The Houston Association of Realtors and the city of Houston have teamed up on an iOS mobile app, “Houston Living,” designed to help users discover community information and connect with city officials and institutions.
The app, funded by HAR with the help of a $25,000 “Game Changer” grant from the National Association of Realtors, has been downloaded more than 1,600 times since its debut in October.
It’s one of only three mobile apps featured on the city of Houston’s home page, according to a bulletin posted on NAR’s “Realtor Action Center,” which tracks political activities of Realtor associations around the country.
“Such a live and timely data-rich app is costly to maintain, and HAR will be absorbing that expense in order to continue providing the app to Houston free of charge,” the bulletin reports. HAR says its return on investment has been the recognition it has received from Houston’s mayor, Annise Parker, and the app’s prominent location on the city’s home page.
“We’re represented right there on the city’s home page in partnership with our progressive, proactive, pro-technology mayor,” Dana Kervin, HAR’s chief political strategist, said in the bulletin. “Mayor Parker spoke so glowingly of our organization when she unveiled Houston Living, and it made us all so proud.”
Kervin, who is credited with masterminding the app, said it “keeps me in touch with Mayor Parker’s tweets, which have included a couple of shoutouts for HAR and the app.”
NAR’s Game Changer grant program requires that other Realtor associations be able to replicate funded projects, “so HAR may well be at the forefront of a national trend,” the bulletin reports. Source: realtoractioncenter.com.
