Real Estate Mobile Apps Come Handy

A number of home buyers are increasingly using smart phone applications to keep track of updates in the real estate market.

When Realtor.com publiclly announced its plans to upgrade its mobile offerings, one of the reasons cited was increased traffic from mobile devices on weekends. Zillow, too, announced that more homes were viewed on mobile devices than on the Internet.

These statements prove that mobile apps to find homes are on the rise.

What makes these apps unique is that apart from listing properties, some of these apps help with finances, browse through the neighborhood and even help to get acquainted with the neighbors.

The Home 3D app helps you visualize your home before you move in. Nextdoor.com helps you connect with your neighbors and EveryBlock is the place for all your local news and talk.

However, for listings, sites such as Realtors.com, Zillow.com and Trulia.com are the most popular, consultancy firm Clareity’s "Review of Real Estate Mobile Apps for Consumers 2012," showed.

About 168 million homes were viewed on Zillow’s mobile site and apps in July. These apps let home buyers sort, filter and refine searches to find the home of their dreams. With the like and dislike buttons, Realtor.com app lets the user keep a record of homes that have been viewed. Notes about specific properties, too, can be recorded alongside the listing.

Apart from high-resolution images, some of the apps even provide floor plans.

With two-thirds of new mobile buyers now opting for smart phones, according to the atest Nielsen Wire report, the trend of home buyers scouting for homes via real estate apps is also expected to pick up.

Apps that made the list of Clareity’s Review of Real Estate Mobile Apps for Consumers 2012 are:

For Android
Realtor.com
Zillow
Trulia
Redfin
Century 21
RE/MAX
HAR
Movoto
Smarter Agent
Coldwell Banker

For iPhone
Realtor.com
Zillow
Trulia
Redfin
Century 21
RE/MAX
HAR
Homes.com
Zip Realty
NY Times