iPhone Real Estate App Showdown
The real estate application category on the iPhone really seems to be filling out. When the upgraded version of the software launched in July, Puluwai was the only real estate specific search tool (see 5 Apps Every Real Estate Agent Should Have on Their iPhone).
But that’s now changing and it looks like there is an epic battle brewing for screen space on my phone.
Trulia iPhone application
Trulia’s app is notable because of the prominence they give to open houses on the home screen. I think this is a wise choice, since people will likely be using this app as they are out and about and will want to find out what’s open near them to go have a look.
The search experience was very easy on Trulia’s app – simply pushing the ‘All homes for sale’ button takes you to a list of all the properties near you. (Your definition of “All Homes” may vary).
Searching all homes, it was a bit frustrating because wasn’t immediately obvious how the results were returned – it didn’t seem to be sorted by price or even distance away. Using the Custom Search option does let you get a little more specific on how those results are returned however.
Personally, I would have loved to be able to refine the search from the All Homes results page to weed out the listings that didn’t fit what I was looking for. Unfortunately instead, Trulia makes you go back to the beginning and start over again.
The biggest disappointment with Trulia’s app however are the listing pages themselves. Next to Utopria’s offerings they pale in comparison (see Utopria Brings Property Listings to iPhone) Only one photo? Really?
Also, it’s great that you can show me where the property is on a map, but what does staring at a pin from space really tell me? I want a little more.
StreetEasy Real Estate
StreetEasy doesn’t waste any time. The New York based real estate site just takes you right into the search results as soon as you fire it up. I actually kind of enjoyed this – the less decisions I have to make up front the better. Let me get right to the meat and then let me start carving away.
(Though I have to say, the fact that the top listing it returned on its default search was an $80 million, 4 bedroom Central Park apartment made me feel more than a little bit inadequate.)
Clicking on the Edit Search button lets you refine the results and StreetEasy makes good use of the iPhone UI elements to make the refinement easy and enjoyable – lots of tumblers to spin up and down. Making search fun is one of the things the iPhone can be great at.
On the whole, StreetEasy succeeds where Trulia fails – showing you all the photos associated with a particular listing. Clicking on the thumbnail floats all the images upwards to a gallery like environment you can thumb through. I also loved the fact that the app lets you pull up the details on the building that a particular apartment is in.
Further, StreetEasy makes it really easy to tab between the listing description, the map and the agent’s contact information. Trulia struggles to accomplish this with a slightly clumsy popup menu.
HomeFinder was created by developer Brandon Alexander (Alexander Mobile) and claims to bring over 4 million listings to the iPhone. Listings are drawn from Google Base, FSBO websites and feeds from several large MLSes and brokerages (not identified).
Compared to the two previous offerings, it’s pretty bare-bones, yet functional. HomeFinder gives you loads of options to filter a search – but it also kept crashing whenever it returned the results. So I’m going to have to withhold judgment on this app until we see a new revision.
So what’s the verdict?
StreetEasy’s iPhone app blows the competition out of the water in terms of ease-of-use, functionality and sheer slickness. Unfortunately it’s only available in New York City.
Trulia’s app looks great, gets off to a good start and then falls flat on its face. Frankly disappointing and hopefully future versions will add some of the missing features.
The others (Puluwai and HomeFinder)… well, compared to their commercial competitors, feel unpolished and struggle due to poor data sources.
So for now, there’s no clear winner. Unless you live in New York.
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Derek Overbey | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
Joel,
Thanks for the round-up. I was surprised you didn't take a look at the Terabitz iPhone app. I was still at Intero Real Estate when they launched this back in April in conjunction with Intero's new website. It can be found at http://intero.terabitz.com/iphone.
Derek
http://www.roost.com
Kori Covrigaru | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
My understanding is that Terabitz has yet to come out with an iPhone app. The link above is a web based search engine.
I’d be interested to see any virtual tours optimized for the iPhone. Has anyone seen any that can show a demo?
Kori
Sebastian | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
I have to agree with your conclusions.
Of course, I might be slightly biased towards StreetEasy. Thanks for your kind comments!
Rudy from Trulia | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
Hi Joel!
As you know, his is the first version of our app. More functionality to come in future versions which will address your points and more.
FYI – we have approx 10,000 downloads of our app thus far…..
Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia
Joel Burslem | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
@Derek – I was only evaluating the native iPhone applications available through the iTunes App store. As Kori pointed out, Terabitz has only provided an iPhone optimized version of Intero’s web site.
Ryan Elliott | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the update Joel, good as always.
I like the Trulia app, very basic but useful. I would like to see mapping integrated into the results and or search. Gives you address and how far away it is, but I guess you are supposed to guess how to get there? Would be nice to have button to show map, or show directions etc. Could display nearby schools, shopping, etc.. Would also be nice if there was click link to direct dial the agents’ phone number and web site for more info. Make it easy for the consumer to contact the agent or owner for more info. I have a feeling this is going to be a service agents are going to have to pay for.
Noticeably absent are a number of sites I thought would be all over an Iphone app. Zillow, CyberHomes, Realtor.com, and the self professed Web 2.0 company RedFin.com?
I have to hand it to Trulia for getting a good app up. I have downloaded it, and I am sure many others have as well.
Ryan Elliott | Aug 27, 2008 | Reply
I’m afraid I spoke to soon about the Trulia Mapping. I have used this for a while and didn’t notice the map button until I looked closer. I have to agree with Joel, a floating pin doesn’t cut it. Would be nice to be able to zoom in and out to see where the home is actually located.
Great start Trulia, looking forward to the next release with improvements.
Adam | Aug 28, 2008 | Reply
Great roundup. I’m ready for Zillow, Realtor, et al to release new apps. Here’s what might be cool – utilizing the iPhone GPS to know in which neighborhood I’m looking at properties, and then utilizing a recommendation engine that directs me to other properties or neighborhoods in the area I might like.
Jay Thompson | Aug 28, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for adding to my iPhone envy Joel …
I just installed a plugin that (in theory) makes my blog more iPhone friendly. Sadly,I have no way to test it to know if it even works. Wanna give it a whirl?
Ryan wrote: “Noticeably absent are a number of sites I thought would be all over an Iphone app… Realtor.com…”
Ryan, let’s give Realtor.com yet more time to get web 1.0 right before they plunge into something like this.
Derek Overbey | Aug 28, 2008 | Reply
Joel,
Thanks for the clarification. I thought they had released their native app already. I find the way companies are developing to the iPhone fascinating. It will be exciting to show you what Roost.com will provide in this space very soon.
Derek
Rudy from Trulia | Aug 28, 2008 | Reply
@Ryan – Good morning. Anyone with an iPhone can use our app for free.
The “map” tab just shows the listings on a map and when you click on it it takes you to the details of the listing.
Good news! You can pan round the neighborhood and get driving directions using the Trulia app. After you are on the details screen, click the arrow in the top right of your iPhone and you will see a number of tabs to choose from – Email to friend, Contact agent – here you can Call or email the listing agent directly [great for the consumer and for the agent - immediate contact], show on Trulia Map and Launch Google maps. Just click on the link that says “Launch Google Maps”. There you will be able to zoom in and around the neighborhood and get driving directions.
Hope this helps you. Thanks for trying out our app. More functionality to come….
Rudy
Social Media Guru at Trulia
Joel Burslem | Aug 28, 2008 | Reply
@Jay – Your site looks great on the iPhone!
BTW, FOREM has had an iPhone theme for over a year now, so any readers hitting this site with mobile Safari will get automatically redirected.
For all of you giving Realtor.com grief – they were actually the first of any of the big search portals to launch an iphone version of their site… way back in November of 2007. So let’s give ‘em a few props.
You can find it at iphone.realtor.com
James Shiner from ZIPVO | Aug 28, 2008 | Reply
@Kori – ZIPVO has video tours on the iPhone – check it out at http://www.zipvo.com.
James Bridges | Aug 29, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the roundup of iPhone applications. What still is very interesting is these companies are really zooming to create applications for the iPhone related to real estate when the user base isn’t that huge (compared with the over all cell phone market). We can’t lose site that there are plenty of other phones out there on different platforms.
Team Puluwai | Aug 30, 2008 | Reply
Joel, thanks for the ongoing excellent coverage of real estate technology. We’re proud to announce that Puluwai for iPhone update 1.01 was just released on the iTunes App Store today. The update is available here: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=283728779
We’ve added a lot of new features and improvements that our users asked for, including more direct access to search Settings, flick-pan and pinch-zoom on the embedded map, and an option to jump straight to the Maps app when desired. We’ve also greatly improved the way we display agent contact info to make it easier for the consumer to contact the agent directly.
On a related note, we are currently updating our Puluwai for Google Android product (http://puluwai.com/android.php) to match the latest Android SDK and plan to have that available as soon as the Android Market launches.
Marty Lachance | Sep 3, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for looking at our iPhone offering Joel.
Allow me to include some further comments on Utopria’s platform and our own thoughts on the iPhone in general.
First, you may have noticed that we don’t actually have an iPhone app for our Mobile MediaPod. We’ve taken a different approach to our implementation – it’s web-based and for a variety of reasons.
If you’ve viewed our iPhone demonstration video, you’ve already seen that the iPhone’s Safari browser can be tied-in quite nicely with native iPhone functionality. By designing it this way, we avoid having a potential home buyer from having to download an app prior to viewing a listing.
We have created an impressive presentation by simply using a customized web-based infrastructure.
We also questioned whether home shoppers would actually download an app that would be only temporary. Most home shoppers will not use a real estate app on their iphone for long (they are not eternal home shoppers).
In our design sessions, one of our architects brought up an enlightening point. She asked, “Would consumers download an iPhone app to shop for cars or shoes? Will all retailers create apps for their products?” We understood. Creating an app for products and services is not necessary when there is already a gateway to this type of information (Safari).
Our Mobile MediaPod is essentially a mobile representation of our online multimedia web-based version. The advantage here is that by NOT creating an iPhone app, we don’t leave any mobile users behind.
If the home shopper has a monochrome-screened flip phone, a BlackBerry or an iPhone…it’s no problem for our mobile platform, it will format the property presentation for the device in the palm of their hand.
Finally, as far as our iPhone embedded video is concerned, this is a key area where our architects hit the mark.
We don’t use the iPhone to simply jump to YouTube to play video, nor do we stream flash or other raw video content. Our Mobile MediaPod (iPhone version) streams only compliant 3G videos and this means that they
play instantly. Streaming a YouTube video or large AVI/MPEG files is not practical approach to providing mobile video content over 3G networks.
For more information or clarification, please drop by our website for our contact information.
Overland Park Real Estate | Sep 18, 2008 | Reply
The T application is getting some pretty bad reviews (3 stars as of today). A lot of people complaining about its limitations so I did not download it. Maybe the upgrade will help, when is that coming out Rudy?
Dean Klotz | Jul 28, 2009 | Reply
The future is clear with mobile computing, but realtor.com is far behind the curve. I wrote an article about the subject:
http://deanklotz.com/?p=53