The Best Real Estate Apps for Poor, Unmortgaged Millennials
If you were born between 1981 and 1996, you are a millennial, which means that the leaders of this cohort are now celebrating their 41st birthday, and you belong to the most populous generation in America. However, despite such a large population, only 17% of homeowners are millennials . In fact, there is a term for millennials who have never bought a home before: unmortgaged.
Anyone can tell you why this might be the case: a string of once-in-a-lifetime disasters (including one real plague and two very hilarious economic crashes) while steeped in student debt and inflation can kind of unsettle the wind. your sails buying housing. Despite these challenges, millennials in general still want to borrow a huge amount of money and buy a house – 69% report that they would rather own a home than continue to rent it , and most of them list the traditional reasons for this desire: Starting a family. , improving his life and telling his landlord to “fuck off” (a technical term in the real estate industry).
But another thing we know about millennials is that they’re broke as hell. Buying a house when you’re broke as hell (especially when the housing market has proven remarkably resilient to the general economic chaos) is a challenge. When you’re smart but broke, technology can provide at least some bridge to your goals, and there are plenty of real estate apps out there that can help you.
Best Real Estate Apps for House Hunters
If you are one of the unmortgaged, here are the best real estate apps for your enjoyment:
Zillow and Trulia . While it’s true that many millennials view Zillow as some sort of inspirational daydreaming activity, checking out homes they might never be able to afford, it’s also very popular for practical, important reasons: namely, filters. Playing with the Zillow filters is incredibly powerful, allowing homebuyers to narrow down their results to a precise point that includes the home’s estimated value and past sale prices. Trulia is essentially the same app as Zillow, but with a slightly different design and layout. It’s no coincidence: Zillow owns Trulia. So it all comes down to which interface you like best.
Realtor . This app offers much of the same functionality as Zillow and similar apps, but often updates faster, displaying new listings almost as soon as they hit the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). If you’re the type to compulsively update your apps, this might be a slightly better choice.
Xome . Many savvy millennials use Xome because it focuses on the real deal – homes up for auction. If you’ve ever watched a show like Flip or Flop , you’ve seen the dream in action: buy a house for a dime because it’s a wreck, then invest a lot of money and capital, and – bang, bang, boom – you have a gorgeous a house that costs twice as much. Xome focuses on these auction houses.
home snap . For a generation raised on Insta that uses reverse image search, just as the older generation used dialing information on their giant spinning landlines, HomeSnap is like catnip. You can take a picture of any house and instantly get all the details, including whether it is for sale or not. You can then set alerts so that if any of the adorable houses you’ve seen on your travels ever become available, you’ll be notified.
Large pockets . Millennials value homes for the same reasons other generations do, but they also understand that the older generation benefited from a stake in homes they bought with gum in 1970 that are now worth $2.3 million. BiggerPockets focuses on real estate investment as a way to build wealth. The great thing about this strategy is that you can, as you know, live off your investment by creating the aforementioned wealth.
. _ FlyHomes offers an “interim” financial service for people who already own a home. Instead of making an offer on your home that is contingent on the sale of your current home, FlyHomes will buy your home, allowing you to convert your offer into cash, which is always attractive to people selling their home. Although there is a fee for doing so, in an overheated real estate market, the ability to make a cash offer without any contingency is a powerful lure for millennials who don’t want to deal with the traditional headache of juggling house sales.
TikTok . Yes, the viral dance and challenge app is a shady real estate tool. While the focus tends to be on apartments and finding rental deals (and inspiring home tours), it’s also used to find homes. While TikTok does not offer any real estate or financial services per se , it is an amazing visual real estate verification tool.
homestead . While it’s not the most exciting real estate app in the world, Estately offers some data that other apps miss, like noise pollution statistics and even internet speed reports. This makes it a very useful addition to your arsenal of home finder apps.
The choice of real estate application (or applications) depends on your specific needs and preferences. Your best bet is to install a few key tools ready to go.