Realtor.com Review: A Powerful Real Estate App for Home Buyers and Renters

Bottom line: Whether you're looking for a home to rent or buy, the Realtor.com app offers everything you need to find a new home. You input parameters, such as the type of property you're hoping to buy, desired amenities, and how much you're willing to spend, and Realtor.com conducts a search for you. The app will even calculate how much you can afford to spend on a home.

At a glance

What is Realtor.com and how does it work?

Realtor.com is a feature-packed real estate app for consumers who want to buy or rent a home. Through its search feature, you can look for homes for rent or for sale anywhere in the United States. Use the app's many filters to narrow down your search, and then view results in either a list or a map view.

Listings in the Realtor.com app include information about the home itself and the surrounding neighborhood, including nearby schools, the noise level, and the flood risk. Some listings also include 3D tours that let you see what the home is like from your phone. If you're interested in a home, you can schedule a tour or contact the real estate agent through the app. Don't want to schedule anything yet? You can always save a listing to your favorites. Or, if you don't want to see a listing you've already ruled out, you can hide it.

In addition to its real estate listings, Realtor.com provides a robust set of financial tools. The app can help calculate what your monthly costs will be and how much you can afford based on your current income and expenses. You can also check mortgage rates. Plus, you can get pre-approved for a mortgage.

Top perks

Buy or rent a home

Realtor.com has a massive selection of houses as well as alternatives to single-family homes, including:

• Condos
• Townhomes
• Multi-family houses

While there are millions of listings on the Realtor.com app, it's simple enough to search for what you want. Just open either the Buy or Rent tab, and then enter the location. You'll quickly have all the results in that area, and you can view them in a list or on a map.

Extensive search filters

Another reason it's easy to find what you're looking for with Realtor.com is the app's search filters. There are quite a few ways to trim down your results. There are all the basic options, including property type, price range, number of bedrooms, and number of bathrooms. There are also plenty of more specific features you can add, such as a pool, a single- or multi-story home, central heating and air, a waterfront location, or a mountain view.

Detailed home and neighborhood information

Listings vary depending on the information provided, but they tend to be very thorough and detailed. You can typically see when the home was built, the size, cost per square foot, past sales, and property tax records. Realtor.com also provides ample information on the surrounding neighborhood. It offers a list of nearby schools with their number of students and GreatSchools Rating, the noise level in the area, and the risk of natural disasters.

Connect with a local agent

Whether you want to buy or sell a home, Realtor.com can connect you with a local real estate agent. It offers free agent connection services, with no hidden fees and no obligation required.

Save, share, or hide listings

There are a few helpful options Realtor.com offers to keep listings sorted. If you find one you like, you can add it to your list of favorites. Want to share a listing with your spouse? Just click the Share icon. Especially useful is the option to hide listings. When you're shopping for a new home, it gets frustrating to see the same listings over and over. With Realtor.com, you can hide listings you don't want to see anymore.

Financial tools

Home buyers can use the Realtor.com app's monthly cost calculator to see what the expenses of home ownership would be based on their mortgage, property taxes, insurance, and HOA fees. Another tool that can come in handy shows you how much house you can afford depending on your income and expenses. There's also the option to get pre-approved for a mortgage within the app, although it's always smart to shop around to see what the best mortgage lenders are offering.

Contact agents and schedule tours

Listings include the option to fill out a contact form and send the real estate agent an email. Or, if you want to go directly to scheduling a tour, you can do that through the app. After you select that option, you'll be able to choose a day and time window that works for you.

Get home data instantly with Street Peek and Sign Snap

Two of the more unique features offered by Realtor.com are Street Peek and Sign Snap, which allow users to get home data using their phone cameras. Both of them make it easier to look up properties when you're out and about.

With Street Peek, you can point your phone's camera at a home, and if that home is in the Realtor.com database, the app will automatically pull up details on that property. Sign Snap is similar, except it works by pointing your phone's camera at a For-Sale sign. If the home is in the database, then you'll immediately get its details.

What could be improved

Can't list home for sale in app

While you can sell your home through the Realtor.com real estate website, it isn't an option through the app. This can be inconvenient for a potential client if you don't get on the computer much and would prefer to set up your home listing from your phone. Many real estate apps offer the option to list your home, so Realtor.com is lacking here.

No home value estimate

On several competitors' apps, you can find listings that include an estimate of the home's value. You don't get that through the Realtor.com app, as it doesn't have home value estimates.

To be fair, though, estimates like these are often inaccurate. The algorithms that real estate apps use rely in large part on public data. They're often much different than the kind of estimates you'd get with professional home appraisals. Still, you can at least get a quick estimate with other apps, including Zillow and Redfin.

If you want an app that helps you sell your home: Zillow allows you to rent or sell your home, and making a home listing is free of charge. If you're looking to buy or rent a new home, you might want to go with Realtor.com, because it lets you hide listings you don't like. Zillow doesn't have that feature.

If you want an app for purchasing commercial real estate: LoopNet leads the pack when it comes to commercial real estate. You can find properties for sale and for lease, as well as auctions and business sales. But if it's a new home you're after, stick to Realtor.com.

The Realtor.com app is free of charge. There's no cost to download it, check out homes, get in touch with real estate agents, or arrange home tours.

Consumers who are looking for their next home, whether they want to buy or rent. Realtor.com is easy to use, it's free, and it has a massive selection of homes.

Prospective home buyers, in particular, should definitely give this app a try. If you're still in the early stages, you can use it to review mortgage rates and get an idea of how much home you can afford. If you're ready to buy, you can schedule tours or find a real estate agent who can help you as you search for the right home.