Best Mobile Apps for Home Buyers

Mortgage Calculator – It’s a great tool to have when you’re driving by and see what could possibly be your dream home and wonder if you can afford it. Plugging in the numbers on the spot will help you decide if you should just keep driving, or call your agent for a showing.

• Mortgage Calculator Pro for .99¢ 4.0 stars (apple) calculate the monthly payment for a mortgage, car payment, credit card, or other types of fixed rate loans.
• Mortgage Calculator Plus, free, in app purchases, 4.9 stars (apple) High marks for ease of use and it’s the number one mortgage app.
• U.S. Mortgage Calculator. 4.6 stars. Free, contains ads. Has a full amortization schedule.
• Karl’s Mortgage Calculator free, advanced with graphs and charts, 4.6 stars. A single-propose app, it gives all the fields needed on one screen for a quick snapshot of the total monthly payment.
• Mortgage Calculator, Android, free, 4.6 stars. (can use for other loans)
• Zillow, Quicken Loans, Trulia and other sites have their own free mobile apps. Just be ready for the adds that follow.

Search for Homes in Central Maryland from Your Phone

Mobile Search. Having a home search on your phone or tablet is a must. Again, while you’re driving around you can easily look up the details of any home you see. [Our own Website’s Home Search is Mobile]

Millions Mapped: https://chrishighland.exprealty.com/app.php

• Our local MLS, Metropolitan Regional Information System, has a great app, robust and easy to use.      Homesnap

  

  allows buyers to snap a picture of any home, and get the inside scoop. One of the best apps available for drive-by snapping! With this app, our buyers can communicate directly with us about the homes they are interested in. Homesnap has a GPS component, so all you have to do is open the app, click a photo of the front of the home while in the app, and bingo…all the information from the MLS. To try it out, click on the image ->

• Most of the major real estate websites have mobile apps, Zillow, Trulia, and most large brokerages. All of these apps have their own style and branding, and all have the same information culled from your local MLS, Multiple List System. However, the accuracy of data swings wildly. There are lots of reasons, but suffice it to say, they all have various shortfalls in the transfer and presentation of the data.

Learn About the Neighborhood. There are many good apps to help you explore the area…

• • With Google Maps you can easily find the distance between a listing and other location points that might be important to you, such as the office or school.
  • Around Me apple, Around Me google play. One of my favorites, and it’s still free.
  • Yelp
  • AreaVibes helps you find the best place to live based on the factors you deem important.
  • Neighborhood Scout , as low as $40 a month. For investors, buyers, professionals…all encompassing data. customize your own search, schools, crime, appreciation rates, and more.
  • Walkscore has an app.
  • Homefacts, by RealtyTrac, discover neighborhoods, local amenities, schools and more
  • Street Adviser
  • Dwellr, a smart app that you design yourself, getting the information from the census bureau that you want.
  • Policy Map, create maps, tables and charts with data.
  • Curbed, Real Estate and Neighborhood information.
  • Census Connect is a Chrome plug-in that injects block level census data with real estate listings.

What about Safety?

While REALTORS are not advised to give opinions regarding neighborhoods or communities regarding safety, due to Fair Housing Laws (it’s regarded as “steering) we certainly can point buyers to the right resources.

There are several apps to help you detect sex offenders and obtain local crime statistics:

• Family Watchdog maps the addresses of registered sex offenders in your neighborhood.
• Crime Mapping – iphone
• Spot Crime – iphone
• CrimeReports maps crime data from more than 1,000 participating law enforcement agencies.
• Sex Offender Search – Android
• Sex Offender Search – iPhone

This site is not an app, but a super resource: SpotCrime maps crimes and delivers crime alerts via email, Facebook, Twitter, and several other platforms.

Keeping On Top of Your Home Search

Remember the home. When you’ve been looking at 5 homes or more, they all start to blend in your mind. Why not take some pics and notes of your favorites? You can easily measure rooms for furniture placement. View the rooms with a different wall color than the current decor. Sometimes it’s difficult to visualize a room differently, but these apps help.

• Behr ColorSmart App. Take a photo, then fill in the walls with a Behr paint color to see what you like. (Free for iPhone and Android)
• Photo Measures. iPhone.Take pictures of the rooms and save the measurements of the dimensions on the photos.
• Image Meter. Android. Measure lengths, angles and areas in your photos
• Evernote. Even the free version has a lot of great features
• Home Notes App, keeping it all organized, documenting your comments, questions and photos.

Enjoy your home search! Contact Us to learn about Buyer Representation in Frederick County and surrounding counties in Maryland.

We do not endorse any particular app, except Millions Mapped and Homesnap.