Argus Leader

High-tech house shopping
   
Selling and buying homes in Sioux Falls will become more high-tech if two Rapid City businessmen have their way.

    At a business mixer last week with real estate agents, e-Venture Inc. founders Brian Killion and Jeremy Walla officially introduced their company's new product, WiFlyer, to Sioux Falls.WiFlyer is a wireless "hot spot" device that a real estate agent can put in a client's home and load the high-tech box with a plethora of "for sale" information about that house including photos, virtual tours, neighborhood and community information, plat maps, covenants and other information.

Advertisement In turn, prospective buyers with a laptop computer, smart phone or other Wi-Fi device can access that information in front of the home without ever leaving their car. Homes for sale that are equipped with WiFlyer have small signs that announce the service is available.

    Killion said there are a couple of other similar devices on the market, but none of them can download as much information."It fills a niche for people who are used to surfing the Internet to look for homes," Killion said.Barton Hacker, executive director of the Realtor Association of the Sioux Empire, said a growing number of real estate companies are doing more Internet-related selling."I haven't seen a lot of it hitting the marketplace yet in Sioux Falls," Hacker said. "But it is coming. A lot of (real estate) Web sites, including our own, are moving to accessing smart phones."Hacker expects the Realtor association's Web site to be accessible for smart phones by the end of the year.

    Mike Kelly, a broker associate at HJN Team Real Estate, was among Sioux Falls real estate professionals attending e-Venture's mixer last week."I think it is a great product," Kelly said. "It is something we are definitely looking into, as far as from a marketing standpoint."Kelly said the WiFlyer is appealing because it caters to increasingly sophisticated homebuyers who are Internet- and tech-savvy. "It (the WiFlyer) is something that I had not seen before."

    The company launched the product first in the Rapid City area last year and has been conducting a beta test since last fall in Sioux Falls with Ron Weber of ReMax.

    Weber said it's too early to tell how effective WiFlyer will be."It is going to take people time to get used to it. But once it gets going, I think it will be a very good marketing tool," Weber said.

Reach reporter Scott Carlson at 605-331-2318.

Rapid City Journal

Two Rapid City entrepreneurs have come up with a product that turns homes into hot spots -- and, they hope -- hot sellers for the Realtors who use it.

Called WiFlyer, the device is a specialized wireless router placed inside a house that is for sale. The router transmits photos, videos, listing information and other data about the house in a range of about 300 feet.

Prospective buyers, parked at the curb, can use a WiFi-equipped laptop computer, a so-called smart phone or other wireless device to find out more about the listing. They also can download the data for later reference.

In a way, WiFlyer is a high-tech version of the paper sales fliers you often see stuffed in a box out in front of a home for sale. But this flier doesn't get wet, blown away by the wind or grabbed up by curious neighbors.

WiFlyer is a product of e-Venture of Rapid City. Brian Killion, its president, said the 6-year-old firm is a software development company that specializes in Internet applications. His partner is Jeremy Walla, who handles engineering and sales for e-Venture.

Walla is a former real estate agent. He and Killion developed WiFlyer as a response to marketing problems that he saw in the real estate business.

He said it is hard to keep paper flier boxes in front of houses stocked with fliers. Often, prospective buyers are greeted by an empty box, Walla said.

"This grew out of my frustration as an agent, and from the frustration I heard from buyers and sellers," he said. And WiFi is becoming ubiquitous. Coffee shops, restaurants, libraries, airports and home networks have been turned into hot spots. And a small but growing cadre of techno-travelers doesn't leave home without laptop computers.

Meanwhile, nine of 12 new cell phones sold in the United States are capable of wireless Internet. Even some iPod music devices and PlayStation game controllers have WiFi.

The router, about the size of a book, can be loaded with data inside the Realtor's office or from a laptop computer, Killion explained. The Realtor leases the device and maintains the data himself. Then, the Realtor places the box inside the house and plugs it into the wall.

The device itself is not connected to the Internet. Often, houses that are for sale -- especially those that are vacant -- don't have an Internet connection, Walla said. "It's more like a contained Web site that's at that address," he said.

For a number of years, some Realtors have used "Talking House" devices as a sales tool. The device is a low-power AM radio transmitter that continuously broadcasts voice communication about the house.

Killion said WiFlyer is similar in concept to a Talking House, but it's the next generation of Talking House, and it offers a lot more useful information.

Kevin Kuehn of the Real Estate Center in Rapid City is a big believer in WiFlyer. He was the first Realtor to use the device to market a home. "I've had Talking Houses ... but now, everybody wants to see pictures, and the disclosure statement, tax information," he said.

"Everybody is pretty visual. This gives them an opportunity to stay inside (the car) and actually take a virtual tour from the street," Kuehn said. "And it helps the Realtor, because it gets (the buyer) to the front door."

That's important, he said, because often the neighborhood will sell the house. Buyers will look around, see what the other houses look like and get a much better idea of whether they want to live there.

"Once they're out driving around, they know they can pull up to a house and get more information," he said.

So do prospective buyers happen upon a WiFlyer house -- there are signs out front -- while driving through the neighborhood? Or do they see a Web site listing or print ad and decide to drive over and check it out?

A little of both, Kuehn said. But as WiFlyer gains a foothold in the real estate market, he foresees a day when buyers will be able to cruise their favorite neighborhoods looking for wireless candidates.

"I could see this exploding in the next few years," Kuehn said. So far, about 50 WiFlyer units are in use, most of them in Rapid City. Realtors in Sioux Falls and Dickinson, N.D., are using WiFlyer as well.

That number could increase substantially very soon. Next month, Walla and Killion travel to the National Association of Realtors national convention to launch their product nationwide.

Contact Dan Daly at 394-8421 or at dan.daly@rapidcityjournal.com

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Text Messaging service now available!

WiFlyer now has text messaging included! If the consumer does not have access to a Wi-Fi enabled device they can still collect the agent's contact information and the MLS data for the home. To see an example

Data Marketing service added for agents.

Agent's who wish to purchase contact list can now do so without incurring any setup fees or added cost. e-Venture Inc. now provides agents with world class contact data right from WiFlyer. Contact us now to get setup and running or find out more here.