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Buying or selling real estate (or just trying to learn more) can be a total minefield. Location, cost, all the legal ins and outs. Where do you start? And how does it end? Fortunately, there’s an app for that. 😉 And this list of the top real estate apps are great for connecting with the right people, getting market insights, generating leads, and scoping out the competition.
Fair warning, though—if you’re a realtor looking to drum up business? These apps might not be exactly what you’re looking for. It’s one thing to list a home using one of these apps, but it’s a whole other thing to find new clients or build your property portfolio. If this is more your speed, you might want to check out 6 data-driven strategies to get real estate leads.
Here’s a quick overview of the top real estate apps
- Zillow: The best overall. Zillow has the most property listings and loads of features to refine your search. It also has the most web traffic of any real estate app, making it a great choice for people looking to get high exposure to their properties.
- Redfin: The best for buying and selling homes, as RedFin is a real estate brokerage.
- Realtor.com: The best free real estate app—it’s been around since 1996.
- Trulia: The best real estate app for estimating home values (it considers the most factors when making estimates).
- Homesnap: Known as the Snapchat of real estate, this app is perfect for learning more about any property you see in the US.
- Premier Agent (by Zillow): Brought to you by Zillow, this is the best real estate app for lead generation. It comes with CRM functionality, too.
What is the most reliable realtor app?
There isn’t a specific real estate app that’s the most reliable all around, but we’re confident that the ones we’ve reviewed are solid.
See, most apps get their data from multiple listing services (MLS) listings, but some (like Zillow) have additional sources. So they all offer similar reliability. Realtor.com, however, lets you see when a listing was last updated, which can reassure you that you’re accessing the most recent information.
By the way, if you’re especially interested in home valuations, then Trulia generally offers the most reliable estimates because it takes the most factors of any real estate app into account.
Is Zillow or Realtor better?
It depends. Both Zillow and Realtor.com are excellent apps with large databases. You’ll find some properties on Zillow that aren’t listed on Realtor.com, and vice versa. Realtor.com generally has more reach (mainly because they’ve been around longer), and the app’s search functionality is more in-depth than Zillow’s free search. Realtor.com’s “Find a Realtor” search is also really accurate.
On the other hand, Realtor.com doesn’t let you search for listings that are “for sale by owner,” while Zillow does. Zillow also has the largest database and around three times more traffic than Realtor.com.
What is the best app for finding property?
There isn’t a single best app for finding property, but Zillow, RedFin, and Realtor.com have very big databases—and it’s free to search on these platforms. Zillow does have the most properties listed overall, though.
If you read our full reviews for each app below, you might find one app suits your needs better than the others.
6 Top real estate apps
Looking for the best apps for real estate? You’ve come to the right place.
1. Zillow
Founded in 2004, Zillow is one of the oldest and most popular real estate apps, providing access to over 135 million homes. While the app is more geared towards buyers, its extensive set of features makes it a great real estate app for sellers as well. And the best part? It’s free to use.
Zillow lets people list their properties for sale, lease, or rent. It also lets you tour properties virtually, take video tours, view photos, and get in touch with real estate agents. If you’re interested in a particular property, you can enable notifications for it, so Zillow will update you if the seller changes the property’s status.
Zillow’s massive database isn’t only thanks to people listing their own properties—the platform also pulls listings from other sites, and has its own “Zillow-owned” properties listed, too.
Overall, it’s earned its spot as the most popular real estate app through its massive inventory, loads of search filters, and features that help both buyers and sellers achieve their goals.
2. Redfin
Redfin is another established, popular real estate app. It was built in 2006 by a real estate brokerage firm that wanted to scale its operations and, well, the plan worked. Redfin is now one of the most popular real estate apps in the US, perfect for buying or selling homes. Unlike Zillow, which is a marketplace, Redfin is a real estate brokerage app.
Like Zillow, however, Redfin contains a large repository of property listings with custom search filters to help you find what you’re looking for. The platform also estimates the value of homes, and it lets you calculate mortgage, property taxes, and insurance. It also lets buyers book home tours through the app.
Redfin charges sellers a listing fee of 1.5% for using the app, but if you buy or sell with Redfin, it reduces the fee to 1.0%. Buyers also have the option of using a Redfin agent.
Redfin’s app is simple and easy to use, and an easy contender as one of the top real estate apps for buying and selling homes.
3. Realtor.com
Realtor.com is another free app that lets people list their properties and connect with buyers and sellers. The app shows helpful information like when a listing was last updated, and what other rentals are available in an area.
The listings include lots of information, including details about a neighborhood’s noise level and nearby schools. So, buyers have plenty of information available upfront to help them make an informed decision.
Since Realtor.com relies mainly on advertising for its revenue, it keeps all its core features free, including the option for landlords to accept rental applications. It also lets sellers display pictures and video tours of their properties.
Although Realtor.com has been around for longer (since 1996), Zillow enjoys more traffic and is generally more popular. But, Realtor.com is an excellent choice for real estate agents because its core features are all free.
4. Trulia
Trulia was acquired by the Zillo Group in 2015, and now uses Zillow’s data to provide information, like home values. But if the two platforms rely on the same data, why use Trulia at all?
Well, Trulia presents information in a different way from Zillow. It offers information about:
- Neighborhoods, shopping places, commute times, demographic stats, schools, and places to eat.
- The property itself.
- What locals have to say about the area. For example, what’s the parking like?
Another big reason to use Trulia is because of the accuracy of its home value estimation. The app uses more factors than any other app to estimate home values (like price history trends and city assessments), ensuring very accurate approximations.
And yes, the app is free to use.
5. Homesnap
Homesnap’s name kind of gives its purpose away—it’s considered the Snapchat of real estate. Basically, you can snap a photo of any home across the US, and Homesnap will instantly send you information from MLS listings. It’ll also send you data about the property’s history, nearby schools, property lines, and additional details about its tax records, census data, and more.
Like the other real estate apps we’ve reviewed, Homesnap suits all parties involved: buyers, sellers, real estate agents, and teams. You can enable notifications on the app to update you with alerts, like learning when a price changes or a new listing appears.
If you’re a realtor, you can subscribe to Homesnap Pro, a more advanced version of the app that provides you with tools to help your clients and ensure you keep up with changes in the market.
6. Premier Agent (by Zillow)
Unlike the other real estate apps we’ve reviewed, this one is solely built for real estate agents—and it’s one of the best real estate lead generation tools in the business.
Brought to you by Zillow, the Premier Agent app gives agents access to property listing inquiries from both Zillow and Trulia. It also lets you manage listings and profiles in one place.
One of Premier Agent’s most popular features is its concierge service, where a dedicated concierge sends leads your way via phone, email, and text messages. This saves you a lot of time and helps you focus on lead generation. The app will also notify you of any new incoming leads.
Premier Agent comes with a built-in CRM tool for managing your leads and keeping tabs on client activity. If you’re part of a team, you can track your team’s performance from a central dashboard, and you can use the CRM to route your leads.
Overall, if you’re a real estate agent (or a team of realtors) looking to capture leads, Premier Agent is a solid app to consider.
So, which real estate app should you choose?
There are dozens of good real estate apps to help sellers, buyers, and real estate agents meet their goals. We’ve reviewed six of the best apps that fulfill a variety of needs, and they’re all reliable with large databases.
The best real estate app for you depends on your unique needs. If you’re a realtor looking to close more deals, Premier Agent is a good choice. But if you’re looking for information on home valuations, Trulia has the most accurate estimates.
So when you’re deciding which apps to use, carefully consider your use cases and pick an app that’s tailored to them. And hey, since most of these apps are free, there’s no harm in using multiple ones if you need to.
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