Over the past decade, we have seen significant changes in how consumers choose products and services. Technology has allowed consumers to operate more independently and cut costs, fees, and expenses in various industries, including travel, consumer goods, and legal services. Will real estate agents eventually lose their relevance, though?

A real estate purchase is frequently a part of a multi-stage process; therefore, we must determine whether each stage may be handled and controlled by technology without an agent. The stages of a typical consumer real estate procedure are as follows:

  • Need: A buyer chooses to acquire a house.
  • Location: The customer selects a region or neighbourhood to search in.
  • Choice: The buyer chooses one or more properties that attract them.
  • Inspection: The buyer visits one or more chosen homes in person or electronically.
  • Offer: The buyer evaluates the home’s market value and makes an offer on those terms.
  • Negotiating: The buyer and seller haggle about a price that works for both parties.
  • Escrow: The house goes into escrow, and the buyer conducts a formal inspection, checks the title, open permits, and other property encumbrances, and escrows a deposit.
  • Closing: The seller gives the buyer the title and the keys. The buyer delivers the money.

In the past, each of the above processes has been facilitated by a real estate agent. The broker frequently manages the selection process due to familiarity with the market’s inventory.

Similar to how they act as advisors to their buyers and sellers, agents frequently mediate the negotiation of a reasonable price. However, even an awareness of market pricing is often insufficient to bring the parties together in residential real estate transactions because both the buyer and the seller typically have emotional factors to consider.

Thanks to the simplicity of on-the-go searches, real estate applications receive millions of weekly visits. According to the National Association of Realtors, 76% of homebuyers use a smartphone or tablet device, and 97% start their research online.

Mobile real estate apps can access a sizable database of homes, apartments, and commercial structures. Through searches that are filtered by location, several bedrooms, square footage, and other factors, they are helpful to potential homeowners, tenants, and investors.

Based on their user interface, search effectiveness, inventory size and accuracy, customer service, and dependability, we evaluated 5 real estate applications.

Zillow

Apartments can be listed on Zillow for sale, rent, or lease, along with options to virtually tour properties and get in touch with brokers. On Zillow, you may also browse properties through photos and video tours. Even update notifications for specific properties can be sent to users via the app.

Multiple listing agencies, private sellers who advertise their own homes for sale, auctions, foreclosures, and other sources all contribute to the supply of property listings.

Xome

One of the largest collections of exclusive properties can be found on the Xome Auctions app, which can be downloaded from the Apple and Android app stores. The pre-auction function on Xome enables users to make early bids on properties. In addition, Xome offers quick closing and transparent requests.

By location, status, and auction asset types, such as bank-owned, short-sale, or recently foreclosed properties, you can search for residential or commercial auctions. Sort properties by price, number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, upcoming auctions, or upcoming auctions ending. You can view the historical worth of the home over time by using the app, which also contains a listing and sales history, a walk, commute.

LoopNet

Investors in commercial real estate only can use LoopNet. This is not a search app for houses to buy and live in or for rental apartments.

If you wish to buy or rent a house, you can narrow your search by location. 12 different categories of properties can be searched, including multifamily residential buildings, offices, retail, and healthcare facilities—set filters for price, size, construction year, and capitalization rate.

Realtor.com

It displays the updated rental listing date. This is useful when users are looking for the latest information. Information on nearby schools and noise is also provided. The app allows rental property owners to easily emphasize their home’s best qualities and offer potential tenants a clear sense of the place before they even step foot inside by showing houses through images and occasionally video tours.

Trulia

The program offers the customer a variety of methods to view a property. You can browse information about the property, nearby restaurants, stores, commuting hours, and demographics of the neighborhood, for example. With two different applications, Trulia and Rent Trulia, you may look for both homes and apartments for more specialized searches.

In terms of demographics, the app may show you what locals have to say about the neighborhood, such as how easy it is to park or whether the neighborhood is walkable at night. Trulia is an excellent tool for estimating property values because they base their estimates on more variables than others, including local comparative sales of comparable homes, city and county assessments, and historical price trends.