Eric Blumberg hunches over his cell phone, scrolls through a couple of menus, hits a few buttons and then waits a handful of seconds. Here we are, he says, pointing to the phone's color screen. “This is where we are and these are all the houses sold within the last two years within two miles of us.”

A couple more button clicks and Blumberg's looking over closing dates and sale prices for those homes around Pleasantville. Another phone is searching for a property in Millville and a third one is trying to call up data on a home in Richland, Wash.

Welcome to the next step in real estate: location-specific housing market information beamed directly to your portable phone.

Blumberg and his brother, Brad Blumberg, are the brains behind this cell-phone application. Called Smarter Agent, the Ventnor natives launched the company in 1999. Last month they went live with their first national carrier, Sprint Nextel.

The concept is pretty straightforward. Using public information from county clerks and other government agencies, Smarter Agent compiles a list of homes sold within the last two years and then sends that information to subscribers' phones upon request.

Users can pull up the data through address or ZIP code searches, or by letting the phone's GPS software locate the user and then bounce back info on nearby homes.

“It's like when Capt. Kirk beams down and uses his transponder and says, ‘Spock, tell me what's around me.' You're asking the phone to find you and then tell you what's there,” Blumberg said.

Another function allows for target searches, using price ranges and locations to find recently sold homes nearly anywhere in the country.

Real estate agents by trade, the Blumbergs initially saw the application as useful to developers who could go to a neighborhood and get a real-time feel for the area's pricing environment. But Eric Blumberg said they quickly realized the larger potential.

Smarter Agent does not yet have access to the New York City co-op numbers, but is in talks with the city about getting it. The service does provide stats on New York City condos, single family homes, and multifamily homes.

"The city just made [co-op data] available," said Peter Goldey, a partner in OnBoard, Smarter Agent's New York content partner. "We've been working to get our request processed."

Blumberg sees a bigger audience for Smarter Agent than just home buyers. "I guarantee 50% of the downloads are the curious," he said. "Real estate is a national pastime."

He's also hoping real estate brokers will sign on. "They'd be pretty embarrassed if their buyer whips out the phone, but they would have to go back to their office to get the information," he said.

Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Richard Ferrari said he'd pay for the service, but only if Smarter Agent provided data on homes sold within the past six months.

"I would take it for $50 a month, I'd probably even take it for $100 a month," he said, adding, "if it's two years ago sales, it has no bearing on today."

Jonathan Miller, president of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel cautioned buyers to be careful about making snap judgments based on sales data.

"So much of public [data] is wrong or incomplete," he said. "If misused it can be misleading."

The service, he said, "will satisfy people who want immediate gratification, but it won't replace a broker."

The service currently provides addresses and price information, without offering square footage, taxes or other specifics.

Home buyers seeking more instant gratification should stand by for two more services in the works from Smarter Agent. The company plans to offer real estate sales and rental listings by the end of the year.

Forging into those areas in the city depends on Blumberg's ability to sign agreements with New York's major brokerage firms. Blumberg said he's now in talks with big real estate agents in hopes of gaining access to their listings.

How big of a market there is for any of these services remains to be seen. Since launching last month, Smarter Agent has signed up "hundreds" of customers Blumberg said, but he declined to be specific.