Apple is likely to sell 45 million iPhones by 2009, according to analysts from research firm Piper Jaffray. Due to this phenomena, Metro Brokers Real Estate announced that it would be the first real estate brokerage of any large brand in the country to use the iPhone home search application created by Terabitz. This application enables consumers to access property listings, photos, local neighborhood information, recent sales and mapped driving directions anywhere and anyplace.
Currently, the application is available for all of Colorado, with well over 80,000 Colorado homes and land listings to search. Metro Brokers is seeking additional MLS markets in Colorado, which will be added in the future providing the single largest iPhone search application of any company in Colorado.
As of today, iPhone users can type http://www.mobileMBI.com into the iPhone browser and receive instant information on the homes they are interested in. Users can search by specific address, city, state, zip, MLS number, price, property, type of home, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Results can be either mapped or viewed as a list. Homes can be selected and then view the complete property listing homepage, which includes information about the home, its features, photos and surrounding neighborhood information. Further clicks and consumers can also contact the agent, email the listing to a friend, and access information about local schools, restaurants and even recent comparable sales.
"Metro Brokers has set its sites on being the number one real estate technology company and the iPhone search application that Terabitz has developed will definitely set Metro Brokers apart from all the players," said Mike Bradley, Metro Brokers' technology chair. "The ability to search MLS property listings and neighborhood information is a powerful tool for creating leads for Metro Broker agents and better service for the online home buyers that use an iPhone."
The iPhone application has access to nearly every Colorado property on the market at any given time. Because Metro Brokers can now offer this search feature, it is not only able to differentiate itself from other local brokers, but also from the large national home search sites that offer no local MLS databases.
"Our iPhone application takes mobile real estate search mainstream and on the street," said Ashfaq Munshi, the chief-executive-officer of Terabitz. "We know that the new property search battle will be on handheld devices. The user experience is fantastic and the amount of information we've integrated will empower consumers to conveniently shop for homes and local information with the browsing ease of the iPhone."
The Terabitz iPhone application that Metro Brokers is able to provide to consumers is designed to provide every byte of information a buyer or agent would want to know about a home, its features, and the surrounding neighborhood. This information includes details, such as a home's heating and air conditioning capabilities to its appliances, amenities, landscaping and architecture. Furthermore, when an iPhone user finds a home they are interested in, they can search the neighborhood, locate restaurants and schools and even check on the school's academic rating.
In addition, the application utilizes digital map data and content from Tele Atlas to help consumers seek places and points of interest, and then it maps that data to see where those establishments are located in relation to a specific property.