How do you find your perfect home? Thankfully, it’s not like it used to be. There’s an app for everything these days, including finding the house of your dreams, whether it’s among the homes for sale in Charleston, SC or anywhere else. Speaking of Charleston, its latest inventory included 4,598 listings – that’s a lot of properties to search through without help. The perfect example of why you need an app for that.
But not only are there apps for finding the right home, there are all sorts of great apps for house hunters, including these top picks.
Credit Karma
Before you even start looking for homes, you need to know your credit score to determine whether you’ll be able to get a home loan, and if so, an idea of the interest rate. Credit Karma is a free app that will not only provide you with a score, but it will send you an alert when there are any major changes to it as well as offer tips on how to improve your credit.
Mortgage Calculator
Another step to take before searching through those properties, is to figure out just how much home you can afford. With the Quicken Loans Mortgage Calculator app, you can input your income, debts and an interest rate to determine what you can afford. If you aren’t sure what rate to put in, current interest rates can be found in the app too. The results will reveal what amount you may be able to get preapproved for based on the estimates you’ve put in.
Redfin Real Estate
Redfin’s app is a must when it’s time to search for your new home, with all sorts of great features like for sale by owner (FSBO) listings, short sales alters and a foreclosure notifier. You can search for properties of all types, from homes and condos to townhouses as well as open houses, making it easy to take a tour, getting a much better idea of what’s actually behind that enticing exterior. It includes maps, photos and built-in sharing tools so you can send your favorites to your spouse, friend, family member or anyone else via email, social media or text. Use the “favorites” feature so that you can be notified if the house changes status too. And, with the Real Estate Agent feature, you can even book a home tour right from your phone.
Evernote
Once you’ve found that perfect home and your offer is accepted, you’ll still have a lot of work ahead of you, and Evernote is an app that can be a big help. You can keep all sorts of information organized, store important documents, including mortgage applications, and you can add your spouse or even your real estate agent to keep everyone in the loop.
