Apps on the home front: tech offerings lend a hand to buyers, sellers and renters.

• Author: Jackson, Margaret
• Position: REAL ESTATE ROUNDUP

In addition to offering Web-based searches for homes, a variety of companies have developed apps designed to put the buying process in the palm of your hand.

Move Inc., which operates realtor.com, reported its average monthly unique visitors to both its Web and mobile sites grew 13 percent year-over-year to 23.9 million in the fourth quarter of 2013, proving consumers are continuing to leverage tech tools for their home-search process.

Most residential-search applications are products of technology companies, but Seattle-based Redfin is a real estate agency that's developed such a tool. Buyers strolling through neighborhoods carrying GPS-equipped smartphones armed with Redfin's app are alerted to open homes in the vicinity.

"In a fast-moving market, we've been able to arm our customers with better, faster information," said Bridget Frey, vice president of engineering for Redfin. "If you find out about a house a week before a traditional broker tells one of their customers, you have a better chance of buying it."

Redfin serves 23 markets across the United States, including Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont.

Redfin also helps sellers estimate the value of their homes before contacting agents. Its Home Value Tool is the new-and-improved version of its home-price estimator, which helped increase Redfin's listing business by 120 percent after its March 2012 launch.

Under the traditional model, agents create a list of homes in a client's neighborhood that have sold in recent months, then narrow it to a list of four or five homes most similar to the client's residence. The agent bases his or her recommended price on the average of those sales.

But the Home Value Tool gives homeowners the ability to estimate the value of their homes independently. Users enter their address and the program provides a list of recently sold homes in the area. The tool calculates the home value based on the average of three similar houses and displays a chart for comparison and further analysis. The site also includes a button to allow users to contact a Redfin agent in the area.

"We are one of the few companies combining technology and services," said Frey. "It's changed the expectation of consumers."

While most agents receive a standard 3 percent commission on the sale of a house, Redfin pays agents salaries plus benefits. Brokers receive bonuses based on customer satisfaction.

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