Solving the InfoTube Dilemma for Realtors and Brokers

Hi Keith, Thank you for mentioning InfoTube in your article. While the product doesn't allow for bi-directional communication, it is a fantastic way to get a marketing piece in the hands of driveby traffic, who often wants instant information without going through a sales pitch. And, our InfoTube and InfoBox are made in the USA. Best of luck with you new endeavor and thanks again for the mention.

There is no question this is the future. My first job out of college was with Homes.com. This was around 1999 a few months short of the crash. Needless to say most people were online. Everyone except Realtors. Of course there were some ahead of the curve and they were the ones doing well. I taught the new or tech. challenged agents and brokers and put together an online presence, domain names, how best to drive traffic to the site and my favorite, using what you know as a listing tool. It was amazing how 90% got so frustrated with turnkey point and click sites, checking thier emails everyday. Putting IPIX Virtual tours on all listings. Homes.com went out of biz, so I went to Realtor.com and did the same thing. Realtor.com/Homestore.com had an edge. Contracts and feeds with most local MLS on their site. If you were in Real Estate, you had to be there and you had to keep learning and stay ahead of the curve.
Now I'm with a company, Agent511.com and we are real estate specific. These products, like Chad's is being ahead of curve. In this day and age new ways of doing things always come to market making some process, faster, cheaper, and now green. Paper in tubes? Radio Stations with info on the house? Calling the Realtor from the house. No thanks--Buyers go to sites like Homes.com, Realtor.com or some local brokerage with many listings. They shop, bookmark homes, take the virtual tour and narrow their search--How much gas did that save Realtors driving people around house to house, over and over. When they make contact with a Realtor they know what they want. Now it's all about that point of contact.

Our cell phones will soon replace our wallets. Its has in Japan and a few other countries. We are a texting nation now, with more texts than phone calls. If you're a Realtor or Broker and ALL you're listings don't have a "Text" Call to Action, you're well behind the curve. It's less expensive than Tubes, Paper, 900#s, Radio etc...This is a LIVE lead that cost 5-10 bucks a MONTH---real time Lending Tree leads cost 25-50 bucks as do most large lead brokers....and if you think they dont resell them after a few days for a little less money you're misinformed. This is it. I helped teach and train thousands of Reactors nationwide about the taking advantage of the changing landscape of Ad. Placement. Less Print and more web based( to Digital Media and Marketing, some got in early and learned how to work smarter, not harder by using technology--email, domain names, Search Engine Placement. Now the shift is from web based ads to mobile ads. This changes everything. You request the customer contact you by texting "SanFranHomes to 511511 and bam they have the listing information, your phone number, website etc...and you're notified immediately about the lead as you build your data base. I'm almost ready to become a Realtor and GRAB the younger generation by setting myself apart where I live. This is the future---You can't afford NOT to grab the cell phone number of whatever you sell. You know they've given you permission to market to them as they contacted you FIRST----There are so many ways this 2 way communication can be used to cut your ad dollars and increase your ROI by tracking each TEXT--Please email me at sold@ridleysandidge.com Happy Celling..

Tommi--Glad you weighed in here! I think this is a worthwhile discussion because it gets to the heart of this website--generating leads and their performance. Your concept was in many ways a pre-cursor of informational websites--"on-demand information that stresses portability and availability to an end user".

Let me ask a question in response-- Do you have plans for further concepts? Maybe add-ons to the InfoTube?

Keith, thank you for featuring InfoTube in your article. As a the inventor of the InfoTube and a broker of 25 years, I have to say placing sales flyers in an InfoTube has listed and sold a lot of property for me with very little cost or effort.

I completely agree that 2 way communication is ideal, which is another reason I always use InfoTube when renting or selling a property. Experience has proven that when potential sellers or buyers drive away with one of my sales flyers, name, email and phone number, the chances of actually speaking with them increases greatly.

The internet has done away with the old trick of hiding information, hoping the customer will chase us down for a sales price or waste their time calling the up desk. Today's buyers and sellers are fed up with games and are much more savvy. They want real information, and if an agent doesn't provide it, they will simply buy or sell with someone who does.

In today's housing crisis, sellers and realtors alike should advertise their listings with InfoTube, and in any other way they can afford to.