Retrieval Dynamics Corp. is ready to go national with a powerful (and sexy) tool for realtors.
Chad Roffers may be the best equipped Realtor in Sarasota.
"This is my office," Roffers says, settling into the leather driver's seat of his black Acura Legend.
Built into the dash is an electronic mapping system. Roffers also has a headset so he can talk on his cell phone with both hands on the wheel.
But his most unusual weapon in the war for home sales is a wireless BlackBerry hand-held computer that is hooked up directly to the database of the Multiple Listing Service.
Roffers and a few other agents at Michael Saunders & Co. became the pioneers in this field last fall, when Sarasota's Retrieval Dynamics Corp. first rolled out its new software-powered system for real estate types, called Mobile Listing Advantage.
Let's see, $500,000 to $650,000, water-view condo, downtown ZIP code. Roffers uses his thumbs to press a few of the tiny keys on the BlackBerry, hits the "send" button, and, presto, he has sent an electronic query winging through the air to the MLS database for Sarasota County.
It doesn't tie him up like the Internet would. Instead, ML Advantage works like an automated e-mail.
When the data is ready for Roffers to see, the BlackBerry buzzes, prompting him to open his message on the screen.
Forty-two listings fit the criteria, he might tell his dazzled client. Would you like to see one in that complex over there?
Ever since the Saunders contract proved the technology works, the Retrieval team has been busy going national.
By the end of 2003, the tiny Sarasota company with offices on Main Street hopes to have as its subscribers 10 percent of the 750,000 real estate agents in the United States.
Soon investors will be able to buy and sell Retrieval's stock on the open market, setting the stage for the company to raise more money.