The Future of House-hunting: The Best Websites and Apps to find Your Next Abode

It is officially “the future.” We are now living in a day and age where you can order many of your groceries online and have them shipped to your house in less than two business days and for all of your other needs, you can order them and have them picked up at your local grocery store or even delivered to your front door. You literally do not have to leave your house for anything. So of course, if buying groceries can be that easy- then so can finding a home to buy or rent. After exploring the internet for all of five minutes, I was able to find hundreds of awesome apps and websites that do all of the work for you. And yes, I said HUNDREDS, but don’t worry- I narrowed the list down to the websites and apps that I found to offer unique features and that were overall the most helpful.So, if you are looking to buy a home and you just do not have the spare time available to house hunt, here is a list of some pretty cool and helpful apps and websites to alleviate the stressful search.

Zillow:This is probably one of the most popular house hunting websites on the internet, if not the most popular. This website proves to be very versatile, offering many different options, if not the most options, that I did not find on any other apps or websites. The agent finder option on Zillow comes complete with reviews, photos of real estate agents, how many listings each agent currently has and how many listings each agent has recently sold. Zillow also offers up a list of people who work in the home improvement field. If you need to find a roofer, carpet cleaners, painters, interior designers, as well as, property managers, builders, home inspectors, photographers and much more- you can find them all on Zillow. There are also reviews, ratings, licensing, photos, videos, and more professional information about the afore mentioned individuals and companies.
A neat feature offered by Zillow is the Home Design feature, called “Zillow Digs.” If you are thinking of building, improving or completely remodeling your home- this feature is probably something that you would want to check out. You can search by room type, cost, color, style or all of the above and find photos of different room ideas to use as inspiration.
The final aspect of Zillow that I found to stand out from other home search sites is Zillow Porchlight. This feature consists of thousands of articles and blogs about all things home. There are also interactive quizzes that you can take that just makes the site that much more fun.

Realtor.Com: This website is a little more to the point for homebuyers and renters. There are not a lot of unique options on the website but one thing that I did find to set this website aside from the rest is that you can check to see if your neighborhood or potential neighborhood is increasing in value. There is a tab called, “Just Sold,” that you can click on to see recently sold homes and properties in a specific area.
Realtor.com also offers extensive information on mortgages. You can check on pre-approval, mortgage and refinance rates with mortgage calculators. This website also offers professional financial advice, along with the latest real estate news and blogs that offer insight on home buying, selling, financing, and home improvement.

Doorsteps.com: The first thing that I notice about this website is how visually appealing it is. This site offers photos, maps and articles related to the area that you are searching for. Besides the way it looks, you are probably wondering, what makes this site great? I think it’s the fact that you can compare prices between towns or cities, nearby or even across the country. This is helpful in the event that you have to make a decision between job offers or colleges. Sometimes prices range significantly between a town that may be only ten to fifteen minutes away from somewhere that you are house or apartment hunting. Doorsteps also offers articles from and about particular cities that you may be looking to move to.

Doorstepsbuy.com: This is an addition to Doorsteps.com. It feels like it may be geared toward a younger audience or toward a first time homebuyer, at least. So this website is basically an interactive profile that documents your personal home-buying experience. You take quizzes to get personalized help and these quiz stages consist of visualization; assessing buying power (credit score, mortgage information, down payment and lender information, pre-approval, etc.); house hunting; the stages of making an offer and negotiations; all information in order to prepare for closing; and finally closing and moving in. You can also create a buying profile where you provide information about anything from your budget to your ideal dream home to your personal deal breakers. Doorstepsbuy.com is just an awesome way to keep a portfolio of your journey and to have something to look back on once the process is over or if you ever decide to buy another home.

Doorsteps Swipe: This is the app version of Doorsteps for your phone. It is like the Tinder of home buying and renting. You can save and delete homes that you are interested or uninterested in. You literally swipe left or right, like the dating app. You set your personal preferences so that you will mostly see homes that you would be interested in. You can also share homes that you are interested in with your friends and family.

Real Estate Xome: This website offers an auction tab that allows you to look through many different properties including bank owned properties, non-bank owned properties, older and newer foreclosures, residential auctions and short sales. Xome also provides a list of upcoming auction events complete with photos, as well as listing and agent information. You can register and begin bidding on properties online through this feature.

Homes.com: This website offers an awesome demographics feature. Through this feature, you can see job, employment, and income information about a particular area, as well as projected growth for that same area. This feature also shows past, current and projected populations. Homes.com also provides Lifestyle demographics along with nearby schools, dining and shopping options which is valuable information for most people planning to move to a new area.

These are just a handful of websites to use while searching for a home to buy, rent or sell. There are many other great sites such as Trulia, Redfin, HomeFinder, Estately, and as I said the list could go on forever. However, If you would like to narrow your search and leave home-buying out of the equation, there are also many websites and apps geared toward finding an apartment rental. All of the following websites offer apps, as well as the capability to request information about a particular listing or even apply for a rental.

Abodo.com: This website offers 3-D virtual tours which adds a very nice and modern touch to the dreaded apartment hunt. In addition to this feature, the website also provides the “verified” feature which is the price and availability verified by an actual person so that your time is not wasted. There are also many special features for students who would like to sublet a room. Abodo also makes it very quick and easy to schedule apartment tours.

HotPads: This website offers the ability to check commute times from the property to a desired destination. This would be helpful if you are a student, need to know how long it takes to get to and from work, or just don’t want to be too far away from your family and friends. One of the cooler aspects of HotPads is that it shows a response rate, when the ad for the apartment was posted, it compares prices to other rentals in the area that are similar, and shows competition by providing how many views a property has had in the last week and how many times the realtor was contacted. The estimated monthly utilities cost, including the cost of gas, electric, and water are all provided. Lastly, It recommends other listings based on your appeared interests.

Padmapper: This website is more specific to major cities and seemingly specific to a younger generation. A large description of the chosen city is given and then it lists landmarks, activities, information about transportation, sports teams and events, typical weather trends, job opportunities, photos, rental trends (whether prices are going up or down), advice is provided along with photos and comparisons of different major neighborhoods in the chosen city. This is another visually appealing website that almost has the ability to make you want to move to the city you are looking into, if you do not want to already.

Aside from just looking for an apartment or home to rent, you may be looking to move, but do not want to stay long or maybe you just do not want the responsibility that comes with signing a long term lease, or you may have already signed a lease but your roommate is moving out and you need to replace him or her soon, then you may want to look into websites and/or apps to find a roommate or sublet a room or apartment. I have found and listed below some really great websites and apps that can assist in meeting these needs.

Roomi: Through this site you can find or list a room. While looking for a room, you will find a profile of a roommate or multiple roommates with background information, photos, employment information, personal interests, and overall what he, she or they are looking for. Information regarding the deposit, the length of the sublet, and the move in date are all listed as well.

Roomiematch.com: If you are a little more particular about who your roommates are, this website is very thorough. There is a free version of the website and there is a “cheap” version of the website. No matter which version you choose, you must first fill out a questionnaire and be approved by actual humans before you can have a profile on the site. If you choose the free version and your questionnaire is accepted, then you will have to wait for potential roommates who pay for the “cheap” version to reach out to you. Through your responses on the questionnaire, you will be compared to others on the site and in turn paying customers will be provided with a match percentage and the ability to view and reach out to other site users. This is a really good site because, as I said earlier, it is very thorough in the fact that it asks very important questions pertaining to a living situation. Some of the questions include inquiries about personal hygiene, how clean you keep your space, how you are with sharing your personal belongings, eating habits and even how often you enjoy watching T.V. Although some of these factors may seem small to some, they are all factors that have been known to make or break a living situation at some point or another. In other words, it is better to be safe than sorry and ask as many questions as possible before committing to living with someone that you have never met.

Roomster: This website offers the option to look for an entire apartment to sublease or just a room to rent. Once you make this decision, it will narrow your search so that you can find a potential roommate. There is a lot of information provided about individuals on Roomster including cleanliness, party habits, sleep-cycles, whether he or she is a smoker and if they smoke inside or outside, their work schedule, his or her profession, etc. If you are listing a room, there is a “megaphone” option that gives you the ability to feature your listing and reach people of a specific demographic which could prove to be an important feature for a lot of people but especially for individuals who are looking for a more professional minded roommate.

Technology is certainly becoming our friend in the real estate market and allowing real estate agents and property managers to get their listings out there now more than ever. It is exciting that there are so many fun and useful websites and apps to assist individuals with one of the most important financial journeys, if not the most important journey in someone’s life.