Traditional 34-year-old professional estate agency innovates by using SMS technology to increase property rental and sale rates

5 June 2004 LEEDS : David Moore Estate Agents (DMEA) understands the need to rapidly provide property information to consumers searching to buy or let properties. It has completed real estate transactions worth more than £28 million and handles rental income in excess of £1 million per annum. As a 34-year-old professional estate agency, DMEA has built a solid reputation for high-throughput and surprisingly, has taken a stance of being an early technology adopter.

In addition to property listings on its site, complete with keyword search capability, DMEA has taken another step by implementing an enterprise Short Message Service (SMS) which can automatically provide key property information from its stable of real estates to anyone.

Using an enterprise SMS solution takes DMEA a step ahead of its competitors. According to DMEA executive partner Michael Moore, it benefits DMEA as provides the capability of providing a personal touch and adequate information quickly to any enquiries, at any time – both regarded as key differentiators in the industry.

In the past, the practice of putting up a To Let or For Sale signage highlighting a telephone number outside a house or building was considered acceptable. However, this had many shortcomings such as lengthy time-delay, which describes a period between the time an enquiry is made to the time information is provided to satisfy that enquiry. Furthermore, house buyers or families searching to rent an apartment, house or studio lot usually took the pattern of location scouting. They would visit areas in which they would like to reside, note the To Let or For Sale signs and jot down the telephone numbers in order to make enquiries afterwards.

"We have our SMS Text Messaging Service on For Sale boards - one quick text message and within seconds the caller receives a text message giving details of the property and its price. We also get messages on our website giving details of the caller enabling us to follow up the enquiry. It really is quite impressive, particularly useful for people searching for rented properties," said Moore . “This service is our latest addition and is proving very popular.”