It’s a fact of life: At some point,\r\nyou will have to move. Maybe you need more space; maybe you’re relocating for a\r\nnew job. But regardless of the reason, when you’re looking for a new apartment,\r\nyou can use all the help you can get.
You can opt to use a realtor–or\r\nyou can make use of the tools you have in your very pocket. That’s right, an\r\napartment might just a few taps away. All you need is the right app.\r\nThankfully, the Google Play Store has plenty of them. Here are five tools I\r\nthink are best suited for apartment searching. Let’s see what’s in store for\r\nyour next big move.
Note: This gallery is also available as an article.
And with Apartments.com, you can\r\nstart your search on your computer and continue that search on the go. To get\r\nthe most out of Apartments.com Rental Search, you do have to sign into an\r\nApartments.com account. Both the account and the app are free.
Find something you like, tap on it,\r\nand then tap REQUEST INFO. Simple. You can “favorite” or share a\r\nlisting via the built-in Android sharing system. If you plan to use the favorites,\r\nyou will have to sign into a Trulia account (which is free). Trulia also\r\nincludes a notification system, which allows you to stay up to date on a\r\nlisting. By signing into your Trulia account, you get quite a bit more\r\ninformation and features… so this is highly recommended.
You will not find an app that\r\nallows you to narrow your search criteria more specifically than Zillow. Once\r\nyou find a listing that piques your interest, you can get a street view of the\r\nlocation, add notes, search nearby, contact the agent, and more.
RadPad offers a kitschy wizard that\r\nasks you questions about yourself (such as whether you have any rad kids or pets,\r\nor whether you’re a smoker). A word of warning, once you find yourself within the\r\nwizard, you can’t escape it…so complete it. This wizard does help fine-tune\r\nyour searches and also gives listers a bit of information about you.
From within a listing, you can get\r\nall the necessary details, tap to call the lister, send an email to the lister,\r\nshare the listing, add the listing as a favorite, and more. HotPads may not\r\noffer all the bells and whistles that some of the other apps provide, but its simple\r\ninterface will make this app one of your favorites.
Jack Wallen is an award-winning writer for TechRepublic, The New Stack, and Linux New Media. He's covered a variety of topics for over twenty years and is an avid promoter of open source. For more news about Jack Wallen, visit his website jackwallen.com.
