New app for realtors and buyers launches in Honolulu today

As you read this, a new real estate app for the Honolulu market is being shown to Honolulu realtors at the Agent Reboot conference in Waikiki—an app being adapted nationally, presented by a local realtor.

Kelly Mitchell of Elite Pacific Properties recently became the CEO of ReCake.com, a smartphone app that brands realtors using it, while keeping their customers connected to them.

It was developed by a Mainland group, spurred by frustrating real estate shopping experiences that Barry Enlow, one of ReCake’s founders, experienced. Enlow would drive around, find a house that he liked, but didn’t know what street he was on—all he knew was the home’s address number, and the listing agent’s contact information from the sign.

“It’s not like everyone has their agent’s contact information handy, but they don’t want to call a stranger, either,” Mitchell explains. “He wanted to be able to find out more about the property he was interested in, but he didn’t know how to find it in the MLS; it was hard for him to do without knowing the street, anyway.”

ReCake.com is a boon for buyers, especially those moving to unfamiliar markets. If you end up on an unfamiliar street but know the home’s address number, you can contact your realtor at the touch of a button, and they can look up the home in the MLS. Simple as that.

Realtors will like the app for its ability to give them a personal brand. Real estate company websites enable agents to display the MLS, but using the company brand.

“I had shopped around for personalized apps with the same functionality as the big companies’ sites,” Mitchell says. “They would have cost a quarter of a million dollars! This one will cost agents $99 to set up, and just $25 a month to maintain.”

ReCake.com is also different in that the data is pulled from a real estate “cloud,” so it is accessed faster than web-based real estate listings.

Mitchell adds that the start up fee will be waived if interested agents mention they saw it in this blog, through Wednesday, August 31.

“It’s exciting to introduce this to the Hawaii market,” Mitchell says. “We’re already in Florida and Chicago, launching in San Diego and Los Angeles, and soon in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Canada. It’s great to be able to put Hawaii realtors on the cutting edge of technology.”