The need for better consumer-realtor collaboration has motivated the Houston Association of Realtors to upgrade its Homes and Rentals portal.
In roughly a month, the site will feature a new Apple TV application along with tools that allow a consumer to more easily communicate with their realtor.
According to Taqi Rizvi, HAR chief technology officer, 80 percent of consumers that visit HAR’s website are working with a real estate agent, but currently aren’t asked about this when visiting the site. There is also no automated way to send listings to an agent via the website.
The new tools will allow a consumer to link to their agent and send listings, schedule requests, feedback and interests with one click. Rizvi points out that most consumers tell realtors about listings by copy and pasting urls into an email.
“To me that is so old school,” he said, adding consumers should be able to click a button and say ‘this is what I want to see’ to their agent.
The Apple app will allow consumers to share viewed listings with their family at home on their television. Realtors could utilize the app to showcase listings on a large monitor.
“People aren’t going to search Apple TV for homes, but they can share on it,” Rizvi said.
These site upgrades come after the association launched a feature in late January that enables users to search for properties by commute time.
