Modesto Real Estate – Luz Martinez

Saturday, May 8 10:00am at Whitmore Mansion, Ceres, CA Hot Latin Nights Featuring Malo & Jorge Santana. An evening of great Latin music, foods, vendor booths. 1,000 attendees expected.

If you’re buying a home, you’re looking for an apartment or you just enjoy attending open houses, you can find help from a dizzying number of new smartphone applications.

Just two years ago, when apps for the iPhone began to appear, searching for homes and apartments online was a novelty. Now it’s routine to tap a few keys on a smartphone for a list of all the homes for sale near where you’re standing, along with photos, driving directions and details about the property.

“The world of mobile has changed very, very much, from the number of phones out there to the types of devices available,” said John Lim, chief executive of Mobile CardCast, a New York company that builds mobile apps for real estate brokerages and other businesses.

Depending on the app, you can see not only listings but also such nitty-gritty details as lot size, the type of foundation and kind of floors a house has. Many of the apps draw their data from multiple listing services (MLS), which means the information about for-sale homes can be nearly as complete on a smartphone as on a Web site that draws from an MLS.

Most apps allow you to call the real estate agent who’s listing the property or to call an apartment’s property manager. Some let you save your favorite search results. The app from brokerage Redfin will allow you to upload your own photos of a certain property – taken during an open house, for example – and integrate them with notes and photos you’ve already saved on the company’s Web site.

Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman said when his company developed its iPhone app, it initially was a stripped-down version of what was available on the Web site, with fewer photos and less detail. But that soon changed.

Read more: http://www.modbee.com/2010/04/28/1145346/mobile-apps-for-buying-or-renting.html#ixzz0n4vl5Wz6