Rob Grey’s print ads include QR codes for every property.
By Don Procter
The strange-looking stamp showing up on real estate for sale signs these days may look like a derivative of Sudoku but it is anything but a game. It is a QR (quick response) bar code, which when scanned by a smartphone almost immediately accesses the website of the property.
The barcodes, which incorporate a specific URL link or website into the code, can be placed almost anywhere sales reps want to get their message out: in a newspaper or magazine listing of the property or a printed listing in a mall kiosk, for example.
Rob Grey, broker of The Rob Grey Real Estate Team, Re/Max of Nanaimo, is one of the first to use QR codes to sell real estate in Canada. “We get a lot of kidding from our customers about what they call ‘the crossword puzzles’ on our advertisements,” says Grey, who has had the technology in place since last November.
Kidding aside, the Vancouver Island broker sees QR codes as a serious tool for sales reps and brokers that could quickly become nearly as valuable as cellphones.
Spring time, when many new property listings crop up, will be the new technology’s bellwether. Sales reps have every reason to be optimistic about the new technology. “Whatever tool you can use to get information in front of a consumer quickly – and this tool does that – will undoubtedly result in more sales,” says Grey.
The cost to sales reps is negligible and, in fact, anyone can produce their own QR code through websites, he says.
Christian Longpré’s sign with QR code.
Christian Longpré, broker of Royal LePage Au Sommet, in Magog, Que., uses a website called ScanLife to create barcodes that are downloadable to smartphones. Sign-up for the service is free and it offers his brokerage up to 1,000 barcodes. It costs the broker about $80 to print 100 barcode stickers for his property sales signs. The code isn’t scrapped when a home sells – Longpré simply creates a new online link for a new property.
Longpré first started using QR codes last November and by January – a slow period of home sales – he was getting about one hit per day on his website from the code.
“We see a lot of people coming from Montreal to buy a recreational home in Magog (just over an hour away) because we have a lot of waterfront property. With QR codes on our for sale signs it is very easy for them to scan and get all the information about the property quickly.”
The Quebec broker also includes QR codes on property listings advertised in newspapers and direct mail ads. The source where the client found the website can be tracked, helping sales reps determine the most effective advertising format.
QR codes have found other uses in the real estate industry. At a winter Re/Max convention on the west coast, for example, the codes were placed on delegates’ name tags. A quick scan provides smartphone users with the subject’s contact information and website, Grey says.
QR codes are individually designed, allowing sales reps to put their creative touch on the appearance. “You can give it a nice, crisp look,” says Grey.
What will be the key to the new technology’s success? Grey says once enough salespeople embrace the technology the buying public will get used to using it and will demand it. “We’re not gatekeepers of information. It’s important to get all the information into the hands of the buying public and trust their intelligence to make smart decisions.”
In Nanaimo, a highly competitive market for real estate sales, Grey expects the buying public to become accustomed to using the codes soon because only a few weeks after he introduced QR codes, other local Realtors followed.
Grey’s initiation into the world of QR codes came through his nephew Adrian Grey, who designs QR codes for companies from his business in Tokyo where a variety of QR code applications have been in place for years. “He had been telling me for over a year to embrace this technology but what drove it home for me was when my passport renewal notice came in the mail with a QR code attached to the form (to help the government process personal information).”
While the younger generation is most apt to take to the technology, many of Grey’s customers in Nanaimo – a growing retirement community – are over 55. That doesn’t discourage him from ramping up for a busy spring. “I’ve learned that you can’t underestimate the intelligence of the consumer.”
