Dec 10
10
Real Estate related iPhone apps reviewed…
Realtor.com app in my opinion is a must for any iphone user and it’s free from the app store. Users can now access 4 million properties nationwide by downloading the new Realtor.com app. The app will use your GPS location and you can then view the details for any homes listed in your area right on your iphone.
I could make the case that the iPhone OS is more important to the future of real estate innovation than Windows. But then I would be dangerously close to exhibiting signs of being an Apple fan, and I don’t want to do that. So I’ll just say I think mobile is really important for real estate and that, right now at least, the iPhone is the most compelling mobile platform for application development.
A year ago there was one native real estate iPhone app. Today there are dozens. I’ve downloaded and played with many of them. Some are crappy, but others are truly innovative or useful. Below, I have highlighted those that I find particularly interesting for one reason or another, along with a link to the developer’s site and price. Some rock. Others just suggest promising opportunities for future real estate mobile app development.
I deliberately have left out the Trulia and Zillow iphone apps because I am assuming most of you are familiar with them at this point.
So, let’s look at a few of these Real Estate apps:
Nearbuy – Free
This is a nicely designed home search app. Its downfall – like so many sites reliant on scraping, direct broker feeds or other non-IDX sources is a less-than-full picture of inventory. What good is a beautiful app that can’t show me the listing around the corner from where I stand? Nonetheless, there are plenty of good design cues to be taken here. I particularly like the idea of color-coding the map pushpins by price range. This allows the user to jump straight to listings around their location while still getting some of the filtering characteristic of what others might call an “advanced” search. The app also integrates with Twitter, which takes the typical “email this listing” functionality into 2009.
Around me – Free
I loved this app. Imagine you’re a buyer, standing in front of a listing that interests you. With two clicks you can view the amenities in the immediate vicinity – restaurants, banks, bars, gas stations and more. This takes the user beyond home search and toward an answer to the question that really matters: “Can I live here?” The app also allows the user to call any business listing or email, Tweet, or save one.
MyNewPlace – Free
This app just launched recently and is very well done. But two features stand out:
- The ability to take and save notes and photos on a listing
- Getting email alerts for listings similar to those displayed in results in two simple steps
This latter feature should become standard on all property search apps.
Homes.com – Free
This app is OK. Just OK. I show it here because it extends a common big screen mistake to the mobile platform: Fragmenting search into meaningless or confusing types. Here you see “Nearby homes for sale,” “Advanced home search,” and “MLS number search.” It’s too much. Start simple, then refine. That’s my rule.
HomeBuyingPower – $1.99
OK. This one’s a mess. I include it here because I think it is directionally interesting. This app offers fairly robust affordability and mortgage calculators. The user can email results. If this app were designed properly, and expanded to include other decision support tools, it could be a great thing to have in your pocket while in the transaction cycle.
Apartments.com – Free
This is a nicely done apartment search app. Specifically, I like:
- The simple home screen
- The simple and clear marking of favorites and saved searches
- Recent searches teased on the home screen
iLiving – $2.99
This is a great idea with sketchy execution. The user can take a photo of a room (say, for example, during an open house) and then “design” it by placing various articles of furniture in the image. The photo above is what my desk would look like with a different chair. It’s cheesy, yes, but you can see how this might be useful if done right.
iLocate – .99
OK, this is a flat-out crappy app. It displays real estate companies around your location. It’s hard to come up with convincing use cases for such a thing. But work with me here. What if it displayed agents that work around my location? With their active listings? Seeing who’s working in my immediate vicinity could be very useful. Of course, you can get something like this, plus ratings, through Yelp’s iPhone app. But I think there’s an attractive real estate specific play here.
Dictionary of real estate terms – $6.99
3,000 real estate terms, organized simply, in your pocket. If you’re a consumer slogging through a transaction why not have this on hand?
Offender – .99
This is not a nice app. It’s a controversial app. But it is a useful app. With the click of a button the user can pull up a list of sexual offenders in their immediate vicinity. This is something many home buyers with children will want to have, despite the chilling immediacy of seeing head shots of offenders staring at you. I like this app because it clearly and simply supports a decision – even if it makes one cringe.
SmarterAgent – Free
SmarterAgent is a true mobile real estate pioneer. They have been working on mobile real estate apps since the Clinton Administration, and the market’s finally coming to them. The company’s iPhone app covers approximately 300 markets with IDX-powered home search, which alone gets it a big thumbs-up from me. Moreover, the app features a nice photo filmstrip on the listing details page and allows the user to take and text photos of with listing information automatically included. There are a few things here I’d change. The home screen fragments search in a completely meaningless fashion by displaying options for viewing just certain companies’ listings (would you choose that option?). And there’s an annoying progress meter screen attached to almost every action. But these are fixable. They nailed the big things.
Blue Atlas – Free
OK, this is app is not the greatest. It’s hobbled by bad design (for example, I need to take three steps just to display properties near your location). But there are few things to note here:
- It’s fast
- It offers foreclosures, rentals and sales in one place
- It uses the new iPhone OS 3.0 “shake” feature to resent map results as you pan
Technology is changing rapidly and as Realtor’s it can be hard to keep up. Understanding how to use technology to our advantage will make for more productive (money producing) time. There are many, many more iphone apps out there. If you find one you like or don’t like for that matter let us know. In these difficult time its to our advantage to share as much information as we can and use that knowledge as a point of difference with othe competition.
Please share your own favorites in the comments!
