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RealClozer is an app for agents to share buyer needs directly with other agents.
Platforms: iOS
Ideal for: Buyer agents in large markets; agents who work rental markets and with investors
Top selling points
- Developed by agents, for only agents
- Free
- Ease of use
Top concerns
The company touts that its app can replace the stream of email requests with buyer needs, but its primary form of in-app response is email.
What you should know
RealClozer is an attractive app that was developed and launched by two New York City-based agents.
The intent of the app is to allow agents to communicate buyer needs directly with other users of the app, out from under the noise and regulations of the multiple listing service (MLS).
RealClozer also aims to solve the problem of agents receiving and sending too many emails seeking listing information for a buyer.
I was told the app is meant to supplement, not replace, an MLS’s save search and listing activity alert functions, and that its best-use case is for unique and off-market listings.
After establishing a primary market upon set-up, the app opens to its feed — a list of users’ buyer needs. The stream can be filtered accordingly: buy; rent/lease; off-market; referral.
Each posting is a small card with basic data on budget, location, size and the buyer’s wants and needs. When a match is found, the Contact Agent button opens the device’s native email app, which is where I get lost.
It’s reasonable to assume that if the intent of the app was to alleviate the hassle of incessant email requests, it would have chosen a more direct path to alert its users, such as texting or Facebook Messenger.
Users can include a phone number in the text of their post, but that runs contrary to the purpose of the bright green Contact Agent button.
Ultimately, if email annoyed me that much, I wouldn’t download an app that keeps me tied to it.
Requests delete after 72 hours — a good way to keep the stream clean and up-to-date.
RealClozer will be available in a number of global markets and is able to adjust to differing terminology and advertising restrictions. Of course, the users in those respective markets will drive a lot of that through each post.
The app is currently available but won’t be formally launched until July. It’s currently being pushed via personal networking and social media.
RealClozer’s success is dependent upon user sign-ups, which I was told currently amount to about a dozen per day. Not bad.
The app can notify users of new posts, and it has a useful library of resources, such as calculators for mortgage payments, cubic conversion, cap rates, cash-on-cash returns and area measurement.
There’s also a news feed, a “Did You Know?” on real estate facts (interesting fact: people in Scotland often paint their doors red when the mortgage is paid off) and even a real estate quiz that times your response to each question.
I always applaud technology solutions developed by practitioners — they know best which problems plague our industry — but RealClozer has quite a bit of work to do to compete with Homesnap Pro’s listing feed, zipLogix’s new ListFlash and Zip Your Flyer’s agent-to-agent flyer dissemination tool.
Credit should be given to the developers for the app’s super clean interface, recognition of an industry problem and overall user experience.
There is potential here, but not yet enough innovation to overcome the already-well-established competition in the residential listing space, or its use of email to curb an issue caused by email.
Where I believe this app will gain the most traction is in the commercial market where brokers have highly specific tenant needs that can be broadcast to landlords with plenty of square footage flexibility.
But I’ve been wrong before.
Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe.
