The cool factor is not just about showing off. Sometimes it’s about showing people that you have the capacity to imagine the next generation of real estate technology, that you have what it takes to appeal to the bleeding edge of modern home shoppers, and—this can’t be overlooked—that you’re willing to try something different and pique our very human curiosity.

A QR code looks like this:

It’s not your fault if you don’t know what it is, either. The vast majority of U.S. phones have no native support for reading QR codes, which is really just a 2-dimensional bar code. This added dimension, however, adds an entirely new layer of information—the kind of information that you can’t squeeze onto a 6 x 24 rider sign. Yes, you can put it on a flyer, but that’s so boring, isn’t it?

What’s the message behind the Pollock-meets-cubism mess above? A listing pulled off Eric Bramlett’s website:

6029 Mount Bonnell, 78731 / $329,000 / Built: 1984 / Sq. Ft. 2043 / 3 bed 2.5 bath / Acres 0.09 / Austin ISD /

Here’s what it looked like on my phone:

Most modern smart phones can read QR codes with the help of a 3^rd party app. From what I gather, the next generation of phones, like Google’s Nexus One, will have native support (as phones in Europe and Japan already do). On my iPhone, I have  i-nigma, which is free. Using the phone’s camera, it converts the pattern into readable text.

Here’s where it get’s interesting: QR codes can also store links. Have a mobile website? The QR code can contain a link to a page with all the listing info you can dream of, complete with pictures, your contact information, you name it, displayed perfectly and loaded quickly on the average web-equipped smart phone.

This QR code looks the same, but contains a link that most readers will recognize:

The image above references a listing mock-up page of my personal blog, which contains the same basic listing details, but also a picture of the listing (it could contain many). Since my blog is equipped with mobile device detection, if one were to read this code from their mobile phone, they would be automatically directed to the mobile-friendly version of the listing on my site. Try both versions to see the difference.

Here’s another screen shot. It’s not the prettiest, but it took me all of 1 minute to put together this page:

So what about those that don’t have a QR reader on their phones (the majority of Americans)? Explain it to them on your website. Put a URL next to it that corresponds to an area on your site that discusses QR codes. And, what do you know? You got them to visit your site, with your listings, contact info, and all that other killer content you have to capture leads.

Who’s going to be the first to try it?

Ian Greenleigh works for Flat Rate Web Jobs, creating and monetizing blogs for small businesses, real estate & independent professionals.