Friday, February 4, 2011

App – ropriate. Part 2: Realtor.ca

Triggered by a new real estate/mortgage app for your iPhone/Blackberry and an article about real estate and mobile apps, we began a little review of a few of them, starting yesterday with the new CIBC product.  If you missed it, scan down the blog or go HERE.

Today we have a peek at the mobile coulsin of Realtor.ca -- the website familiar to many.  It’s the official public site for the MLS® system.  There is an iPhone app and a WindowsPhone7 app by the same name, with Blackberry en route.

The iPhone app reviews are pretty uniformly negative.  People like the idea but find the app buggy.  I think they are being a little harsh.
I have had a little trouble with the map disappearing, but seem to be able to get it back pretty easily. And sometimes the maps take a few seconds to update.  Also there are a few navigation issues.  But it’s easily worth the price (ok, it’s free, but still…) just for being location sensitive. 

If you want to see what’s available nearby, up comes a map with “pins” for each listing (or group of listings until you zoom in).  At any time you can flip to a “list view” instead of the actual map.  Also with the “near me” concept you can focus on “new” listings or open houses.

A regular search option is available, using the “current location” or specifying a community.  Or search by MLS® number.

There is also an option to look for a Realtor® or your own agent and identify them as “my agent”.  Then you can annoy them by email every time you see an interesting property!
It's not perfect and it's not "sufficient", but if you are house-shopping or just normally nosey about real estate, you should probably have this app on your smartphone.

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