Home-Selling Aids Include Computerized Hot Line

Talking houses are only one of a number of high-tech tools being used in the Southern California real estate market.

In San Clemente, for example, a company called Hotline to Hot Properties offers a computer-operated, toll-free phone service to nearly 100,000 real estate brokers nationwide. Prospective buyers can call to hear more about homes they see listed in newspaper advertisements or on yard signs.

“A talking house is very limited--it’s only for drive-by shoppers,” said Bradley Cheatum, founder of Hotline to Hot Properties. “You have to pull up to the property in your car and tune in your radio.”

With the hot line, by contrast, the prospective buyer dials an 800 number, then punches the four-digit code for the home in which he or she is interested. The real estate agent is notified each time an inquiry is made about a particular property and can follow up on the call--the system has a “call capture” function that records the caller’s number by computer.

Barbara Amstadter, a Corona del Mar broker for Orange County homes priced at more than $500,000, points out that prospective buyers using the hot line can also shop while they drive, simply by using their car phones.

“When people want information, they want it now,” she said. “They don’t want it later.”

Using the hot line only six weeks, Amstadter has closed two home sales, she said.

All of the 15 properties she now has listed advertise the toll-free phone number on the signs out front, Amstadter said. “If I can’t be on the cutting edge of real estate, then I’m going to fall behind.”