Voice-Based Real Estate Sales Tool Expands Nationwide

Oyster Bay, N.Y. -- Invores Systems’ HouseCallsAudioTour.com voice-enabled real estate sales and marketing system has expanded into 12 states and is now being used by four of the top five real estate companies nationwide. This rapid growth and adoption is fueled by word of mouth because of the results HouseCalls generates.
RE/MAX is one of those firms. Karin Schaeffer of RE/MAX 1st Choice in Greensboro, N.C., has been using HouseCalls for about a year, and was part of its initial pilot. "It is by far the most effective sales tool we have ever used for generating leads, finding buyers, and getting listings,” she says.
Realtors who sign up for the monthly subscription service, which ranges in cost from $9.99 per month for a single property to $29.99 per month for 10 listings, receive a special six-digit ID number and toll-free phone number for each propery listed. The realtor can display that ID and phone and ID number in all its signage and advertising related to that property. Potential buyers who see the listing can call the number, speak the six-digit ID number into the interactive voice response system, and hear a one-minute audio recording about the property. At the end of the recording, they are given the option to be transferred to the real estate agent who is handling the sale. Even if a caller chooses not to speak to the agent at the time, the system records his phone number and sends that number to the agent as an email or text message along with a note letting him know that someone at that number was interested in the property. When the property is sold, the realtor can transfer the ID and phone numbers to another listing.
For Schaeffer and her team of two other agents, the service has already generated more than 750 sales leads, yielding more than $50,000 in commissions. “HouseCalls costs us less than $30 a month and it's easy to use.” She says. “There is no other lead generation tool that we have ever tried that costs so little and generates so much income and opportunity for our business. We love it and our sellers love it."
Supported by Invores' interactive voice platform EXpress2.0, HouseCalls combines Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), speech recognition, Web browsers, IVR, messaging, and call capturing technologies. “Easy-to-use management screens on the Web for our realtor customers and a simple phone call using speech recognition instead of pressing buttons to get information, makes HouseCalls a complete win for both the realtor and potential home buyer,” explains Debra Altschuler, vice president of sales and marketing at Invores. “It’s extremely simple, but extremely effective. What could be better than being able to market your listings 24 hours a day, even when you are doing something else? And, buyers appreciate the choice to get information about something they are interested in without necessarily speaking to an agent right then and there.
“The real estate market is a natural market for this technology, not only because it is large and continually renewing itself, but because real estate is the ultimate middle market comprised of companies of all sizes with a single need: more effective advertising of their product, at the lowest cost possible in order to increase sales.”