Coldwell Banker Colorado has turned to mobile marketing to help its agents reach out to prospective homebuyers in a housing market suffering a glut of foreclosures and homes for sale.

The real estate brokerage is using a private-label version of AccessU2's Global Property Info platform to offer property information to potential buyers on their mobile phones. The mobile effort includes texting, toll-free number and videos.

"Coldwell Banker agents are extremely happy because they could never get this kind of lead capture," said Cathy Faulkner, vice president of sales and marketing at AccessU2, Denver, CO.

Prospective homebuyers who look at a Coldwell Banker-listed property can call a toll-free number, enter the listed property code and wait to get a series of text messages.

The first text message includes a description of the property and another message comes with a link leading to up to 10 images of the property and narrated streaming videos in English, Spanish or French.

The text message could also include an image of the Coldwell Banker Realtor's business card or WAP site link.

AccessU2 has the ability to send the text messages and photos to all mobile phones on the market in the United States and Canada. It can send the streaming videos to 85 percent of the phones mainly because of the different formats required on certain carriers.

"The reason we're using a toll-free number is because many potential buyers may not be comfortable in English, so we offer a choice of languages," Ms. Faulkner said.

A key advantage of this system is the call capture of the potential buyer's mobile phone number, enabling the listing agent to get an exclusive instant lead text messaged back to him or her while the buyer is actually accessing the property data.

"They're able to know 24/7 who's looking at their property," Ms. Faulkner said.

That itself is a major change in the way the real estate brokerage business works. Typically it's the floor agents in the office who get the leads when the enquiry calls come in.

In this case, the agent is in the loop from the minute the prospect calls and enters a code for the property. This way, the agent can quickly contact the potential buyers and start representing them.

Coldwell Banker Colorado agents also get downloadable activity reports of all leads on properties on the AccessU2 Global Property Info platform. These listing tools differentiate Coldwell Banker Realtors from their competitors.

In other points of difference, the exclusive toll-free number is branded as Coldwell Banker or Coldwell Banker Previews in the greeting and sign riders have these two brands' logos on them with the exclusive number and property code.

AccessU2 claims that its Global Property Info platform saves Coldwell Banker agents up to 70 percent of outreach costs compared with paper brochures, brochure boxes and the time it takes to keep them filled.

"Coldwell Banker has a focus of going green," Ms. Faulkner said. "Getting rid of those brochures is a huge plus."

AccessU2 is now working with Prestige Realty Group and RE/Max Alliance in Colorado to develop a similar private-label system for them.

While most potential homebuyers search over the Internet, many still prefer the drive-by shopping experience. Some will even do all the research or contact the Realtor.

Per the National Association of Realtors, 74 percent of potential buyers haven't selected a Realtor when they begin driving and house-hunting in neighborhoods. Of those, 62 percent will work with the first Realtor who calls them back after their first enquiry.

"What we're addressing is the speed with which they're making contact with potential buyers," Ms. Faulkner said. "The speed of getting them first, the exclusivity and it's so much less expensive."