You’re probably already familiar with the AM Open House app, which has quickly become popular in the industry for signing people in and out of open houses, all the while communicating all of that information with your CRM, and eliminating some of the hassle for hosting open houses.
But we got an exclusive first look at their new product, AM Open House for Buyers which streamlines shoppers’ open house experiences. They can log in to open houses from their own app (without having to refill the dang info over and over at every open house), and lets them track where they’ve gone with notes and the ability to instantly connect with the agent.
AM Open House founder, Anthony Mann says the whole goal is to make buyers more comfortable with a non-invasive, extremely easy to use app, and we believe him after getting to know his agent-facing product. Citing NAR’s statistic that 92 percent of all home searches start online, Mann observes that buyers today typically know and area and have done their research (particularly Millennials), and they just want to get into the house and compare the real life experience to the digital presentation of a property. “The experience has changed,” he notes.
First look at the new app:
Click any of these images to enlarge.
Tradition-bucking features
What we love about the app that you may have noticed above, is that it taps into the diminishing attention span of consumers and auto-populates information at every turn, from the one-click sign-in to the auto-populated email to an agent about a house.
Mann is one of those few guys that sincerely and humbly wants to make the transaction as easy as possible for everyone – he does come from the industry, after all. What started as a passion project has become a full blown app with more features already rounding out the offering.
In the spirit of making everything simpler, Mann tells us that the new buyer app has several tradition-bucking features:
- Signing in – when a buyer walks into a house that’s using the Open House app, they get a push notification asking “Would you like to sign into this property?” and they can immediately opt in or out. If in a location with multiple properties (like condos or apartments), they are given a list to choose from. This eliminates the whole “hi, I’m a Realtor, would you please stand here awkardly and give me your name, email, blood type, a list of your favorite foods and colors, and mailing address? No, you can’t see the house first, I need this” situation.
- App ties in to agent’s database – upon signing in, the buyer’s info goes directly to the agent’s database so their contact information is immediately available. Although Mann hasn’t stated directly, this could be a huge improvement for safety if someone in the office can remotely see confirmed foot traffic in an open house.
- Map search – this app would be far from the first to offer a map search, but agents with properties uploaded to their AM Open House account are featured as the available properties, rather than all properties. That’s a big advantage for pros using the agent app.
- Notes – open houses on the app already have pictures and descriptions, and buyers can add private notes, and are asked for feedback when they sign out of a house (asking the condition, opinion on price, and if they’d like a private showing, all of which goes directly to the agent). If an agent isn’t using the AM Open House app, buyers can manually upload the address to their app to take their own notes. Doing so generates school profiles, neighborhood profiles, and walk scores for the property.
- Permissions – most apps today are overly invasive in what permissions they require from a smartphone or tablet, but this app only requires access to GPS and push notifications, which is refreshing.
What’s next for the buyer app
They’re counting on agents to use their app and encourage consumers to do so, and since their agent app has mortgage integration so lenders can see the information, they’re part of the app’s growth as well. It looks like word of mouth is how the buyer app is going to see user adoption. The growth strategy makes for a complex roadmap, as it appears to rely heavily on agent adoption, but Mann is more concerned with tweaking, tweaking, tweaking, perfecting the apps.
So what’s next for the buyer app that hast just launched? It’s already available for Android and iOS, and they’re in development for Windows Mobile.
But will they charge? That’s the real question. “Everything we’re doing is free,” Mann noted. “We’re just trying to change the industry and make a difference.”
Finally, Mann tells us, “the ultimate goal here is to integrate AM Open House with every MLS in the country. By doing so, the two apps will work with each other and give buyers a much better house hunting experience in regards to an Open House.” We believe that the future of this app lies in being acquired by one of the big boy portals, but Mann isn’t focused on that, and brushed the question off as he pulled the conversation back to app features.
