Over the past 15 months, my wife and I have been preparing to purchase our first home. It started with raising our credit scores by decreasing our debt, which fortunately turned out to be easier than expected. Simultaneously, we were gathering information about what neighborhood, school district and price range would be ideal for us. After crunching numbers and weighing the pros and cons, we narrowed our search down to the zip code that best fit our criteria.

But we were challenged with trying to lay out a plan to drive through the different neighborhoods and only see the properties that were both in our price range and included the features we desired. Throughout this time we witnessed our selected homes pop up as new listings only to go off-market before we were ready to commit. We never imagined what a challenge it was going to be to keep track of the dynamics that were happening as we were out searching for properties.

While we were out searching, I noticed some For Sale signs had sign riders to have the property information texted to your cell phone so I decided to give it a try. I’d stop the car, pull over in front of the sign, type in the text information and wait for the text message. Much to my surprise the text message arrived quickly, which made me very excited to be able to instantly see the additional information available for the property, “including photos” it said, but I was disappointed by the seemingly endless wait for the data and photos to be transmitted to my phone followed by endless scrolling up and down to actually view the data.

These events provided more than enough motivation to help the company I work for, Smarter Agent, to launch its carrier approved, GPS mobile search application. Finally, the time came that we are ready to purchase our home. So, on the night of May 15th, 2009 I took a BlackBerry armed with Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale mobile application to the neighborhood we were interested in and performed a GPS refine search, narrowing the results to within our price range. Very quickly we had a list of 17 properties that fit our specifications, along with a map view to guide us to each one. As we easily drove to the homes on the map, we were able to quickly narrow the list down to our top five: three corner lots and two middle rows, based on all the property information, including pictures, displayed right there on my BlackBerry screen. I need to mention that there was no need to send a text message and then wait for the information and photos to be transmitted to the phone for just that property, or scroll endlessly to see all the information once it arrived. It was just there. An easy-to-use, touch-of-a-button application allowing us the luxury of driving right past the homes that the photos and data helped us eliminate and right to the homes that we could stop in front of and envision ourselves living in.

I immediately called my Agent to schedule showings for our top 5. As we walked through the homes, I was able to pull up other properties for sale in the immediate area by doing a GPS Quick Search to compare the value of the property we were being shown. Now the best part- As as we walked through our top pick, the value was clearly evident. This home was priced to sell with a list price 15% under the 3 other properties within a stone’s throw. We are now under agreement with this property and are very excited about this terrific opportunity that may have been lost without the instant access to information provided by Smarter Agent's Homes for Sale application.

Ken Gilliam, Data Analyst for Smarter Agent