| Donna
Chapman opens the Redfin app on her iPhone and
shows off the sold sign banner attached to a photo
of her new home in Corona, California, February
27, 2013. She used apps to help her find a new
home. The former Boston resident relocated to
Corona to be closer to her children and
grandchildren in Orange County. Chapman said that
without... |
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Donna
Chapman wouldn’t have found her new one-story house if
she hadn’t been searching for homes day and night on
her Apple iPhone.
The
retired systems manager was determined to return from
the Boston area to move near her children and
grandchildren in Orange County, Calif.
But
competition among homebuyers was fierce. Chapman, who is
60, made three offers on homes, only to get outbid.
She
began her search more than a year before she moved to
Southern California in October, flagging homes she liked
on the Redfin and Zillow mobile applications, then
sending her daughter, Sarah, and real estate agent
Alexia Rusinek to check them out. Sarah Chapman used a
free iPhone app called Tango to beam live video of the
homes to Chapman during walk-throughs.
After
she moved, Donna Chapman would open Zillow’s app to
learn more about cute houses, pulling up data on prior
sales, property taxes and neighboring home values. She
relied on Redfin to find new listings so she could jump
as soon as properties hit the market.
That’s
what happened when her dream home popped up on Redfin.
Chapman drove by and fell in love. The next day, she and
her agent toured the Corona, Calif., home, and she
decided to make an offer.
But
the seller’s agent already had several offers and was
about to meet with the owner. She gave Chapman one hour
to submit her proposal.
Using
Dropbox, Chapman signed the paperwork from home and
shipped off the documents electronically to Rusinek at
her office. Chapman’s offer — $5,000 over the
$319,900 asking price — proved to be the winning bid.
"Without
the mobile apps, I wouldn’t be able to see what was on
the market," Chapman said. "I would not have
been able to find this house."
———
REAL
ESTATE APPS RANKED BY USAGE:
Onavo
Insights, which tracks mobile application traffic, found
that real estate apps accounted for 9 percent of all app
usage during the second quarter of 2012. Here’s the
firm’s latest ranking of real estate apps based on the
percentage of real estate apps used.
—Zillow:
38 percent of users
—Realtor.com:
20 percent
—Craigslist
Free: 17 percent
—Trulia:
14 percent
—Redfin:
6 percent
—Homes.com:
2 percent
—ZipRealty:
1 percent
—Hotpads.com:
0.5 percent
—NY
Times Real Estate: 0.5 percent
—Century21
Real Estate: 0.4 percent
—Re/Max
Pros Real Estate Search: 0.2 percent
—Coldwell
Banker Real Estate Search: 0.1 percent
———
HOUSE
HUNTING AID:
Here
are some of the top apps for house hunters:
Zillow:
—Cost:
free
—Websites:
Zillow.com
—Devices:
Apple, Google Android, BlackBerry, Windows Phone, Amazon
Kindle Fire
—Features:
Search results show sale and tax histories, estimated
values, rent estimates and data on nearby homes.
Information also is available for homes not on the
market and homes for sale by owners. App also includes
mortgage rates with links to lenders and a mortgage
calculator.
—Limitations:
Value "Zestimates" can be sketchy, and
listings aren’t always up to date. Links are provided
to agents who advertise, but not to listing agents,
though agent names or numbers sometimes are provided.
Realtor.com:
—Cost:
free
—Website:
Realtor.com
—Devices:
Apple, Android
—Features:
Offers comprehensive listing data, with searches that
include open houses and links to listing agents, as well
as rentals. Shoppers can draw a circle on a map with
their fingertips to see all listings in an area.
—Limitations:
Doesn’t include tax or sale histories.
Trulia:
—Cost:
free
—Website:
Trulia.com
—Devices:
Apple, Android, Kindle Fire, Windows tablet
—Features:
Searches include rentals and open houses, with links to
listing agents, homes with price reductions and homes in
the foreclosure process. You’ll also find links to
nearby restaurants, shopping, banks and schools. The
iPhone app has price history data. The Android has a
cool mortgage calculator with sliders to adjust factors
such as price, interest rate and down payment.
—Limitations:
Sometimes incomplete or out of date. Does not include
sales histories.
Redfin:
—Cost:
free
—Website:
Redfin.com
—Devices:
Apple, Android
—Features:
Searches include open houses. Results include sales and
listing histories, property tax data and directions to
the home. App also provides notifications of new
listings and price changes.
—Limitations:
Data for limited geographic areas. Links are provided to
Redfin agents only, although names of listing agents are
provided. The map doesn’t automatically update when
you drag it to a new area.
ZipRealty:
—Cost:
free
—Website:
ZipRealty.com
—Devices:
Apple, Android
—Features:
The iPhone app includes an "augmented reality"
feature that displays listings and recent sales for
homes viewed through the phone’s camera. But that
feature isn’t available on Android versions. The app
offers "walk scores," which grade a property’s
walking-friendly features, along with "transit
scores" that measuring access to public
transportation.
—Limitations:
No price or sales histories. Listing agent information
is limited to their names and license number.
Century21:
—Cost:
free
—Website:
Century 21.com
—Devices:
Apple, Android, BlackBerry
—Features:
Searches include rentals, and results include comparable
sales for each listing. The app also lets you explore an
area’s history, climate and demographic information.
And it lets you add an open house to your calendar with
the touch of a button.
—Limitations:
App can be slow, with loading screens appearing between
searches. Android version requires either a phone number
or email address to enroll.
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