Clikbrix: Redesigning the Home Buying Experience

Clikbrix, an award-winning QR Code and mobile website solution for real estate professionals is changing the way you buy or rent your next home.

Usually, when it comes to looking for a new home, house hunters spend hours poring through one-dimensional data found on the Multiple Listing Service. And, with the vast number of properties and the vast number of agents to help move them, the sea of sameness can create a stressful situation for a potential homebuyer.

In today's time-crunched world, this isn't good enough. The world has gone mobile and consumer expectations have changed.

Erik Goldhar, co-founder of the Toronto startup, Clikbrix, saw this as a great opportunity to improve how the real estate industry operates. He and his business partner, Ted Geatros, decided that they would create a mobile solution that would help real estate agents and brokers go beyond the property walls, by providing potential homebuyers, property leasers, or vacation renters with a richer, more dynamic user experience.

"People are buying and renting for emotional and lifestyle factors as much as they are because of price," said Goldhar in a telephone interview with WalletPop. "The proximity of a potential home to friends and family, shopping, work, and a favourite cafe play a massive role in the decision-making process."

Clikbrix equips real estate professionals with the tools they need to better serve and communicate with their clients, while growing their personal brand. "Individual properties come and go, but your personal brand, your reputation does not," he said.
How can the QR Codes and mobile website simplify and enhance your house hunt?

If you're one of the millions of people across North America who use a smartphone, then you can simply scan the Clikbrix QR Code that appears on a 'For Sale' sign, agency/bank window, or outdoor advertisement, and within seconds you will be connected to the listing agent's online profile and full details on the scanned property. You can also share information about the property with your friends and family via email, Facebook and Twitter.

This innovation allows performance-driven real estate professionals to publish meaningful information about themselves, their listings, and the neighbourhood that they serve. It essentially provides them with an opportunity to establish himself or herself as a local neighbourhood expert, which is great for people looking for insider information.

Related links:
April Real Estate Round-Up: What You Get for $400K or Less
Rent to Own: An Alternative to Home Ownership
Least Expensive Places to Live in Canada

It's no secret that many of the open houses that take place are loss leaders. The fact is that most of the people who attend these open houses are nosy neighbours just looking to compare their home with the sellers. Goldhar and his partner have created a way to minimize this occurrence by providing a unique twist to the classic open house. The incorporation of outside technologies, such as Google+ hangouts, and Google Maps, allow realtors to host a virtual open house from anywhere in the world on their mobile device using their Clikbrix website.

This enables the potential homebuyer to not only see the basic attributes of a home, but they can feel what it would be like to live there. For example, a realtor can start a hangout and walk around the listed home and provide answers to questions in real time from people logged into the hangout. As well, it allows real estate agents to reach a wider audience of potential buyers or renters. So, if you're on vacation or a foreign investor, you can still keep track of the listings in any given geographical area that is served by a Clikbrix member. The Google + component also allows for document sharing. "Now, real estate professionals can share floor plans and other specifications of the house," explained Goldhar.

He also has big plans for the cutting-edge mobile service. Later this year, Clikbrix will be venturing into the commercial real estate and vacations properties marketplace.

So who is using Clikbrix? Some of Canada's top real estate firms namely, RE/MAX and Bosley Real Estate. Plus, Goldhar's and Geatros' innovation has caught the attention of the American real estate industry -- which make up a majority of Clikbrix's membership. American real estate agents have quickly seen the value in taking flat listing details and translating them into rich, vivid moving images that speak to the aspirations of their prospective buyers.

Which must have been the reason why Clikbrix beat out Facebook, BMW and USA Today by winning the Smaato Mobile Marketing Award in 2010 for Best Mobile Web App. Not bad for a small company from Toronto.