The home search process has certainly changed since I first became a real estate agent in 1992. Back then there were no such things as "the internet" or smart phones....in fact, I started when High Tech meant you had a digital pager, ran to the nearest phone, and called the number on your pager. Today customers can access millions of property listings through their home computer, or smart phone, 24 hours a day. The following list is meant to help you with some of the phone applications that allow you to not only look for property, but to do a lot of other things that might be important in finding just the right home or neighborhood. Some of these applications might have a fee associated with it, and some are free. Be sure you look at that before you download it onto your phone. Also, some of these applications may be specific for a certain types of smart phone (e.g. I-phone, Droid, etc.).
Realtor.com
Has over 3 million listings that you can look at via your computer or phone
ZipRealty
Allows you to look at listings, as well as recent sales, in over 5,000 cities. Also gives you distance from where you are.
Zillow
Allows you to look at listings, estimated worth of any home (including those that may not be for sale), and rental rate estimates. The one thing you have to be careful of is that Zillow does not differentiate significantly different neighborhoods within a search parameter. So, you might look to see what a certain home is worth...but, because they may include an exclusive golf course neighborhood with a much more moderate neighborhood the values for both neighborhoods could be terribly inaccurate.
Wikihood
Provides you with a mini tour of almost any neighborhood in the world, including its history, culture, and compaines in the area.
Suberb Scout
This app allows you to search for any nuisances near a home (e.g. airports, railroads, landfills, sewage treatment plants).
Safe Neighborhood
This app gives you access to the National Sex Offender Registry, and can tell you locations of sex offenders in your area.
Crime Stats
Lets you see statistics on several violent crimes and property crimes for cities nationside, using FBI data. One issue for Flagstaff, however, is that the FBI stats include all the drug trafficing along interstate 40. This tends to skew the data for Flagstaff significantly even though the crimes uncovered on I-40 have little, if anything, to do with Flagstaff.
Walk Score app
Scores the walkability of most neighborhoods (with a score of 100 being perfect) based on the ease in which a resident can walk for basic services (such as a grocery store, pharmacy, restaurants, banks,etc.).
Around Me
Somewhat related to Walk Score, this app gives you approximate distances to those basic services.
SiteWise
Provides you with demographics of your home's immediate area using census data up to, and including, the 2010 census.
Photo Measures
Is an app that lets you take a picture of a room and then save the photo along with the room dimensions.
ColorSmart
With paintmaker, Behr's ColorSmart app, you can visualize colors in your prospective home. Just take a phot, then fill in the walls with a Behr paint color to check out the new look.
QR Droid
Many real estate agents, including me, use QR codes (these are like bar codes at most retail stores). These codes provide all of the information an agent wants to share about a particular property. These may appear in advertising, direct mail, or on sign riders at the property itself. Simply take a picture of the QR code, and the information (including pictures) is instantly streamed onto your cell phone. I'm sure the I-phone has a similar app.