The best apps for selling or buying homes

When it comes to buying or selling homes, app technology is changing the way that people research neighborhoods, learn more about the market, and find the homes they are looking for. If you’re preparing to buy or sell a home – or are just curious about home values in your own neighborhood – these apps are some of the best I’ve seen.

  1. ZILLOW (zillow/com/mobile): Zillow has been around for years now and is probably one of the most well-known real estate apps out there. It contains probably the largest inventory of properties across the nation, and offer superior capability when it comes to sorting listings by different criteria. Something that people really love to look up are sale prices for home and current home value “Zestimates.” These can often be wildly inaccurate, so it’s best to check with an experienced, local Realtor to make sure you’ve got the right numbers. If you’re interested in properties in Arlington, VA or the surrounding area, feel free to give me a call or email for a quick property review.
  2. HOMESNAP (homesnap.com/): Originally built for real estate agents, Homesnap has become popular with home buyers and sellers as well. Using their simple app on your smartphone, you can snap a photo of any home to find out all about it. Homesnap draws on massive homes database to show you how much the home is worth, when it last sold, interior features details, local school ratings, similar listings, nearby sales and more. Bonus, you can privately message back-and-forth with your Realtor. If they don’t have the app, it’ll still send as a text message, sending a link to property photos and details.
  3. DWELLR (census.gov/mobile/dwellr/): If you really want to learn about specific communities you’re interested in, this app includes details such as median age of residents, racial makeup, median home values, educational background, and more. Backed by the Census Bureau and using information from the American Community Survey, this is a great app that gives insight into what a neighborhood is like before making an offer.
  4. GREATSCHOOLS (greatschools.org): If you liked the idea of Dwellr, GreatSchools is another fantastic resource for studying geographical neighborhoods. As the name says, this app gives you information about school zones, the individual schools within those zones, and how they rank or compare to others in the state.
  5. REDFIN (redfin.com/mobile): Here’s what people love about this app: You see a house you’re interested in, open the Redfin app, the map open to where you are with information about the house in front of you with a quick touch on the map. Listings are updated every 15 minutes, the app lets prospective buyers search a data base — more than 70 million addresses, including here in the Arlington, Virginia area, and do custom searches. You can also see when open houses are, agent contact information, and more.

Whether you like to use apps or not, if you’re ready to buy, sell or learn more about the real estate market in the Arlington and surrounding Northern Virginia communities, I’m here to help! Give me a call at 703-593-6320. Email is good, too: mike@mikesellsvirginia.com.