Coldwell Banker Launches iPhone App
Not a dedicated app, mind you. But if you visit ColdwellBanker.com on your iPhone’s Safari browser now it’ll pull up a specially formatted version of the site.
They’re not the first company to do this (Realtor.com has an iPhone-ready page, as does Intero) but they are, as far as I know, the first to launch a major marketing campaign advertising this fact.
The app itself looks great and is nicely thought out and pretty functional. You can search for current listings and, like Trulia (see iPhone Real Estate App Showdown), open houses as well. Search results return reasonably quickly on both WiFi and 3G.
The individual listing pages are fleshed out, though not as tightly integrated with multimedia as Utopria’s (see Utopria Brings Property Listings to iPhone). You can see all the photos associated with the home however. Clicking on Map Property link will bring you immediately to the Google Maps application for driving directions.
Unfortunately, because it’s not a dedicated app, the overall usability of this function gets a bit frustrating. Getting back to your search results requires several taps back and forth to switch between the map and the browser.
Also, CB’s tool does not seem to tap into the iPhone’s location awareness capability which seems a bit of a shame - you still need to tell it where you want to search.
Probably the biggest issue however is that (perhaps not surprisingly) ColdwellBanker.com on the iPhone only returns CB listings from Realogy. Unfortunately, since you’re only ever seeing a fraction of any market’s listings, this severely limits the app’s use for consumers. As a result I can’t see many people turning to this tool beyond mere curiousity, despite the fancy ad.
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6 Comment(s)
5 Trackback(s)
- From Coldwell Banker Launches iPhone App « Openr Blog | Oct 1, 2008
- From Ubertor Real Estate Blog » Blog Archive » Coldwell Banker iPhone App | Oct 1, 2008
- From Coldwell Banker is Now Optimized for the iPhone | GeekEstate Blog | Oct 1, 2008
- From Odd marketing from CBRB | The Andrew Hillman Blog | Oct 1, 2008
- From Aplicación del iPhone de Coldwell Banker « Blog de Ubertor en Español | Oct 13, 2008
chrishanz | Sep 30, 2008 | Reply
haha… the iPod-esk commercial is sort of lame and makes it look a little closer tied to apple than apple would probably like… but great looking interface and I'm sure all iphone users appreciate the special treatment!
dcm | Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
Uh, you were a little off on the fact that it just shows CB listings. I’m seeing C21 & ERA listings in the searches i’ve done.
Joel Burslem | Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
@dcm - Good catch. I only saw CB listings in my searches, but it seems like it’s pulling from all of Realogy’s listings. Still not great market coverage, so my point still stands, but I’ll update the post.
Freddie - Invest With Passion | Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
that’s interesting, but the video isnt playing. I don’t have an iPhone, so I guess I would need to start there, huh?
Hawaii real estate guy | Oct 1, 2008 | Reply
Please, please, please don’t get all the listings going. I think the Realogy listings are plenty
Oahu real estate agent | Oct 9, 2008 | Reply
I think it would be great to get all the listings going. More the better.