Some experts in real estate marketing are really starting to take advantage of mobile networks, and particularly iPhone applications.  Think about it – this makes perfect sense in the real estate industry since we already know 89% of potential homebuyers seek digital information as their first resource.  And what method of information delivery do we keep with us pretty much 24/7?  Yep, our phones – except they really aren’t just mobile telephones anymore, they are smartphones capable of providing an array of information instantaneously.

No wonder smart marketers are discovering the benefits of mobile marketing, and specifically iPhone apps.   With more than 2 BILLION applications offered through Apple’s AppStore, you can download an app for anything these days – even real estate listings.  Plus the barrier for entry is becoming much lower.  App programmers are proliferating, and the cost for building an app has decreased substantially.  Because information has become ubiquitous, it is now possible to partner with other information providers (like Google Maps for example), and link content from those resources into your application.

The results are impressive – there are some very robust and useful offerings out there now.  Let’s look at a few examples:

The Corcoran Real Estate Group’s app is very easy to use and gets high marks for visual design, and it matches up with their website graphics and functionality very nicely.

The Homes.com app is pretty simplistic, and like the website, allows limited access to real time information and visuals of the homes themselves.  They do promote it nicely on the homepage of their website though.

The Shea Homes Southern California app is one of the few homebuilder applications I thought was doing it well. Much like their website, Shea is allowing buyers to find them easily, supplying information quickly like prices, locations and directions.  Design is just so-so.

And my personal favorite:

Better Homes & Gardens Realty does it right. They give a buyer all the details he needs to make a purchase decision, including listing statistics, neighborhood information, great photos and even design and decorating suggestions with color palettes and more.  Really nicely done and a lesson for homebuilders in what is possible.

Does anyone have any great homebuilder examples to share?  We’d all appreciate learning from best practices out there.