December 15, 2003
A new use for camera phone: Agent's safety
Camera phones as a tool for real estate agents seems a natural and has often been mentioned as one of the strong business applications for these new handsets. Shooting on the spot and forwarding pictures to prospective buyers, could give a real estate agent a speedy edge in a competite market (cf
How business people and professionals are using camera phones).
In Today's Chicago Tribune, an interesting article written by Mary Umberger, describes a company who will suggest real estate agents user their camera phones - not to shoot property - but to snap pictures of their clients (with their permission), as a form of insurance.
"The real estate industry is not as safe as it used to be," says Pat Dougherty, a Marietta agent for 22 years who founded the RealSafe.net Network after an incident with a man who asked her to show him a house on short notice".
Her company will offer to store pictures in a secure database, which can only be accessed by court order.
"The yard signs will say `This is a RealSafe.net home,' and there will be signs in the windows," Daugherty says, so there will be some name recognition," and also some reassurance for the homeowner who will know that a record is being kept of who enters their home -- at least, when the house is being shown by an agent who pays a monthly fee to Dougherty's firm.
The firm will begin marketing its services to real estate agents as of January.
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