How “Year of the Tablet" will change how real estate is sold

Imagine if, 20 years ago, you were a real estate agent who dabbled in writing science fiction.

You might write a short story that goes something like this: super-savvy real estate agent Jenny Jetson drives up to a showing with her client in a new hybrid electric car. Before she opens the door to the prospective property, Jenny pulls out a thin and glossy 9 x 12″ “electronic tablet” and touches an icon marked “SpatialMatch.”

With the tap of a button, a satellite view of the home appears instantly. When she clicks on another tab, a map appears. Since she’s a smart real estate agent who does her homework, she has also prepared hyper-local information about neighborhoods.  As she taps the Spatial Match “card” app, up pops a “deck” of pre-selected neighborhood amenities.

From that deck, Jenny chooses schools, and a series of brightly colored dots appear across the map. These represent the schools in this district and each dot offers detailed school information.  With just another tap, she can display the locations of all nearby malls. What about the stores in that mall? They’re all conveniently listed right there. Parks?  Right here.  Oxygen bars? Over here. Gyms?  Two within three miles. How far is the property from the prospect’s job? Here’s the distance.

Jenny and her prospect walk up to the property, and Jenny smiles as she makes her own prediction: this prospect is 99% sold before even walking in the door.  (Even if the prospect wants to see more listings, Jenny can call up MLS data instantly on her tablet.)

Is this the far-fetched stuff of science fiction? Not if you’re living in 2010, which experts have dubbed “The Year of the Tablet”.

With the iPad, Apple paved the way for this leap in hand-held computer technology. But don’t think other companies haven’t taken notice: very soon, there will be a flood (as many as 50 new devices) of new electronic tablets on the market that are fast, sharp and less expensive.

There’s the Fusion JooJoo, the Dell Streak and the HP Slate, to name a few. Like smart phones, tablets will be everywhere. Here at Spatial Match headquarters, we predict hyper-local search will change the way real estate is sold. Of course, the emergence of the tablet is going to make a huge difference as well. This convergence of SpatialMatch’s massive databases of real property, lifestyle, demographics, and business data combined with this new Tablet Era are where the future meets today’s reality.  Enjoy.