Halstead Property

Diane M. Ramirez
President
dramirez@halstead.com
(212) 381-3203

James G. Cahill
Executive Vice President, Chief Information and Technology Officer
jcahill@halstead.com

Residential Brokers Embracing Jazzy Bar Codes

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By Amanda Fung

Residential brokerage firms are going high-tech. They are plastering fancy new barcodes called QR codes on their marketing materials for properties for sale.

Halstead Property and Brown Harris Stevens recently rolled out the square black-and-white new-age barcodes on select property ads posted in the windows of street-level offices. Halstead, which has coined their own term for the QR codes—H-Tags—has even included the barcodes in its most recent printed catalog of properties. That glossy catalog was recently inserted in the New York Times and distributed across the city.

“A lot of times we print out material and the price for a property changes or the time for an open house changes,” said James Cahill, chief information technology officer for Terra Holdings, parent company for Halstead and Brown Harris. “Now people can find out information for a property in real time.”

The downside is most people still don't know what these mysterious barcodes are and only a limited number of people can actually use them.

While the codes are popular in Japan, they only recently began popping up in the U.S. Lately, such major retailers as Target began using the codes in their catalogues to promote items. In New York, the Alliance for Downtown began using the barcodes widely to promote area retailers and restaurants.

Home seekers have to own an Apple iPhone or smartphone with a special application that allows them to read the codes. First, people open the app, then take a snapshot of the codes and are transported to a web page with additional, up-to-date information on the property. Since the use of the technology here is still fairly new, brokers say they don't yet have any data on how many people are actually taking advantage of the QR codes.

“It is neat and creates immediate satisfaction for buyers,” said Ivana Tagliamonte, a broker at Halstead. “I used to see people stand outside our storefront and call for help, now they can snap an H-Tag for more information.”

The Corcoran Group and Prudential Douglas Elliman started using QR codes on a smaller scale in the summer. Corcoran used the codes in the New York Times print ads for about two months.

“The use was low but it was higher than we expected,” said Matthew Shadbolt, director if Internet marketing at Corcoran. “We see bigger benefits in mobile apps. QR codes are something we are keeping our eye on.”

Meanwhile, PDE brokers began using the codes selectively to promote certain listings in the city as well as in the Hamptons. Laura Scott, corporate executive vice president at PDE, said the firm will likely use the codes extensively in its next portfolio.

“We're still in early adopter stage,” said Ms. Scott, adding that it will eventually become an overnight hit. “It's still all about the wow factor.”

Mr. Cahill of Terra Holdings said both Halstead and Brown Harris will begin tracking QR code activity to see how successful the codes are in generating traffic to properties.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010