By Todd Carpenter, Director of Digital Engagement, National Association of REALTORS®

REALTOR.com’s iOS apps received a significant upgrade this week. Chief among the changes is the ability to identify foreclosed listings and price reductions. In addition, the app features a new “Nearby Recently Sold” search on the home page. After testing a beta of the app over the last week, I see this as a great new feature. Consumers want to know what homes in an area might be worth, and this is a great alternative to providing a “guestimate” of value. Sold data is available on the app as soon as 24 hours after a final sale.

REALTOR.com also made two significant user experience improvements to the new app. The Area Scout feature is more prominent in the navigation. This function updates a map with new listings as you travel — perfect for a client to view as you drive them around a neighborhood. The Area Highlighter has also been promoted to the home screen. This function allows the user to draw a border around a specific area on the map to isolate listings within that specific boundary. This is an incredibly useful feature that many of REALTOR.com’s competitors are now trying to replicate.

Mobile traffic to sites like REALTOR.com is suggesting that apps are becoming many consumers’ preferred method of searching for real estate. Even regional MLSs like Metrolist are adopting these technologies. It’s more important than ever for real estate professionals to consider how their listings are being viewed on these apps. Do you have a mobile marketing strategy for your listings? Maybe it’s time to consider one.

Todd Carpenter

Todd Carpenter, Senior Manager of Industry Engagement at Trulia Previously the Director of Digital Engagement for The National Association of REALTORS®, overseeing the association’s communication strategy on its social media channels. He's also been a real estate and mortgage professional since 1992 and created the first broker-focused mortgage blog in 2005. Todd is an industry pioneer in leveraging the social web.

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