Laser Helps

Prospective home buyers who know the drudgery of trekking from house to house in search of the American dream should welcome a computerized, laser-based device recently introduced by Video Listing Systems of Pasadena.

The system works with a laser disk that stores financial, descriptive and pictorial information on 5,000 homes, including an average of 10 to 25 color photographs for each property.

The disk is plugged into a desktop computer and printer that display and, if desired, print information about the house such as price, square footage and number of bathrooms.

A TV-type screen simultaneously displays pictures of each room, the back and front yards and the neighborhood. A black-and-white photo of the house then can be printed out for prospective clients to take with them.

The advantage of the system, which costs $9,950 to buy and install and is updated each week with a new disk from the manufacturer, is that it allows would-be buyers to eliminate early on the houses they clearly do not want, says Video Listing spokeswoman Annette Markell.

Home sellers appreciate the system, too, she says, because it “cuts down on a having a lot of half-interested clients walking through their house.”

“You can see what you’re going to see before you do any traveling,” Markell says. The key advantage for a broker is allowing “more quality time with prospective home buyers,” she says. “The sales are faster and the return is greater. And it’s much quicker than videotape that you have to rewind.”

The company says that the laser disk has been test marketed by about 12 real estate brokerages in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys since February. The company says it is one of several firms nationwide developing computerized real estate systems but that its device is the only one that has been successfully test marketed.

Video Listing, which formally will unveil the system during the 81st California Assn. of Realtors Convention beginning Sept. 30 in Anaheim, says it soon will expand brokers and listings to include those on the Westside of Los Angeles and also is poised “for national selling.”