What's With These Funny Looking New Codes?

Have you begun to notice these funny looking codes popping up, seemingly everywhere? If you haven't seen them I guarantee you soon will. In fact I'd guess you've already seen them but they may not have registered on your consciousness. Once you do notice them, they seem to be everywhere you look.

These codes are all the rage these days, especially in real estate. REALTORSŪ are adding them to their advertising in newspapers, on-line, and on the signs in front of their homes for sale. They're used to imbed information, and can contain any text information, from a web address to short text messages.

It takes a special reader to decode these codes, but fortunately most people these days already have most of the technology they need right in their hands - their smart phones. You'll need to download an app to your phone, but that's easy to do. Just go to the app store for your phone and search for "QR Code". You'll probably find several available apps, and at least a few of them will be free. Just download and install the app and you're in business.

If you open the QR app on your smart phone and scan the QR code at the top of this post with your phone's camera, your phone will bring up my Ken Foreman Real Estate facebook page. How you ask? I just loaded the web address for my facebook page into another free application to generate QR codes, then inserted the code into this post. I could also have inserted a QR code for one of my current listed homes for sale, or any other information I wanted to present.

So there you have it. The QR code lets me as a REALTORŪ, give you access to much more information than I could possibly provide in the many ways I communicate with you, whether on a For Sale sign in front of a house, in a small newspaper ad, or even on a business card.

So give these new codes a try! Yeah, they look kind of funny and some people say they clutter up real estate ads in the newspaper, but I think you'll find that they really do provide a lot of information and can even be fun to use.