Technology has changed the way we do almost everything, including home buying, whether in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County, the Edmonton area or elsewhere. Here are a few smartphone apps home buyers and investors might find useful. (Many are available free for all types of smartphones; check with your app store.)
SHOPPING FOR HOMES
Google Maps and Google Earth for mobile can show you where homes are located, but you can learn much more about a property, giving you a feel for the neighborhood, the quality of other housing, accessibility, distance from busy streets and more.
Yelp Mobilewith its reviews of businesses can give you some idea about what a neighborhood has to offer (shopping, restaurants, gas stations, etc.).
Realtor.cais the official mobile app of the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) with access to about 350,000 Canadian properties for sale on the Realtor.ca website. Search using your smartphone’s built-in GPS for properties near your location or a specific address; receive listing details, photos and agent contact info.
Zoocasa[iPhone; free]. Similar to Realtor.ca. Search for properties based on your current location and receive full descriptions of properties. This app also allows users to email listings from within the app.
Home Tracker [iPhone; $3.99]. Keep track of all the details of the homes you visit with your REALTOR®. “HomeTracker allows you to document each property in detail as you visit it. Properties are grouped into a Tour, which is a set of homes you visited with your real estate agent, or homes in a specific area. In addition to storing property information, HomeTracker can easily take Photos, Map a property, E-mail property information, and perform a Google search!”
MORTGAGE APPS
There are plenty of mortgage calculator apps out there but most are not Canadian. One with some limited application to Canadian situations is Canadian Mortgage Calculator.
CIBC Home Advisor app provides mobile access to mortgage tools, advice, neighborhood information.
“The CIBC Home Advisor App for iPhone and BlackBerry lets home buyers:
* Track and compare properties visited by taking and storing photos and completing a home buyer’s checklist for each home
* View neighborhood maps and get immediate access to average property valuations and trends
* Request detailed neighborhood reports for properties of specific interest
* Post, tweet, text or email details of the properties and neighborhoods you are considering to share them with family and friends in real-time
* Access four different built-in calculators to help determine what the customer can afford, if they should rent vs. buy, the equity in their home, or mortgage payment options
* Request a CIBC pre-approved mortgage certificate for financing to lock in an interest rate
* Contact the nearest CIBC Mortgage Advisor and arrange to meet to get advice on mortgage options.”
RECalc – Real Estate Mortgage Loan Calculator [iPhone; free] “RECalc is a Real Estate Mortgage Loan Calculator that is also a traditional Mathematical Calculator. You can use RECalc to calculate the Monthly Payment, Term, Interest Rate or Loan Amount for a loan, as well as standard mathematical calculations as you would in any other calculator. Once you modify any of the Calculation variables you can re-calculate any of the other values. You can also figure in Annual Property Tax, Homeowner’s Insurance and Mortgage Insurance, as well as a Down Payment amount/percentage. RECalc supports semi-annual compounding (Canadian Amortization) in addition to normal monthly compounding.”
MISCELLANEOUS
Flashlight [iPhone; 99¢]. Turn your iPhone into a flashlight! This app allows you to choose from a variety of styles and colors. For even more features, try Flashlight+ [also 99¢]
Evernote [free; available for all smartphones and computers]. This handy app allows you to create and save all kinds of documents: text notes, web pages, video clips, your digital photo scrapbook, and much more. Text-recognition software makes for easy searching.
Awesome Note (+ToDo) [iPhone; $3.99]. Get organized with this versatile and customizable app that allows you to create regular notes, notes with photo attachments, To Do notes, Post-It style Quick Memo for quick jotting, daily diary, travel diary checklists, shopping lists, schedules, and more. You can send notes as email and even synchronize your notes with Google Docs and Evernote.
Do you know of a great app that should be added to this list? I’d love to hear from you. Call me at 780-910-9669, email me at btwynam@telusplanet.net, or contact me here.
Way back in June 2011 I posted a blog article about smartphone apps for do-it-yourself home owners in Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Parkland County and the Edmonton region. Three and a half years are a lifetime in tech terms but surprisingly, most of the apps I described in the article are not only still available but are even better than before.
