Apple naysayers – your end is nigh! While it was hard to ignore how iPhone revolutionized the smartphone, with the incredible success of the iPad (2 million sold in 2 months), only the staunchest of apple opponents aren’t begrudgingly jumping on the iBandwagon.
However, what do you do if you’re just getting around to using an iProduct? Here’s a listing of the our pick for the 12 best iPhone and iPad Apps for Real Estate. Not all of them are real estate apps, but all of them are great tools for your business.
Real Estate
NearBuy:
Developed by 4 university of Missouri students, this app won the team an iPhone app creation contest in 2009. Proudly the number 2 real estate app, you can search by area, bookmark listings and see where the results fall in price without having to open the listing with Nearbuy’s coloured coded listing pins. Available for iPhone. Price: Free
Trulia:
Trulia’s iPhone app takes the Trulia website and makes it portable. Search by area, bring up detailed listings and see the properties history – has it gone up or down in price? A realtor standby, but the catch it that it doesn’t work in Canada. Still, if you can use it, Trulia is a great tool. Available for iPhone. Price: Free
Zillow:
The reigning champion of realty apps, the Zillow app provides location search, Zestimate price information, changes in price, sale and tax info, all with a clean, super simple to use interface. It’s easy to see why Zillow is number one! Better yet, it looks great on the iPad. Available for both iPad and iPhone. Price: Free
Yelp:
Need to find a restaurant in an unfamiliar neighborhood? Just want to try someplace new? Running out of gas? Don’t look further than Yelp – you can search by business, or area. The best feature though? Read the online reviews from Yelp users to take the guess work out of finding a new place to eat lunch. Available for iPhone. Price: Free
Around Me:
Not a local, but need to show clients there are plenty of amenities in a new neighbourhood? Around me is what you need. Similar to yelp, but with a more basic interface, Around me grabs your location and allows you to choose from preset categories like banks, coffee shops, movie theatres and even hospitals. View the route from where you are, add the information to your contact list or even email the information to a friend. Warning though – if the information you want is not in Google maps, it won’t be on Around Me. Still, handy if you’re in a big city. Available for iPhone. Price: Free
powerOne Financial Calculator:
There are many mortgage and finance calculators, but powerOne is the Cadillac of them all. Figure out investment income, mortgage payments, compound interest, or do some advanced algebraic equations. The well designed interface means that you’ll never sweat when trying to do complex math again. Available for both iPad and iPhone. Price: $5.99
General Productivity:
Evernote:
This app has many fans in just about every industry there is. Evernote flawlessly takes notes, pictures or audio recordings with the app, and then syncs it up to your home computer later. Add tags for even easier file retrieval. Evernote comes up in a lot of “best app” lists for a reason. Available for both iPad and iPhone. Price: Free
Dragon Dictation:
Apps like this even make the biggest tech fiend swoon. An incredibly accurate dictation app that works like a charm (speak slowly and clearly for best results), and can send your notes to text, email or the clipboard. Never drive and text again (not that you would do that!) Available for both iPad and iPhone. Price: Free
GoodReader:
Like Evernote, Goodreader has many brand evangelists – one of the best and most reliable readers for the iPad, Goodreader can view local files, download files from websites, FTP servers, Google Docs, AND use wifi to move files from your home computer to your iPhone or iPad. Reads PDFs, word documents, PowerPoint presentations, txt files… almost anything you might want to read. Available for both iPad and iPhone. Price: $0.99 (on sale now!)
iWork Suite:
Apple ported Pages, Number and Keynote (aka, Word, Excel and PowerPoint) to the iPad and the results are astounding – maybe they don’t have all the functionality of the desktop versions, but they do anything you’d ever want to do on the go. If you use a laptop mainly for email and internet, the iWork suite makes a compelling argument to ditch the laptop for an iPad. Available for iPad. Price: $9.99 each.
Social Media:
Facebook:
The official app is still the best one out there. Limited functionality (groups are not listed in the default launch screen, and you can’t read messages on for events), but if you’re a Facebook junkie, you have to download this app. Available for iPhone. Price: Free.
Twitterific:
There are about a million Twitter apps for the iPhone, and each one has its pros and cons. Twitterific gets our nod because it has one of the most intuitive user interfaces, supports multiple twitter accounts, and is super easy to use. Available for both iPad and iPhone. Price: Free version for iPhone and iPad, & a $4.99 premium version for iPhone (without ads).