Mobile Home Browsing

I hope everyone’s enjoying Easter break.  Here in Flint we have had a few dark rainy days but I don’t think anyone’s complaining after that amazing sunshiney Easter weekend we had.  But getting back to work is hard, isn’t it? Kids are home from school. Some people have Easter Monday off so if you were working it could have been frustrating to get much done because so many other people were not. Now Tuesday was kind of a stinker too, I have to say. The office internet was down. My home internet and email were up and mostly down. WiFi seemed to be working though. Thank goodness for our gadgets! Actually, I have to admit, I was so busy complaining about agents who wouldn’t call me back (Oakland County! Shame on you!) for showings and cursing my connection that it didn’t occur to me how much I could have gotten done from my phone until I saw this bit about the iPad real estate apps.

I’m a PC. I don’t know Mac at all. I flirted a bit with the Apple Ipod because it was given to me, but I felt guilty the whole time. I gave it away. I get my music from other sources now. This iPad has me intrigued though. And I’ll stay intrigued with that $500 price tag. I’m not saying it’s not worth the money, but between my Android phone and my laptop, I pretty much have the world in user friendly form at my finger tips. But after yesterday’s mess of trying to set up 9 showings for the afternoon in Clarkston & Waterford – not my usual stomping ground and unknown agents – this iPad Zillow application looked like a real problem solver. Agents and buyers can browse listings and access real estate information at home or while driving about.

But then I got thinking. If iPad has a real estate application, wouldn’t my super cool bad a**  Motorola Backflip have an Android app?  It has one for everything else. So I went to the Android “market” and there it was – Zillow! I downloaded it and a few others to try out. I am highlighting Zillow here because it is probably the most well known site for real estate information among every day home shoppers. At least for now, anyway. (wink wink) So you’re on your Android phone, open your (free) Zillow app and start browsing.  Punch in an area and a list of addresses and information pop up. Especially friendly for those days of driving around and window peeking. Everything you would want to know about the house is there, maybe.

The problem with Zillow is, as cool as it is, and as free as it is, it costs the agents to have their listings there.  Is it worth it as an agent to pay to post your listings at Zillow, especially at this time when mobile applications are all the rage? Absolutely. But can every agent afford to have all their listings included at the same time, at THIS time? Maybe not. It’s a tough time for us, too, don’t forget.  With the average sale price of homes dropping so much and sales decreasing, so have our commissions. Everyone might eventually get on board as agents continue to adjust to the “famine” portion of our “feast or famine” cycle.  But for now, as a buyer’s agent, I have to be sure I have access to everything. So Zillow isn’t quite perfect for me. Buyers keep that in mind too. Not EVERYTHING is listed there.

So I thought some more and you know what I thought? “DUH!” My Android phone views and works magnificently with the ChangingStreets.com website! And the ChangingStreets.com website is linked directly to the MLS so IT HAS EVERYTHING. This morning I have been playing with the website on my phone, from a Buyer perspective, and can’t believe how easy it is to run a search or even plug in an address for price and specs of a house that catches my eye on a drive by, right from my phone. My $99 Android. That also plays my mp3s.  No additional gadgets required.

With ChangingStreets.com’s complete & accurate listing inventory and shops popping up nationwide… Zillow better watch out!

Zillow, Android, iPhone, iPad, laptop, netbook, apps market… Things have sure changed from just a few years ago of drive by house shopping and flyer boxes.  How do you mobile shop? What are your favorite apps?