When you launch a business, you always have your first customers.  Those who, despite knowing that you’re new, embrace what you have to offer and if you’re lucky continue to provide feedback that is crucial to your growth and success.  For us, one of our very first real estate customers was Nathan Pfahler.  We remember that first meeting with him nearly 2 years ago and can’t forget his enthusiasm and lucky for us that excitement hasn’t gone away.  Nate has provided us with invaluable market research as we continue to enhance our service and has brought many new customers our way.  

ABOUT NATE: 

How long have you been a realtor?    

I am currently in my 4th year as a realtor

Why real estate? 

I have always had an affinity for houses, and used to drag my mom to open houses as a young teen.  After being in Corporate America for a while, I decided it was time to use my marketing, negotiating and design skills to assist those needing to buy or sell a home.  I get a rush when I see someone’s face light up as they realize they’ve just stepped into their new home! 

What’s your favorite area to show homes and why? 

I have always had an attraction to older homes, ie historichomes. Probably stems from being an HGTV junkie before there even was such a thing.  I used to love watching THIS OLD HOUSE as a kid.  That being said- I love showing and selling homes in the Irvington, Broad Ripple, Meridian-Kessler, Butler Tarkington and near-downtown neighborhoods.  On the flip side, I also love 1950′s contemporaries and downtown hi-rise condo developments.  

What do you do in your spare time? 

Well, let’s see, I don’t seem to have much “spare” time, but that is by design.  I enjoy being involved- in networking activities, volunteer roles, and within my Church.  I am very active in RAINMAKERS and divide my other volunteer time between such organizations as Second Helpings and The 500 Festival, as well as serve on committees for the Irvington Presbyterian Church and several Irvington-area initiatives.   

***Note***  That’s Nate in the picture taking kids from his church trick or treating last year.

What impact has mobile marketing had for you? 

During sales presentations, clients really think this is a neat addition to our current marketing plan for listed homes.  Even if they themselves are not “tech savvy”, most realize that a lot of people are, and that the way people get information is always changing.  The service has helped me to attract both potential buyers and sellers. 

Want to learn more about Nate?     www.justcallnate.com

Seth Godin and Tom Peters

Mobile marketing has the ability to deliver information to buyers in a quick, easy, and timely fashion helping Realtors be responsive to requests for information automatically.  Over the last few years our society has become more and more mobile oriented. There are approximately 260 million cell phone plans in use in the USA, out of a population of just over 300 million. That covers about 86% of the population. With such a deep market penetration and the growing capabilities of these devices, mobile marketing becomes a natural space for Realtors to reach new buyers.

The question is what mobile technology should I use? There are many technologies for use in mobile marketing and in order to use it effectively you have to be able to reach buyers in the way that they are most willing to communicate. For some buyers this is a phone call directly to the agent, others prefer to get information before talking to agents. This is why a program that offers a well rounded mobile technology package is required to reach the majority of buyers.

What is a well rounded mobile technology package?  Based on what we’ve seen and heard, we think a well rounded mobile marketing package incorporates voice, email, text messaging and the web. By using all of these technologies Real Estate Agents can enable prospective buyers to retrieve information instantly via text, listen to a recording about the home property, contact the realtor directly, and get in-depth information via email or web site. At the same time the agents are enabling buyers to learn more about their properties, the mobile marketing package should also be capturing lead data for the agent.  While we are seeing many home buyers take the initiative to reach out to the Realtor, we also provide the agent the information about when a request was made, the phone number the request was made from and the property that was inquired about.

Our company offers Real Estate Agencies, Brokers and Agents the ability to communicate with prospective buyers using Text Messaging (SMS), Toll Free Numbers, Email and Mobile Web. All of these mediums meet the differing desires and demands of buyers and increase the number of leads generated for the Realtor. 

We’re excited about the number of Realtors who are currently using our service.  The number continues to grow each day as our customers share our service with their colleagues.