

 

Additional reading 
Is found here (all in Swedish): 1 (article at IDG), 2 (OhSoHighTech), 3 (MKSE), 4 (Norén), 5 (Bostadsknarkaren) and finally the press release 6.