Goomzee, a Missoula, MT-based developer of a mobile marketing solution that helps real estate professionals connect with potential buyers, announced this morning that it has secured a $1.5 million Series A round of funding led by Highway 12 Ventures along with additional, undisclosed investors in the US and Europe.
Goomzee’s text message marketing product, Realty Connect (warning, annoying auto-starting demo video on this page), enables real estate agents across the United States to connect to potential buyers who have shown an active interest in a property on sale.
Here’s how it works: real estate agents place signs or ads about a property for sale that prompt interested buyers to send a text message carrying a unique ID code and receive more information, pricing and optionally some photos of the property in response. The agent and potential buyer can then connect in a variety of ways to discuss the properties for sale.
I suppose it’s a solution that can benefit real estate pros tremendously, but I’m seriously doubting if people are generally inclined to simply send a text message to an agent. The way I see it, there are enough ways for potential buyers to get in touch with sellers if they’re genuinely interested as it is. I also think QR codes or other types of barcodes that can transfer multimedia to mobile phones directly would be far more effective when placed on signs or ads.
Your thoughts?