Louis Adler, founder and principal of REAL New York Properties, tells Parade.com to take advantage of home buying apps the right way: Search by neighborhood and use as many filters as possible. Narrowing down your results from the get-go will mean you’re not overloaded with homes you’re not interested in or that you can’t afford.
8 Home Buying Apps to Use on Your House Hunt
1. Zillow
Zillow is one of the most popular home buying apps, and real estate agents, realtors and experts love it as much as buyers do. “Nearly every home for sale is listed on this site. Most listing sites automatically syndicate to Zillow, meaning it’s compatible with almost all listing sources,” Andrew Helling, real estate agent and REthority founder tells Parade. “You can easily find homes for sale, for rent, for sale by owner (FSBOs), and homes likely to be foreclosed upon. The map search makes it easy to search by a user-defined area.”
2. Trulia
Licensed realtor Ben Mizes recommends the home buying app Trulia, which also happens to be one of the most popular. “Personally, my favorite house hunting app is Trulia,” he told Parade. “Trulia makes it almost too easy to compare features of various homes, such as neighborhood, school district and mortgage, and you can even schedule open houses and talk to agents without ever leaving the app.”
3. Homesnap
Helling is also a fan of Homesnap, which is similar to Zillow, but has an added benefit: It’s actually also geared toward real estate agents, so you’ll get the same information that your agent will—and you can snap a photo of any home to see the most recent information from the app. “Basically, it’s like Zillow, but you can simply take a picture of the home to see the information,” Helling says. “Also unique to Homesnap are school zones and property boundaries that are overlaid on a satellite map.”
4. Xome
Xome is geared toward buyers seeking homes at auction, though it also includes standard MLS listings. “Auction websites often don’t syndicate to other third-party sources, and Xome is trying to change this,” Helling says. “However, be warned that home auctions have become increasingly competitive since the 2008 recession, so there may not be too many homes worth buying.”
5. REX
If you’re looking at properties in areas served by the REX, the company’s REX app has unique features for potential home buyers. Realtor Steve Dawson tells Parade that the REX app allows customers to find exclusive listings that can’t be found on traditional real estate apps, and in the near future will boast even more, including the option for users to apply for a home loan, insurance and manage all important transaction documents, like title and escrow, from the app as well. “The app is built to become the central hub for all things home related, including moving, maintenance and repair,” Dawson shares. Dawson also noted that when sellers list a home with REX, they only pay a 2 percent commission with no upfront costs or hidden fees, saving an average of $25,000 or more on each sale than they would have with typical agent fees in the 6 percent range. REX is currently available in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington D.C.
6. Bungalo
Bungalo is an app for home buyers with a special focus on newly renovated properties. The Bungalo app lets users find and tour renovated, move-in ready homes. Bungalo provides detailed info on each property and lets users tour homes listed in the app without an appointment—the program generates an access code to instantly tour the home of your choice. If you find a home you love, you can apply for it from right within the app.
7. Realtor.com
Realtor.com is the only listing platform that features Matterport 3D virtual tours directly on their site and mobile app, giving a unique experience for the user to explore a property without having to make the trip unless they choose to do so. Other listing platforms allow listing agents to include a link URL to a Matterport tour, but Realtor.com is the leading site in that it embeds the 3D experience directly into the listing profile.
8. Redfin
Have trust issues? Redfin may be a good bet for you, Helling advises: It connects you with agents who work on salary, not commission. Their app syncs with the MLS, just like most other apps, and lets you share homes with friends and family and search for specific features or price points. It also lets you see homes in foreclosure, FSBOs, and past sales dating back to 20 years ago. Unlike Zillow or Xome, Redfin doesn’t show pre-foreclosure homes, expired listings, commercial properties, or Canadian FSBO or foreclosure homes. Multigenerational housing is the biggest homebuying trend—and more millennials are opting for it. Find out why here!
