Financial Post Staff
It won’t negotiate a better price for you, but there’s not much else a new app being developed for Google Glass won’t do to help you find a house.
Trulia, a U.S. real estate listings website, has designed an app for the Internet-powered headgear that sends users an alert when they are near an open house that matches up with criteria on their wish list, such as number of bedrooms, neighbourhood or price range.
The app can read out any given property listing and lets users flick through images of properties by swiping the side of the device.
If you decide you’d like to take a closer look at a house, the app can also give you directions on how to get there. Or you can save listings for later viewing.
Real estate agents are sure to like the program, too, as it lets prospective buyers call or email about properties directly from the device.
So, what makes Trulia for Glass different than the countless smartphone apps available to tech-savvy house hunters?
“Glass notifies me when I receive a message, but nothing appears or impedes my vision,” writes Jeff McConathy, VP engineering consumer service at Trulia, in a blog post on the company’s website. ”It’s a very different experience than having your head buried in your phone while the world passes by.”
McConathy notes he’s still working on tweaking the app but hopes to have it available to Glass users soon.
Google released a limited number of the devices to developers and early adopters for US$1,500 a pop in April. The company hopes to lower the price of Glass, which lets users snap photos and surf the Web among other tasks, by the time it’s released on the mass market next year.
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