Imagine you’re shopping for a new home online one evening and suddenly you see the one you’ve always dreamed of.

Normally, you’d have to wait and call the agent or agency representing that home the next morning, in order to set up an appointment. That would mean that you’d run the risk of missing the agent and getting his or her voice mail – and perhaps not being able to set up the appointment until a day or two later. By then, the house may have been sold!

Helping to solve this annoying problem, however, is “click-to-call” technology. Thanks to the advent of VoIP, real estate agencies can now install “click-to-call” buttons on their websites - often with a “click-to-call” button right next to the photo of each house that is listed. Each “click” launches a free Web-based VoIP call directly to the agent (or at least to their voicemail so they can get the message to call you right away)! Basically, this “courtesy” saves you a step: You don’t have to get out of your chair and dial the real estate agency using your regular landline phone a cell phone. It also helps save you money since the calls are free!

Helping to bring this new technology to real estate agents and their customers is HouseValues, a provider of comprehensive and proven marketing and business solutions. The company today announced a deal with VoIP provider RingCentral (News - Alert) to provide HouseValues’ customers with an on-demand telecommunications service, including RingCentral’s RingMe “click-to-call” button.

The partnership will give HouseValues’ customers a powerful, “one-step” solution for connecting potential home buyers with a local neighborhood expert.

With RingMe installed on the listing websites, agencies will be able to drive more potential buyers to their agents. In fact, with click-to-call there’s really no reason why a potential home buyer can’t be connected with a live company representative every time! The other option is, once a visitor clicks the button, a pop-up window appears - then they enter a phone number and time period when they wish to be contacted.

“This partnership makes good business sense for both HouseValues and RingCentral,” said Rob Ransom, vice president of product and marketing for HouseValues Inc., in a press release. “Together, we're focused on providing small business owners with the innovative marketing and technology solutions they need to compete in today's marketplace.”

RingCentral Chief Executive Officer Vlad Shmunis added: “This is an exciting opportunity to help a large group of real estate professionals with a service that will help them get in touch with people who want to talk to them about buying and selling homes.”

For more information about RingCentral, visit www.ringcentral.com.

For more information about HouseValues, visit www.housevaluesinc.com.

---------

Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page.