Best Apps for the Proactive Home Buyer

Buying a home is one of the most stressful yet rewarding milestones in a home buyer’s life. So as a real estate agent, it’s important to educate your buyer on apps that can minimize their stress level and increase their happiness at the end of the home buying process. These 7 apps will help you and your home buyer have a seamless home buying experience.

Real Estate Dictionary

As a real estate agent, you’re bound to run into first time home buyers who don’t know a single real estate abbreviation or term. This is a great app to encourage your potential home buyers to explore as it offers definitions to over 3,000 real estate terms. While you’re probably good at explaining terms to people, it will save you and them stress when you can get through a sentence with full comprehension on both sides.

Mortgage Calculator

The mortgage calculator app is extremely helpful for home buyers. Potential home buyers may think they can afford a certain listing price of a house, but when it’s broken down into monthly payments, they can see if they really can (or want) to pay that amount. It’s also a great tool to start out with so your home buyers don’t get their hearts set on a house that they just simply can’t afford. This will save you and them time and energy.

Doorsteps Swipe

Doorsteps Swipe is considered the Tinder of real estate. Your home buyers can input a specific or broad search term and the app generates a “profile picture” that you can swipe right if liked or left if not liked. This app is great for home buyers who are just looking or who haven’t really narrowed down their home location. Doorsteps Swipe is very visual as there is minimal detail, so if you have a potential home buyer who simply wants to see houses or get ideas for their own house, point them in this direction.

Homesnap

A home buyer’s antennae to see houses is on at all times, which is why Homesnap is a great app for them. With Homesnap, your home buyer can snap a photo of a house on the go, or input the address, and get instant details on the price, the layout, the year built, and the tax estimate. Homesnap also lists houses near the snapped house, so if the home isn’t quite right for your homebuyer, they can look around the neighborhood too. This app takes shopping on the go to a whole new level.

Realtor.com

A lot of what influences a home buyer to chose a home is the school district. With Realtor.com, home buyers can chose a specific neighborhood they are looking at and see the elementary, middle and high school near the listed house. The app also shows the schools rating along with how many miles away the listed house is from the school. So your home buyer is curious about private schools too? Bam, this app shows public and private schools in the area.

Dwellr

Part of helping your home buyers see their life in your listed house is helping them understand what kind of neighborhood they’d live in. Dwellr uses information from the Census Bureau and provides data-rich information such as population of neighborhood, education background of neighbors, median age of residents and so much more. Knowing these stats will help your home buyers see if they will feel comfortable in your neighborhood.

WalkScore

For home buyers who are looking to live in urban areas, walkability is an important factor to their home buying decision. WalkScore shows how far your listed house is from the nearest grocery store, shopping mall, entertainment center and other points of interest. If your home buyer is interested in the closest bus route to your house, WalkScore also provides TransitScore so your home buyers can see how they can get around if they choose public transportation.

Buying a home can be a lengthy tiresome process. As a real estate agent, encourage your potential home buyers to use these 7 apps to help streamline the home buying experience. These apps will help educate them on real estate terms, find the right location for their wants and desires, and assist them in envisioning their life in the home you are listing. Contact us if you would like assistance in communicating these great apps to your potential home buyers!