RE/MAX IS UPWARDLY MOBILE WITH MOBI/LEADS

Initially launched in KwaZulu-Natal during March and recently introduced on a national basis in June 2010, RE/MAX of Southern Africa's MOBI/LEADS technology is rapidly leveraging technology to take the real estate business into the 21st Century.

Says Adrian Goslett, CEO of RE/MAX of Southern Africa of the launch: "We launched MOBI/LEADS in KwaZulu-Natal in March and ran a two-month trial for agents. In June we decided to open the entire system up nationally and to encourage all RE/MAX agents to use MOBI/LEADS. Since our March launch, we have had 1214 unique leads generated by the system. However, since we have started our national effort to get agents using the system, we have had 468 unique leads generated in the last 30 days. We received 136 leads in the first four days of July, so things are definitely picking up as more and more agents start advertising that their properties can be viewed on mobile phones."

Built from the ground up, MOBI/LEADS is a cutting-edge mobile property publishing system feeding off RE/MAX Southern Africa's property portal; www.remax.co.za. Jordan Wallace of Durban's Gorilla Creative Media, the system developer of MOBI LEADS, explains how it works: "Whenever a new property is loaded onto the RE/MAX website, MOBI/LEADS duplicates the listing on a mobile version of www.remax.co.za and the web reference is duplicated as an SMS keyword. This SMS keyword, along with the RE/MAX short-code, can now be included on all the agent's advertising, allowing potential buyers to simply SMS 33418, at a cost of R1,50, to have all the property's images and information sent to their mobile phones."

This, says Wallace, means that consumers can now view much more property information than print can provide, without having to log-on to a computer. "And this is where the power of MOBI/LEADS as a sales tool comes to the fore - as a potential buyer is browsing a property on their phone, MOBI/LEADS sends the listing agent an email with the potential buyers' cell phone number and details of the house they were viewing. This allows the agent to promptly and efficiently follow up on the interest shown," says Wallace.

So how are the various provinces adopting this new technology? Goslett notes that although KwaZulu-Natal is still leading the way in terms of usage and leads generated by the system, Gauteng is starting to gain momentum. On a month-to-month basis, he says that there has definitely been an increase in the amount of leads the system has generated since its nationwide launch: "We have received as many leads during the first few days of July than we did during the whole month of June. This is due to more agents advertising the system, and as this increases, so will the usage of the system start to increase exponentially."

He says the technology has revolutionised the way the real estate business operates on a number of levels - one being the fact that the size of the office and its location make no difference in the efficiency of the system: "Some of the best offices in terms of leads garnered are small, more rural offices. The RE/MAX Midlands office in Howick, for example, has received 77 individual leads in just two months and they are one of the smaller offices in the country. They have even sold a property using this technology."

Like the rollout of any new technology, Goslett says the nationwide launch of MOBI/LEADS has not been without its challenges: "Rolling out any new technology is a challenge, but especially so over a large group of people who have various ways of managing their advertising. However, when we make contact with the various RE/MAX offices and explain the system, most of them are more than willing and even excited to start using the MOBI/LEADS technology. And what we have found is that the minute an office starts using the system, they start getting leads - it's as simple as that, it is a truly effective marketing tool."

Goslett says that RE/MAX MOBI/LEADS remains the most substantial property publishing system in the country: "Property information is placed in the buyer's hands cheaply, effectively and conveniently, and agents are informed of their interest early on. This enables agents to provide prompt service that simply out-does the competition." To date, he says that two properties have been sold directly using MOBI/LEADS and notes that as the system continues to gain further exposure on a nationwide basis, this number should rise dramatically.

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