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Android, Blackberry, iPhone mobile property websites and weather proof QR stickers

By
Services for Real Estate Pros with RealBird Inc.

RealBird Mobile Real Estate MarketingStop us if you heard this one from us before, but we have just released a few additional QR code and mobile listing marketing features for RealBird 

I will use this post to summarize all the mobile marketing and QR code features of RealBird including the recently launched new options, in a FAQ format for a change:

Q: What are the QR codes?

A: QR (Quick Response) codes are barcodes that can be printed on flyers and other offline media and they can encode a wide variety of information. The information can be a link to a website or your contact information or any type of messages that you can think of. The most important application in our opinion is to use the QR codes as an easy way for consumers to get real-time, current information about your property. Home buyers can use their smartphones to quickly scan your QR code which then leads them to your RealBird single property websites instantly.

Q: What are the RealBird QR options?

A: We provide a growing number of options for mobile listing marketing. QR codes are automatically generated for your RealBird single property websites. On your listing management page in the RealBird member area, each listing record shows the corresponding QR code with the following options:

  1. Download small QR code images for your listings to be used on webpages and blogs
  2. Download large QR code images - big enough for adding them to your print flyers
  3. Purchase auto-generated stickers that you can attach to your sign rider or any other offline media - it's easy, just click the link and the stickers are auto-generated for you with the corresponding QR codes and custom texts.
  4. The printable version of your RealBird single property website now automatically includes the related QR code so when you or your visitors print it, the QR code is automatically included in the header (Special thanks for David Childress for suggesting this feature)NEW

Q: What type of stickers can be purchased via RealBird?

A: We currently provide two types of stickers to purchase via our integration with Zazzle 

  1. 3" round stickers ($4.95 +S/H buys you 6 stickers)
  2. 11"x3" rectangle, "bumper"-size sticker ($3.95 + S/H per sticker) - NEW
Large QR Sticker for real estate marketing

Q: What smartphones are currently supported by the RealBird mobile single property websites?

Mobile Real Estate Marketing Platforms with RealBird

A: The RealBird single property websites are optimized for mobile users. A smarthphone-friendly user interface is shown automatically when our system sees that the user accesses it via one of the supported phones. The mobile listing presentation shows the property overview (price, location etc.), your property description and neighborhood information and all of the photos. The third section of the UI is your contact information including your photo, your phone number and email for inquiries and links to your website and blog. The iPhone picture above shows an actual rendering of a RealBird single property website. The listing and image is courtesy of Janie Coffey of "The Coral Gables Story" real estate blog

With our new release, we are now supporting the following smartphone platforms:

  1. iPhone
  2. iPod Touch
  3. BlackBerry phones - NEW
  4. Android phones - NEW
  5. Opera Mini - e.g. on Nokia smartphonesNEW

While the iPhone, iPod Touch testing is pretty easy due to the limited number of different Apple devices, BlackBerry and Android phones vary greatly. We tested the new RealBird mobile listing websites on many of these phones but if you find that your particular model does not render the mobile UI correctly (it shows the regular RealBird property website instead) please let us know the type and model we'll fix it as soon as possible. 

Q: How to start using these QR features?

A: Using the RealBird QR features are very simple:

  1. Log into RealBird (or register here if you are not yet a member)
  2. Visit your Listing Management page in the member area
  3. For each listing record, a corresponding QR image is shown. Below the QR image, you'll see links for downloading the free QR images (small and large sizes) 
  4. If you decide to purchase the stickers, a link is provided for both the 3" round stickers and for the 11"x3" large sticker. The stickers are auto-generated with your listing's QR code so checking out at the shopping cart is the only step you have to do. They are also very affordable (less than $5/listing + S/H)

Q: So how do I market this new RealBird service to my prospective sellers?

A: You have to tell them about it of course and most importantly show them what it is and how it will benefit them. As we wrote about it earlier, you can use your existing listings with the QR codes and your smartphone: quickly scan it and show the RealBird mobile single property websites that is loaded instantly. It will surely impress prospective sellers. 

Below are two examples on how forward thinking real estate professionals already communicate this feature to their readers on their blogs (note the great title SEO they both use):

Janie Coffey wrote about her QR offerings via RealBird on her Coral Gables real estate blog. It's an excellent example on how to communicate this feature to your clients and to set yourself apart from your competition. See the post here

Stacia Whatley also has a great post here on ActiveRain, you can read her take on it on her Gig Harbor, WA real estate blog 

Long story short, make sure, that once you start using these new RealBird QR code features, you promote it face-to-face and also through blog posts and social media.

Questions? Do ask ! Thanks !

Disclaimer: We are a reseller affiliate of Zazzle.com and upon your purchase of the low cost QR sticker we are paid an affiliate fee.

 

-- Zoltan 
RealBird.com

 


 

Comments(29)

Stacia Whatley
Hawkins-Poe Inc. - Gig Harbor, WA
StaciaSellsHomes Your Western WA Realtor®

Zoltan - I am proud that I could help get this message out there via Realbird. Thank you for showcasing my blog in your post! I think QR Codes are going to be the next big hit in real estate. It's easy, it's green, and it's inexpensive to purchase the stickers. I love it!

Nov 05, 2010 05:30 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Stacia - Thanks a lot. Your blog post about your use of the QR codes is great. We are glad that we could use it for a real-world case study about how forward thinking real estate professionals are already using and hopefully benefiting from this technology.

-- Zoltan

Nov 05, 2010 05:48 AM
Curt Baumgarth
Mesa, AZ
inactive

I just ordered some of the 3" stickers for one of my listings, cant wait to get them.

Nov 05, 2010 05:03 PM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Curt - That's great. Let us know when you receive it. Feel free to share a picture of it on our Facebook Page or here. We received our demo orders of both the smaller round stickers and the large QR sticker and they are of great quality. I also would love to hear some real-world case studies on how you actually use them for existing and new business and what your client's feedback is

Thanks for the purchase !

-- Zoltan

Nov 05, 2010 05:16 PM
MichelleCherie Carr Crowe .Just Call. 408-252-8900
Get Results Team...Just Call (408) 252-8900! . DRE #00901962 . Licensed to Sell since 1985 . Altas Realty - San Jose, CA
Family Helping Families Buy & Sell Homes 40+ Years
I've started adding them to my arsenal but don't know if anyone's (clients that is) actually scanning them.
Nov 05, 2010 07:29 PM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Hi Michelle,

Thanks for the reblog ! You can already see the access of the mobile RealBird property sites via Clicky and Google Analytics by filtering your web analytics for mobile browser types. It still does not tell you whether those were actually QR code scans or some other ways users accessed your mobile sites, but it's a good start. We are planning to add some web analytics tracking code to the link that is encoded with the QR codes and that will allow you to see exactly how many of your visitors arrived via the QR code. It's doable and we are working on it. Great input. Thanks a lot

-- Zoltan

Nov 06, 2010 07:55 AM
Bob & Leilani Souza
Souza Realty 916.408.5500 - Roseville, CA
Greater Sacramento Area Homes, Land & Investments

Thanks for all the info on how RealBird is integrating QR codes into the single property websites, Zoltan! I started using QR codes a month or so ago, but so far no one in my area really uses them...maybe in the future. :)

Leilani

Nov 08, 2010 07:22 PM
Maggie Dokic /Indialantic | 321-252-8696
Magdalena Dokic - Indialantic, FL
Selling the beach in Florida's space coast

Zoltan, once again you are leading the pack.  This is an awesome feature.  Definitely making it into my Listing Action Plan.

It's things like this that set us apart from the competition and can, quite frankly, help us in selling ourselves.

Thanks for a very thorough post on the subject!

Nov 08, 2010 08:32 PM
Margaret Woda
Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. - Crofton, MD
Maryland Real Estate & Military Relocation

I can't believe this post wasn't featured.  So much information!  I've bookmarked it for future reference.

Nov 09, 2010 01:54 PM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Leilani - But when they will, they will already know that you were the first to promote it on your market. I really like how Janie and Stacia already working their SEO to associate themselves with QR codes and real estate in the market (see examples at the bottom of the post) I suggest to everybody to write a post like that, with your primary market and the QR code and concept associated for SEO

Maggie - I agree. It is now a competitive advantage. It will be a must have in a few years, but one can use this capability now to impress sellers at listing interviews

Margaret - We can't believe it either :) Thanks. Glad that you like it. Can you maybe "suggest" to AR for feature? They may have missed it among the zillions of posts.

Thanks

-- Zoltan

Nov 09, 2010 02:36 PM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Hi Michael,

This post is about the mobile versions of the RealBird listing websites (optimized UI for mobile phones) and the QR code that leads to them. RealBird members can get the QR codes from the RealBird member area either as a free image download or as low-cost, automatically generated stickers. QR codes are just an encoding of some information that is easily readable by smartphones, nothing more nothing less. The QR t-shirts that you refer to on scanmyback.com is a fun, pet project of us and it is not real estate specific. Some people love the idea (it's for fun: we don't claim that it sells real estate in itself) and other people could care less. And that's how it is supposed to be. Just yesterday, I saw the whole Sprint mobile staff at my local store dressed up in QR t-shirts. And people were scanning them and smiling while doing it. It's an ice breaker, it creates a connection between sales people and customers, it demonstrates the capabilities of the smartphones that Sprint is selling, it opens discussions. Again, some people care about it and others don't. It is all optional :)

I hope I could clarify our intent with these features and products.

Thanks for commenting

-- Zoltan

Nov 13, 2010 05:39 AM
Kathryn Gorham
Green Key Realty - Emerald Isle, NC
Emerald Isle NC Crystal Coast

You guys are genius! The answer to what I've been asking: how can I incorportate them into my listings without a lot of hassle.

I am going to study this as I'm traveling for the holidays and get things in place to rock with QR

Nov 15, 2010 09:43 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Kathryn - Thanks. Please let us know your feedback when you'll start using it. More to come along this line ! Have a great holiday traveling.

Nov 17, 2010 05:12 AM
Lee & Pamela St. Peter
Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices YSU Realty: (919) 645-2522 - Raleigh, NC
Making Connections to Success in Real Estate

Zoltan, what a great recap of all that's available via RealBird!  Love to hear that you're looking into grabbing some analytics around how our listings qr codes are doing.  That would be cool.

P.S I've hit the suggest button!

Pamela

Nov 19, 2010 04:51 AM
Tamara Inzunza
Realty One Group Capital - Alexandria, VA
Close-In Alexandria and Arlington Living

Great post.  I just listened to Katerina's webinar in replay from a couple of weeks ago. Great feature that Realbird is offering.

Nov 27, 2010 03:38 PM
Maureen Fukumoto
Help-U-Sell Realty Pro - Mililani, HI
Maureen

Thanks for explaining the codes in an easy to understand way. 

Nov 27, 2010 06:22 PM
Linda Lohman
Fonville Morisey Realty - Cary, NC
Former Teacher/Broker

Perfect!  Love the QR stickers

Nov 29, 2010 01:38 AM
Christine McInerney
Great Life RE - Knoxville, TN
The McInerney Team, Knoxville TN Homes For Sale

Are the qr stickers magnetic or just simple peel and stick.  I want to adhere them to my actual yard sign which is metal.

Dec 14, 2010 02:35 AM
RealBird Real Estate Marketing
RealBird Inc. - Santa Cruz, CA
All-In-One Real Estate Marketing Toolkit

Christine - They are peel and stick but high quality hence the low price. Also magnetic is easier to lose or be stole as it is not permanently attached. Let us know how it works for you if you decide to purchase one. We are collecting real world examples besides our own test orders.

Thanks 

-- Zoltan

Dec 14, 2010 02:43 AM
Vickie Nagy
Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate - Palm Springs, CA
Vickie Jean the Palm Springs Condo Queen

Ah! Good stuff! Real Bird appears to be on top of the latest curve in marketing properties.

Dec 18, 2010 03:25 AM