CAROLYN CHODAT
Consumer loyalty

When real estate agents drive homebuyers around neighborhoods to see properties that are listed for sale, it’s not unusual for them to spot for-sale signs posted at other homes that the buyers have an interest in seeing.

Most of the time, the agents promise to get the price, size and other pertinent information to the consumer as soon as they can get to the nearest computer. More resourceful agents will use their cell phones to immediately call the office and ask someone to search for the listing information for them. But starting this year, Bay State real estate agents have been able to get that listing information instantaneously.

The MLS Property Information Network, the largest multiple listing service in Massachusetts, offers agents a program that provides on-the-spot wireless access to the statewide MLS. MLS PIN teamed with Retrieval Dynamics Corp. and started offering the program, which is called Mobile Listing Advantage, in April.

Mobile Listing Advantage enables real estate agents and brokers to go wireless by bundling RDC’s wireless MLS software with a BlackBerry wireless handheld from Research In Motion and network airtime plans from most wireless carriers like AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Nextel, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless.

“Our customers are always looking to us to be able to offer them new and more convenient ways to access the data, and we did receive requests from our customers who were BlackBerry users to move forward with this type of project,” said Kathleen Condon, president and chief executive officer of MLS PIN, which serves 23,500 real estate professionals in New England.

So far, 50 MLS PIN customers have enrolled in the program.

‘A Timesaver’

With Mobile Listing Advantage, agents can access current home listings through an electronic form that contains standard MLS search fields – such as street address, price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, garage and square footage. Using the built-in BlackBerry keypad, agents can enter the search criteria, send the form and, within seconds, receive all available property listings that match.

Having such quick access to property listings can be beneficial for both Realtors and consumers, according to Carolyn Chodat, the owner of Classic Properties in Medway, who also serves on the MLS PIN’s board of directors.

“It’s definitely a timesaver, and anytime that a Realtor can have access to information at their fingertips, the consumer is likely to have a little more loyalty to that broker because they [consumers] feel they’re efficient,” she said.

For Chodat, it all comes down to servicing the homebuyer. Consumers are quite accustomed to having information quickly and their time is so valuable that they don’t want to wait to get information that they’ve requested, she said.

Chodat said her office is not currently utilizing the program but “we definitely are looking into it and encouraging our members to use it.”

“It’s like anything in technology. Sometimes Realtors and consumers have a wait-and-see [attitude] to see if it’s going to be effective,” said Chodat. “Within the next year, I think it will become much more commonly used.”

Bob Humphrys, a real estate agent in the Canton office of Jack Conway & Co., had never heard about Mobile Listing Advantage until a reporter explained the program to him last week.

“I think that would be fantastic,” said Humphrys, who has been in real estate for the past 12 years.

Humphrys, who has a Palm Pilot but not a BlackBerry, said when real estate agents first start working with homebuyers they’re not always sure what aspects of a property the buyers will like until they’re actually viewing a home. With a program that enables them to get listings instantaneously, agents would be able to conduct a home search after seeing a property with the homebuyer and getting a better idea of the buyer’s needs and desires, and then call a listing broker to schedule an appointment.

“It would save a tremendous amount of time,” he said.

Realtors in Florida and other parts of the country have had wireless access to multiple listing services, but this is the first time that such a service has been offered to real estate agents and brokers in Massachusetts.