Cool Home Search Apps For iPhone - Lancaster Pa Real Estate Video BlogToday I’m discussing my favorite real estate home search apps for the iPhone (or smartphone of your choice that supports them). All of the following apps utiltize the geolocation feature heavily, and this is also where they are the most useful. Apps are as follows: 1) Realtor.com – this app is very robust for searching listings of homes for sale or rent in Lancaster County. I like the flexibility of the app and the fact that it is directly tied to the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS) through connections with the National Association of Realtors. 2) Zillow – I’ve used the Zillow app for a few years and really like the way it brings the past sales data of the subject home and any nearby homes to you on the iPhone (as Zillow does on their full site, of course). Zillow relies on the deed recordings in Lancaster County to capture it’s sales data, so there are serious time lag issues if you are searching for a sale within, say, the last six months. Disregard their “Zestimates”, please – they are also based on the deed recorded information of nearby homes, and are a flawed concept (in fairness, it’s a nice try but properties simply can’t be properly valued without more details unaccessible to Zillow). Also, Zillow’s data on current listings can be off as well, with expired and sold listings showing up as active. 3) Trulia – clean, pretty app that is basically the same as Realtor.com. I prefer Realtor.com… 4) Walkscore – This app estimates a score from 0 to 100 based on the location’s proximity to walkable amenities like stores, theaters etc. I like to use this app in and around Lancaster City, PA homes for sale to see which ones are truly more “walkable”. 5) Mortgage Calculator – A handy, one screen input app that will crank out mortgage payments based on your rate and down payment for any purchase price. Nice. Thanks for watching, and if you have any comments or questions feel free to reach out to me at jeff@yourlancasterhome.
