After a testing period in the suburbs of Sydney’s northern beaches, followit has now gone live in Perth and Freemantle, with the platform allowing users to customise a feed of real estate opportunities that suits their criteria.
“One of the things that’s made social media so popular is the ability to follow,” followit board member Michael Sheargold said.
“If I had to go back and search every time I wanted some info on someone, I probably wouldn’t do it that often, but the fact that I can follow you and the technology does it for me and delivers the info to my phone is perfect and followit makes that capability available for real estate,” Sheargold said.
Just as they would when selecting people to follow on Facebook or Instagram, followit allows people to select the information they wish to see, with the app providing them with updates from the specific real estate agents suburbs, streets or properties of their choosing.
“When an agent posts an update, here’s a new listing or here’s a price adjustment or this property’s just been sold or here’s a new open time, it means investors get to see that info immediately,” Sheargold said.
“From an investor point of view it’s great because it allows you to set what you want. You can say I want to buy a house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms in a particular price range in a particular area. You’ll see what’s on the market now, but as soon as something new comes on you’ll get notified of that too.”
The app also works in the same way for rental markets, allowing potential tenants to be notified of rental properties that fit their criteria in specific areas
Sheargold believes followit will be an enhancement to current methods used by people to track property markets, with the anonymity it provides to be a major selling point.
“The agents can’t see who’s following them. So that means I can look for a property voyeur and I can keep track of what’s happening in the market place without being bugged by an agent.
“I can choose to be notified of new listings or recently sold properties and get a really good idea of what’s happening in a particular area and then choose when I want to get in contact and take the next step.”
Sheargold said followit is expected be operating live across all of Australia by the end of 2016.
