A piece of Toyota technology is making Allen Tate open houses more accessible than ever.
Last weekend, we unveiled our new Open House ad in the Winston Salem Journal HomePlace insert. In the right hand corner of the print ad you’ll find something that looks like a barcode. What is it you may ask? Well, that square looking barcode is called a QR code and is a two-dimensional code that is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers and camera phones. There has been a lot of buzz recently about the marriage between real estate and QR codes…and for good reason. If used correctly, QR codes are a great asset for those in the real estate industry.
QR stands for quick response – so called because they were designed for quick decoding. Embedded in the pattern of the code is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator or in my less technical world – website address). The URL can take you anywhere on the internet, just be sure that the location you are directing consumers has instant value. In this case, our QR code takes you to a website with photos, descriptions and other information about that weekend’s open houses.
So how does all this work? The process of reading the code is pretty simply. You take your camera phone, shoot a picture of the code and then using either a system you’ve downloaded or an application, the code is deciphered and you land on the web page of information.
While it seems very complicated, this kind of technology is making an appearance almost everywhere these days. This past weekend I was reading the newspaper and found QR codes on everything from TV to high-end fragrance ads. I’ve even seen them now in electronic stores so instead of trying to read the small print on the appliance tag you just scan the QR code and you have a live video promoting the benefits of this television or appliance over another.
If you don’t have a QR code reader on your phone – not to worry. We still display our open houses in traditional print form, and any day of the week, 24 hours a day open houses in your area can be found through the Open House Search on allentate.com. We have plenty of Open Houses for you to visit every weekend.
As for that Toyota technology…according to Wikipedia, a Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave created the QR code system in 1994 as a means to track car parts.
By Tony Jarrett (Regional Vice President, Triad)
