The race is on in real estate and other consumer-driven marketplaces to capture a new breed: the mobile consumer. Gone are the days when people wait for information, or even a call back. To compete in today's marketplace, real estate agents and brokers need to leverage the tools in their hands. That is, their cell phones.

According to Real Estate magazine, "Dave Geipel and Mark Ford, of QWASI, Inc. are onto big things with newly released SMS/MLS."  The newest tool of the trade for real estate, SMS/MLS is harder to say than it is to use. SMS (short messaging service or text messaging) brings the MLS, or Multiple Listing Service, to the cell phone. Through partnerships with brokerages, the SMS/MLS system allows buyers to access property information on all active listings.

Similar to CellSigns, the first product launched by QWASI in 2005, a buyer simply sends a text message and receives property information on his or her cell phone. SMS/MLS takes the technology one step further by enabling a broker to provide buyers with access to all listings via a cell phone. Buyers can search for homes by address, neighborhood, MLS# or CellSigns ID.

As with CellSigns, they can schedule showings and request call-backs, but this time, the sponsoring brokerage will get the call. What broker reciprocity does for real estate websites, in that it allows competing brokers to post one another's listings, SMS/MLS does for the mobile real estate market.

SMS/MLS will be introduced at Inman News' Real Estate Connect NYC Conference on January 11-13, 2006, Marriott Marquis, New York.