Real Estate iPhone Apps Gaining Traction
By Todd Carpenter, Social Media Manager, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®
Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate launched an iPhone app today. True to their brand, the app adds the flavor of the magazine by including tips on how to live green, make over a room, or tackle an entire remodel. BH&GRE also added a neat camera function to allow an end user to take pictures of homes they like, geo-code them, and send them off to one of their agents. Toss in RedFin’s more utilitarian but awesomely executed app, and both brokers and brands throughout the industry have two fine examples of how to execute a mobile application.
That’s great for big companies, but what about the little guys? Here’s a list of cool apps I’ve found that real estate pros should consider running.
WalkScore – This GPS-enabled app not only lets you determine a WalkScore on the fly for a particular address or neighborhood, but also points out where restaurants, schools, and other services are located with map-based navigation.
Everyblock – If Everyblock works in your city, this app is pretty amazing. It pulls down news, crime reports, health-code violations, and a ton of other data at the city-block level. This app also uses GPS to assign a location.
Home Value Pro – RealQuest’s AVM application gives you estimated values, plus other local data like median sales price, percent of homes in default, addresses of bank owned homes in the neighborhood, and a value map helps to show how one property’s value compares to others on the block.
Smarter Agent – This consumer-focused real estate search tool co-brands with brokers to include their IDX listings. This is an interesting option for a company that wants to offer an mobile search product without developing one themselves.
NAR 2009 - If you’re attending NAR’s Annual Conference & Expo, our app includes schedules, speaker information, a San Diego dining guide, and more.
Each of these apps can be downloaded in the AppStore for free by searching for their titles.
One more to add to your list above: myAgent by IDX, just released today from http://www.idxbroker.com. Search for IDX on iTunes and you can’t miss it. We will be doing demos of this new brandable IDX iPhone app at booth #1649 at the NAR show next week, swing by and say hi!
Chad
IDX, Inc.
All of these sound great but agents in my office with iPhones have to go outside to get a connection. As much as the iPhone appeals I’m psyched to be getting a Droid this week. Do you think there will be similar apps for the Droid soon? I hope so!
Liz
Elizabeth – You do make a good point about the ATT network, as an iPhone user myself I would love to have it available on a network like Verizon, at least the iPhone does have wifi so it works pretty well in most office environments.
Regardless of the practical use in some cases, there’s no arguing that the iPhone has created a pardigm shift in the way people use their mobile devices. In fact, last month the latest AdMob mobile metrics report (http://metrics.admob.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/AdMob-Mobile-Metrics-September-2009.pdf) discovered that 48% of all mobile browsing in the US was done via an iPhone. Blackberry didn’t even come close, but I am sure with new hardware coming out that use Android, it will give the iPhone a run for their money.
Bottom line…people are starting to actively use mobile devices for all kinds of things, including locating and researching homes for sale. Looking forward to see how this changes in the years to come!
Chad
IDX, Inc.
Liz, our Puluwai mobile, location-based real estate search has been available for both iPhone and Android since early 2008. Now that some great Android devices like the Droid are shipping, we’re seeing many more Android users.
Check it out when you get your Droid!