1. Vlingo. Since real estate agents do a lot of driving, using your voice — instead of your fingers — to search the Web, compose an e-mail, text message or take notes is useful (and safer).
Vlingo lets you do this with your voice. You can even send tweets to Twitter and update your Facebook. Oh yeah, use Vlingo to call anyone in your phone book. Simply press a button and talk. Vlingo does the rest. My favorite.
2. Home Tracker. You’ve seen a lot of homes and it can make your head spin. Home Tracker keeps track for you. Store information on each property such as address, ZIP code, price and size; add notes; take photos; rate the property condition, location and appeal; star your favorites; map the property; and best of all, e-mail the summary of home tours to your clients.
3. Smarter Agent Homes for Sale. Covering 300 markets, it uses the iPhone’s location-aware capability to find homes for sale in your immediate area. Map the results and get directions to each listing.
You can also search outside your area. Just enter an address, neighborhood, city or ZIP code. A "Call to See" button will connect you to the listing agent. The "Broker Reciprocity" logo at the bottom of the data tells you you’re seeing every public multiple listing service-entered property in that area.
4. Sketches. Make notes and draw diagrams using your fingers. Save your sketches in your personal corkboard or send them to others. You could use it to mark up a listing or floor plan and impress your clients.
5. PC2Me. PC2Me enables you to get your files and data from your desktop using your iPhone. Great for an agent on the road who needs the contract that’s stuck on his or her computer at the office.
6. Morgulator+ Mortgage Payment Calculator. A mortgage calculator is a must-have. It gives you the usual mortgage information based on interest rate, term and downpayment. What makes Morgulator+ neat is the ability to compare mortgages and e-mail mortgage summaries to your clients (and yourself).
7. Dictionary of Real Estate Terms. More for the real estate rookie, perhaps, but this app will put 3,000 terms at your fingertips to articulate.
8. Walk Score. For the lifestyle-seeking and quality-of-life-seeking home searcher, this app calculates the "walkability" of any neighborhood you find yourself, simply using location-aware technology — no need to type an address.
See a map of nearby amenities (with ratings and reviews) and get directions. Walk Score covers 40 major cities and 2,500 neighborhoods.
9. Advanced Bubble Level. Great for seeing if something is out of whack, like the floor. Yeah, you could use the old marble trick on the floor but you want to look tech-savvy. Another app, The Dual Level, shows horizontal and vertical balance. …CONTINUED
10. NearBuy. NearBuy uses GPS to search for apartments, condos and houses for rent in your area, indexed by price and displayed on a map. Find nearby parks and schools. Send a tweet about a find and ask the "Twittersphere" what it thinks.
11. JotNot. Turn your iPhone camera into a scanner. Photograph a document (like a binder agreement), notes, a floor plan, etc., and save it for printing or e-mailing.
12. PropertyEvaluator or Buy That Duplex (Pro or Lite version). Apps for real estate investors and surviving flippers.
13. HopStop. Great tool for agents in big cities who need to find the nearest bus, train or subway stop WITH directions. Also useful to give clients directions to you.
HopStop has city-guide maps with attractions, shopping, restaurants, clubs and bars (where you can celebrate closings). It’s only in 11 U.S. cities but is an awesome app. (You might want to move to use it!) HopStop works on any cell phone.
14. Open Table. Getting hungry driving around (or reading this article)? Find a restaurant nearby and make a reservation via the Open Table app. The way to a client’s heart is through the stomach. Share the Open Table app as you break bread with your client. It made Bon Appetit’s 2009 "Hot 10" list and Time Magazine’s "50 Essential Travel Tips."
15. Offender. This app maps registered sex offenders in all 50 states. I know an agent who, when trying to win a client, asks whether the client has children, then asks where the prospective client is looking for homes, then introduces the prospective client to Offender.
Bonus apps:
1. Car Finder. Just released Nov. 3, it is an augmented reality app that uses your iPhone camera to locate your parked car.
2. Night Light Flashlight. If you find yourself in a dark house, your iPhone will light the way.
If you want to find more of the latest iPhone apps, visit Apptism.com. It’s an iPhone app aggregator that offers descriptions, prices, popularity, news, reviews and more about the more than 100,000 apps currently in its database.
What iPhone apps do you find useful?
Joseph Ferrara is publisher of the Sellsius Real Estate Blog and a partner in TheClozing.com, a real estate news aggregator site. He is an attorney with 25 years of experience in New York, and he also coaches agents on the use of blogging and social networking.
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