Useful Mobile Apps for Realtors

TourNarrator

Real estate agents seem to be ready to use new technologies to maximize their business opportunities. It has never been easier to share the necessary information with clients in just seconds.

New mobile apps for realtors are turning up every day, and they broaden the horizons of traditional home-selling — both for sellers and for buyers. Take a look at the list of the most widely used mobile apps that are proving to be more than helpful in the real estate world.

NOTE: No Toronto homes are included with these apps.

Location-aware Realty Apps and Client Feedback

IDXpressions

IDXpressions

This web application works with your website to provide your clients with an easy-to-use search engine of the properties listed on the web.

The app works perfectly on all smart phones and computers, and resembles many other apps your customers are used to, so you’ll have no problems with lengthy descriptions of the downloading and installation process.

The user-friendly environment of the app will help it become a great tool that helps your clients finding your site and the home of their dreams easily.

You can find IDXpressions here. Available for the iPhone and Android phones.

TourNarrator

Help your clients with the final decision by capturing their feedback on all the properties that they visit with you. The app records audio commentary and makes photo notes of the clients’ impressions that can be supplemented by short written notes. Clients are free to browse the viewed properties to refresh their memories and choose their property wisely.

You can find TourNarrator here. Available for the iPhone only.

AgentFeedback

Agent Feedback

This application makes it much easier to keep your sellers constantly informed about the feedback that’s received from Open Home visitors.

An amazing advantage of the app is that it allows agents to give hints on sensitive issues about the offered realty (price, condition) to the seller without too much beating around the bush — simply deliver the authentic feedback from the customers. Realtors can also choose the selected questions that seem to be relevant for the sellers to spare them unnecessary comments from the buyers.

You can find AgentFeedback here. Available for the iPhone only.

AroundMe

AroundMe

With AroundMe, you can find the nearest gas station, bar, hospital, or elementary school, along with their distance from your location. The complete list of nearby businesses in each category is provided, and you can easily answer all the surprising questions about the neighbourhood instantaneously as well as show the clients all the cool places close to their new home.

This is a web-based app that allows you to search for information about your surroundings. While it works best from a big-screen computer, some devices with full-featured browsers may be able to display it as well.

You can find AroundMe here. AroundMe is independent of your phone’s operating system.

Traffic Monitoring and Planning Mobile Apps

This is a list of mobile applications that will help you watch and predict traffic in and around Toronto by various means. Make sure that you do not get stuck in a traffic jam on your way to your wonderful Toronto home.

The most pleasant side-effect of avoiding traffic jams is the fuel saved and thus not exhausted into the environment. Even wear and tear across Toronto’s highways and avenues also contributes to a better and more sustainable transportation system in our country’s largest city.

For more information about how to avoid Toronto traffic check out our recent article explaining the enhancements made to Google Maps that may help you do just that.

Augmented Traffic Views

Augmented Traffic Views

Augmented Traffic Views is a helpful application that allows drivers to anticipate real-time traffic at various places along their way and avoid the most congested areas. It summons data from traffic cameras and supplies them to the user alongside a map of the city. The operation is hands-free because the application anticipates the vehicle’s route and updates the user with information on near-by intersections, highways, and roads.

This app works in over 60 US cities, but it also works in Toronto, Ottawa, and Vancouver, Canada. You can use it in London, UK too, with more cities on the way. The application is being actively improved with new upgraded versions coming out twice a year on average. You can read the blog here of Augmented Traffic Views’ author here for more detailed information.

You can download Augmented Traffic Views from the Android Market and it will work on your Android phone.

Transit Now Toronto for TTC

Transit Now Toronto Map Screen

Ever wondered when the next bus and streetcar shows up? You are not alone. And because virtually everyone who rides the TTC could make great use of such service, OPL decided to bring this experienece straight to your Android phone.

Taking offline phones into consideration, this service can solicit information that will come to your phone as an SMS. The full set of features, however, is available for users who are indeed connected to the internet via a data plan.

Store a list of your favourite (most frequented) stops for easy access. Search for bus and streetcar stops in your vicinity so that you can begin your journey straight away. Track TTC vehicles in real time on the map and plot their routes so that you can see where they are going to go.

This application tracks TTC’s Twitter account so as to keep you posted about all announcements without delay. In addition, there are plenty of settings available, including personalization of stop names. Subway maps are included to complete the TTC image, with a link to their operation schedules.

Transit Now Toronto is a free download and the app is free of any advertisements.

You can download Transit Now Toronto here and it will work on your Android phone.

Toronto Traffic Cams

Toronto Traffic Cams App Screen Shot

Integrating Google’s traffic data with live static images from Toronto’s traffic cameras is the Toronto Traffic Cams application. With Toronto Traffic Cams, you can observe multiple stretches of road by arranging your camera feeds into a grid and even zoom the snapshots for more detail. The application allows you to create custom routes that you can load quickly depending on where you are driving. Toronto Traffic Cams has built-in access to over 200 traffic cameras and displays no ads in the user interface.

The above features are included in the basic version. There is a Pro version of Toronto Traffic Cams that sports a few extra convenience features. These include the ability to identify the direction of the traffic, sorting options for your custom routes, finger-swiping navigation between the cameras on your selected route. The Pro version can also locate the majority of the City’s red light camera intersections. As of writing this article, the Pro version sells for a mere $0.99 while the basic version is a free download.

You can download or buy the Toronto Traffic Cams application here and it will work on your Android phone.

Toronto Parking

Toronto Parking App Screen Shot

Parking in Toronto can be a true science. Not only is it difficult to find parking in an unknown neighbourhood but prices of various parking houses differ greatly. Some parking providers charge multiple times more than others for the same stretch of time. A popular choice of drivers are the GreenP parking lots maintained by Toronto Parking Authority.

In order to help people save time and money, Connexinet decided to create this handy application that pinpoints all GreenP parking locations along with prices and addresses on a Google Maps backdrop. This allows users to search for directions, utilize Google street view for navigation, and take advantage of their GPS-enabled phone if they happen to own one.

For extra comfort, Toronto Parking works even when the phone is not currently connected to the internet, operating with whatever data is cached on the device. This may be especially useful to visitors and tourists who happen to be out of their home network’s coverage.

You can download Toronto Parking here and it will work on your Android phone.

Toronto Path Map

Toronto Path Map

Pedestrian traffic is traffic too. And lots of pedestrian traffic takes place between the many shopping and service centres distributed across the core of Toronto.

This extremely light-weight application will be your guide during your strolls in between the shopping malls. Lacking any advanced functionality, all you can do with Toronto Path Map is finger-scrolling and zooming. The main reason for this bare-bone functionality is the lack of any GPS signal underground and the relative usefulness of this application for all shoppers and those who work in downtown Toronto.

You can download Toronto Path Map here and it will work on your Android Phone.

Listings and Home Search

Home listings are usually not freely available, but your Realtor® may display a selection of local MLS listings on her or his website. ILoveToronto.com, for one, has a mobile friendly site that will render well in any browser—desktop, laptop, or mobile—and will deliver to you the most recent information and listings from Central and East Toronto neighbourhoods and more.

Searching for an apartment to rent is made easier and—more importantly—mobile by several apps. Home sellers occasionally have to move into a rental property temporarily before they can move into their newly purchased home and their Realtors® can help them find a fitting one.

RentCompass

RentCompass on an Android Phone

RentCompass offers handy mobile applications for those who frequently or intensively search for rental apartments and require speed, universal accessibility, and convenience. RentCompass prides itself in being Canada’s first mobile-centered search and listing service for rental properties.

The mobile applications themselves offer a wide range of functions: you can make lists of your favourite apartments, you can request driving directions to the property of your choice, you can view a slew of photos of your chosen property, you can review the details about every listed property (such as included appliances, owner contact, special features, etc.), and more. Auto-completed town names will save you lots of typing and typos and an integrated map will allow you to zoom, pan, and browse the city of your choice.

The mobile version of RentCompass will render automatically in a mobile browser. For the best and smoothest user experience, however, you are encouraged to download a native mobile RentCompass application for your smartphone. RentCompass apps work on the iPhone, iPad, and Android phones.

Caprent.mobi

CAPREIT logo

Caprent.mobi is the mobile version of Canadian Apartment Properties Real Estate Investment Trust (CAPREIT). This organization offers rental apartments to a wide range of clients, from short-term rentals to students to families. CAPREIT operates apartments in major cities all across Canada, from Halifax through Québec through Calgary to Vancouver.

Caprent.mobi is web-based and should work in all mobile browsers.

Safety Mobile Apps

Being a real estate agent may seem like a boring and largely unadventurous job, but working as a real estate agent means spending lots of time alone with clients we barely know and facing uncomfortable situations during the show visits. These safety mobile apps might become your secret weapon that will help you feel safe and protected so that you can fully concentrate on your job.

SafeTREC

SafeTREC

SafeTREC provides you with a panic button that immediately informs others that you are in danger. Your emergency contacts will be alarmed by e-mail and text messages, and GPS technology on your cell phone will chip in by attaching your exact location.

If you go for the paid version of the app, the alert message will also be sent to a 24/7 live conference call help centre that may instantly call for further assistance. Another paid bonus is an “Emergency Safety Profile” that is included in your message and features your most important emergency information for your responders.

You can find SafeTREC here. SafeTREC seems to work on iPhones, BlackBerry devices, and Symbian-powered phones. Recommended are phones with a GPS antenna.

Moby

Moby

Moby is not just a U.S. musician and DJ.  It is also a safety app that runs on the iPhone, Android phones, and BlackBerry.

Moby works on a different principle than SafeTREC. Instead of waiting for realtors to press the panic button, the app displays a message at scheduled times that enquire you whether you are alright. If you don’t respond to two questions in a row, an alert will be automatically delivered to your emergency contacts, along with your GPS location. The app also features an alert tool that functions as a panic button.

Realtors can use Moby when they find themselves in an unfamiliar neighbourhood, or with an unfriendly new client.

You can find Moby here. Available for the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android.

Are you using a clever app that we have not included in our list yet? Drop us a review suggestion in the comments and we will definitely take a look!