The popularity surrounding Apple’s iPhone has hit an all time high with the booming development of applications, or “Apps” as they’re commonly called, a seemingly endless array of instant information from how to cook Julia Child’s Boeuf à la Bourguignonne to how to kick zombie butt in a video game featuring a proper British lady.
And now, thanks to The Corcoran Group, iPhone users will also have access to a complete guide of Hamptons real estate listings with virtually every detail of a home that could make it a dream come true, all at the tips of their fingers and at a moment’s notice.
Last week, The Corcoran Group announced its official release of its own real estate app for the Apple iPhone, available for free at www.corcoran.com/iphone. The Corcoran iPhone app is the first developed by a residential real estate firm in New York, and gives users an interactive platform to search out listings in the Hamptons, and beyond, covering real estate markets in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the North Fork of Long Island and South Florida. In addition to specified search tools, allowing users to narrow local real estate listings by price and location, the app also provides an array of photographs for each listing, complete property information, and agent contact information. It also uses the iPhone’s internal GPS to alert users of nearby open houses, providing maps and detailed directions to each location.
Another aspect of the Corcoran iPhone app is its “Get Out Nearby” option, powered by BlackBook, which when activated provides users with a map of nearby restaurants, shops, bars and nightlife – a key said Rick Hoffman, the regional senior vice president of the East End region of the Corcoran Group, to ensuring the firm can provide its clients a tailor-made real estate shopping experience.
“Of course, we pride ourselves on providing the best customer service,” said Hoffman, noting the “Get Out Nearby” aspect of the Corcoran iPhone app fits right in with the company’s motto, of “Live Who You Are.”
For example, a family looking for real estate in the Sag Harbor School District walking distance to a yoga studio and health food store could use the “Get Out Nearby” function to search Corcoran’s listings for a listing that matches that criteria. The same family could also customize the price range of their search.
“It shows you what is important to you in the neighborhood you are searching in,” said Hoffman.
Another particularly exciting function of the app, said Hoffman, is the ability to be keyed into area open houses based on your location at any moment.
“When a customer is having lunch at the New Paradise Café and says, I wonder where there are open houses this afternoon, instead of having to go home and go online to search, they can just hit “Open House in the Nearby features,” said Hoffman. “It will show you every nearby open house and a map to get you there.”
Hoffman added the days of keeping information from customers, whether it be a price or an address, is over, and that the iPhone app is just another way the Corcoran Group can ensure it is giving its clients all the information they need to make the right real estate purchase. In part, said Hoffman, that is why the firm began exploring the development of the Corcoran iPhone app almost a year ago.
“It was something that developed internally because we are a company that is always putting their minds together through the executive committee, our office managers, our technical department,” said Hoffman. “We looked at the iPhone’s popularity, what we could do with it and how we can best make it function for our customers.”
“The iPhone app is a natural fit for Corcoran as real estate information becomes more transparent and technology becomes more accessible and consumer focused,” said Corcoran President and CEO Pamela Liebman in a release. “It reflects how people live – on the go – with the expectation of having the information they want right at their fingertips. This is exactly what the Corcoran iPhone app delivers.”
Popularity: 1% [?]























Actually, it is not the first iPhone app by a residential real estate firm in New York.
Redfin Real Estate (www.redfin.com) released it’s iPhone app, which covers New York as well as 10 other states earlier in 2009 and it’s a great app!