How Apartments.com is Getting Renters to View Properties in the Palm of Their Hands
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorChicago–Apartments.com has launched Apartments.com Anywhere, a suite of mobile products that allows property owners and management companies to connect with renters through mobile phones.Apartments.com Anywhere includes “Text4Info,” “Apartments.com Mobile Web” and “Send2Phone.” Using any of the three options, renters can access Apartments.com’s database of more than three million listings nationwide.“People…
By Anuradha Kher, Online News EditorChicago–Apartments.com has launched Apartments.com Anywhere, a suite of mobile products that allows property owners and management companies to connect with renters through mobile phones.Apartments.com Anywhere includes “Text4Info,” “Apartments.com Mobile Web” and “Send2Phone.” Using any of the three options, renters can access Apartments.com’s database of more than three million listings nationwide.“People use the Web differently on their mobile phones,” says Chris Brown, vice president of product development, Apartments.com. “When renters are on the go or in a hurry, instant access to information on a property could be a critical factor in that renter’s decision to make contact with a property manager or landlord. With ‘Apartments.com Anywhere,’ renters can now review community information wherever and whenever it’s most relevant to them.” Text4Info enables access of information on rental property by text messaging a keyword such as “APTS” or “RENT” to the Apartments.com short code 29999. In return, details on the property are instantly provided through a text message, and interested renters will have the option to “click2call” or view the property listing using their mobile web browser. Apartments.com Mobile Web is the Apartments.com Web site optimized for browsing on a mobile device. Through the new site, renters will be able to conduct a fully customizable search of all listings on Apartments.com through a mobile phone. “As the only Internet Listing Service (ILS) to offer a mobile optimized Web site, Apartments.com is reaching roughly half of mobile device owners—age 18 to 44—with phones equipped for Mobile Web browsing,” according to Brown. Send2Phone allows potential renters to send information about an apartment listing from Apartments.com to their mobile phones as a text message. Information on specific properties is sent to interested prospects who click the Send2Phone link on the Property Details page of Apartments.com. Apartments.com Mobile Web and Send2Phone products are free to all Apartments.com customers but there is a nominal monthly fee to subscribe to the Text4Info product.