Overland Park, Kan. & Philadelphia ? 07/20/2006 Whether strolling past seaside homes on summer vacation or searching for a new home in time for the school year, from time to time we all find ourselves curbside wondering how much it would cost to live in a particular neighborhood. Now the curious can instantly satisfy their real estate cravings using select Sprint (NYSE: S) phones equipped with Global Positioning System technology.
Sprint and Smarter Agent, the premier provider of ?location aware? real estate applications, announced today the launch of a new wireless phone application called Recently Sold Homes.
Recently Sold Homes by Smarter Agent instantly returns information about the closest homes sold within the last three years. Information includes last sold price, last sold date, taxes and square footage. This is the first of a suite of real estate searches to be offered by Smarter Agent that will enable both consumers and real estate professionals to use select Sprint and Nextel phones to learn about real estate anytime, anywhere.
?With reports of home prices stabilizing, and over 12 million households expected to move this year, it's more important than ever to know what's happening in the real estate market,? said Brad Blumberg, CEO of Smarter Agent.
?We are pleased to provide Recently Sold Homes by Smarter Agent to our customers,? said David Owens, director of devices and productivity applications for Sprint. "Sprint customers can now use Smarter Agent to transform their wireless phone into a powerful real estate tool. This is one of the many exciting GPS-enabled location-based applications Sprint offers that gives customers personalized information when and where they want it on the device they always have with them."
?Because of Smarter Agent's patented ?location-aware? real estate searching, once you download the application, every time you engage it, your wireless phone automatically locates where you are and instantly provides you with recent sales data for homes around you,? added Blumberg. ?The application has a lot of features that makes learning about real estate fun and easy to use.?
Smarter Agent includes a GPS mapping function. By selecting ?Map It,? the user can see his or her location and all of the recent home sales in the area on the same map. In addition, the user can search by city and state to research multiple areas of interest, save properties to their phone, or call an agent for live support. See a sample Sprint with phone screen shots at this link: smarteragent.com/mobile/sample_screens.php
Smarter Agent covers 180 of the 200 largest markets in the United States. The consumer can conduct unlimited searches for a single monthly fee of $4.99, plus data charges starting at $10 for unlimited access or $0.02 per kilobyte for casual usage.
Sprint Nextel has the longest history in the industry with location-based services, beginning in 2000 with location and mobility services, the first GPS-enabled phone to support E911 services in 2001, and the first navigation service on mobile phones with turn-by-turn voice-guided driving directions in 2003. Sprint Nextel continues its leadership in location-based services by offering the largest portfolio of wireless mobility solutions for enterprise, general business and consumers. The consumer applications include turn-by-turn directions and point-of-interest and specialty applications such as Garmin Mobile, TeleNav, BiM Active, Sprint Family Locator, Rand McNally Mobile Travel Tools and MapQuest Find Me. Frost & Sullivan recognized Sprint Nextel with the 2005 Company of the Year Award in Location Based Services for excellence in successfully deploying and delivering location services and solutions.
