If you don’t know who Andrew Machado is, you will soon.
Kid is a genius.
His iPad app, Open Home Pro, solved a huge problem for tens of thousands of Realtors. It removed the friction (and often phony info provided) from buyers signing in at an open house by leveraging the beauty and lust factor of the iPad’s large touch screen.
Machado decided the iPhone was the next device he wanted to build the app for. Problem was, if he took the exact same app for the iPad, and simply made it smaller, it would not have worked. Why? Think about a buyer walking in the door of an open and immediately you hand them your PHONE to type their personal information into. Kinda creepy if you ask me. Bottom line: the app had to change for the smaller screen.
So what’s different?
It’s groundbreaking
Machado has created the fastest way humanly possible to publish and advertise a listing online. That’s a big deal and shouldn’t go unnoticed.
By leveraging the 8 megapixel camera in the iPhone 5 to take photos, plus the device’s high speed data connection, OHP publishes a listing in seconds as a single property website, a craigslist ad and a Facebook post. Sick.
Machado, unlike many of the other vendors in the single property website space, focuses squarely on beautiful design and mobile optimization. Here is an example of what the app can do. It’s just the beginning.
What if this was tied directly into your local MLS?
All they have to do is call Machado and his team of coders to make it happen.
What if this worked with a service like ListHub or Point2 and the listings also went to Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia and everywhere else, before you even got back in your car?
If Pete Flint, Errol Samuelson or Spencer Rascoff make one phone call this can happen within weeks, not years. In fact, Z,R,T are probably already building something similar internally with their collective dollars and push into the mobile space.
It’s social
The iPhone version of OHP also has a new feature that allows agents to follow or be followed by their peers. Think Twitter, but a stream of only homes for sale.
If OHP is the fastest way to get a listing on the web, with this social piece, it may also be the fastest way to get a listing to your referral network of agents.
It just price-broke the market
Everything I have mentioned the app can do costs just $2.99, once.
Think about that for a second. I’ve seen many vendors that price per listing, which can run north of $99 a month for agents or brokers with a lot of inventory. Typically, investing in a good single property website solution for most agents costs them $30 a month or so.
The app economy we live in has changed the game.
Machado gets that and is running with it.
I told you guys the future was in your pants.
Open Home Pro for the iPhone is now available.
