Buyers, don't leave home without one of these apps...

Realtors® would always prefer that you let them do the searching for you and then have them show you each house that you like. That really doesn't happen in real life. Buyers today are more independent and many seem to enjoy driving around to see what they can find in areas that they may like. They are also much more into technology, especially mobile apps on their smartphones.

I understand that and so I always advise buyers that I work with to download one of the great smartphone

apps that exist for buyers. You can find these at the Apple App Store or at your Android App Store. The two that I recommend are from Real Estate One and from Realtor.com (search on Real Estate One or Realtor at either store). If you live in Michigan, especially in the Detroit Metro area you really can’t beat the Real Estate One mobile app. If you live anywhere in the United States (including Michigan) the Realtor.com app will work for you and is just as good. The Real Estate One app only works for Michigan-based properties.

The great thing about both of these apps is that they are location sensitive. They are GPS enabled, so they know where you are when you turn them on. They both have very good, very up-to-date data bases of the homes that are for sale anywhere in the country. Unlike some apps from national real estate oriented sites, both of these apps are kept up-to-date. The databases for both are updated multiple times during the day. That means that you won’t waste your time calling on a house that was sold last week or last month, like you can with those big national sites.

As you drive around both apps will interactively show you on a map display what homes are for sale all around you. You can set the range of the display, so that you only see homes within a mile or within 5 miles (or more). Both give you a very cursory display initially – you know the format from other location-based apps- a little pin with a street address and the price. Touch on the pin and the information expands to show you more, including a picture of the property. Touch again and you can see the entire listing. It’s sweet. All the stuff you need to know to decide whether or not to head over to that address to take a look at the house from the street.

Both apps will also let you do searches that are criteria based rather than location based – things like price, number of bedrooms and more.  The Realtor app has a nice, unique feature that lets you search within a school district, if you have your heart set on a particular district. You’ll have to play around with both apps to see all of the search options, but both are extensive and both put you in charge of the data.

Once you have enough information available from either app and maybe have done a drive-by, you can call and set up an appointment to go see the  listing. And, if you’re in the Southeast Michigan area, you can set the Real Estate One app up with me as your preferred agent and then it will make it easy for you to call me when you want to see a house. I like that part. These are apps that any serious house hunter should have on their phone. Don’t leave home without one.

Here is a link to a video about the Real Estate One app.