Building a Real Estate App That Drive User Acquisition and Retention

The real estate industry is seeing intense competition due to an unprecedented rise in the trend of online property searches. As per market reports, 95% of real estate companies have their websites with listings for available properties. But when discussing a market with so much competition, creating a website is merely a tiny start.

In addition to a website, you will require a custom mobile application for your real estate business if you want to stay ahead of the competition. Moreover, historically low mortgage rates, unstable economic conditions, and migrations drive up real estate app development demand.

This rush also generates a very competitive market for real estate apps. Therefore, your real estate mobile app must stand out from the heavily crowded app stores so that people can download and use it.

What is a Real Estate Mobile Application?

Real estate mobile applications usually cater to a particular niche in the market. Clients and experts in the real estate business have various requirements. For example, renters and tenants search for rooms and apartments to move into, whereas landlords are interested in renting their property out. There are also homebuyers and realtors mainly concerned with property ownership. This is where real estate mobile app development can be a game-changer for all the entities involved.

What Makes Real Estate App Development a Dominant Trend in the Industry?

The pace at which the real estate industry is evolving is unfathomable. According to the National Association of Realtors report, over 44% of individuals looked for properties online first in 2018, and this percentage is expected to rise by 2024. The following are the main reasons for real estate application development:

• Agents can expedite their sales using a specialized real estate software package offering virtual tours, digital document signatures, and transfers.
• The app’s round-the-clock communication channel helps in real-time messaging that reduces waiting times.
• Customers will be pleased to receive comprehensive neighborhood information, swiftly use a mortgage calculator, bookmark their searches and favorite properties, and much more.

Ideas and Types of Real Estate Mobile Apps

Take note of the many participants in the real estate market: buyers, sellers, agents, and tenants. As a result, your real estate app can assist various users in solving issues.

1. Realtor Apps

Renters, buyers, and realtors may all communicate with clients quickly. Thanks to real estate application development solutions, they can always access real estate documents without any hassle. Additionally, it lessens massive paperwork mounds.

2. Buying or Renting Apps

Tenants, landlords, real estate brokers, sellers, and purchasers may all effectively search for houses to buy or rent using real estate mobile apps. Depending on their requirements, such as price, location, facilities, and more, they will have a wide range of options and filters. The real estate app automatically adds comprehensive details about each listing to search results based on users’ needs.

3. Real Estate Investment Apps

Investing in real estate investment app development is an aspiring niche. Investors and agents demand solutions that enable monitoring of purchases. However, there is one prerequisite for these apps: they must be highly customizable.

Examples: EquityMultiple, DiversyFund, ArrivedHomes

4. Home Valuation Apps

These apps give investors, landlords, sellers, and real estate agents access to a property’s actual market value. A real estate app development company integrates various features within the software that uses public and private data on historical sales and housing trends to forecast future property prices.

5. Property Listing Apps

The lists of homes and flats up for sale are easily viewed by renters, purchasers, and real estate brokers. Moreover, a property management app development offers fundamental details about each real estate item.

6. Real Estate Agent Assistant Apps

These applications are tools that brokers and real estate agents use to deliver their services. These could include property administration, documentation, virtual 3D tours of the flat, and communication between the agents and clients. Real estate app developers build an intuitive interface that assists agents and users.

Examples: Yaza, Calendly, Quickbooks, Trafft

Must-Have Features to Include in a Real Estate App

Attracting users and streamlining the purchase or sale process are the main objectives of real estate app development. Therefore, it’s critical to stay updated with emerging features and trends and integrate them into your real estate app.

• User Onboarding

The most fundamental function of real estate app development is user onboarding, which needs to be as easy as possible. It can be accomplished in three ways: phone verification, email authorization, and social media authorization.

Using the methods above, you can let users sign up for your real estate software. But, it can also be a fantastic idea to combine all of the above choices. A custom real estate mobile app development services provider can build a dynamic user interface that provides flawless user onboarding.

• User Profiles

In order to engage in various activities within the app, users must be able to create their profiles. Various user groups should have different profiles. Thus, choose a cloud-based real estate applications development firm with extensive knowledge in migrating data to the cloud.

• Property Profiles

These profiles provide a wealth of information about the property, including rich media, descriptions, images, videos, value propositions, price data, neighborhood details, owner details, and more. Based on the new photos and videos, over 80% of users decide to purchase a property or not.

• Search Filters

Filters and categories are additional choices that aid in streamlining the search process. Make sure you know the features your clients most request when going for real estate app development so you can incorporate them seamlessly.

• Favorites Listing

Real estate application development solutions allow you to compile a list of characteristics and queries for later usage to keep users interested. Agents will find it helpful to understand what interests their clients so they may provide comparable solutions. This functionality is typically highly sought after when creating a mobile application for real estate brokers.

• Map Integration

A mobile real estate app would be impossible to envision without a map. Fortunately, providing it is not difficult. A mobile app developer for hire may use a ready-made map solution from third-party providers like Mapbox or Google Maps for street views.

• Property Cost Calculators

A dedicated real estate app developer may integrate a cost calculator so that users may get automated estimates to streamline the procedure. Mortgages include monthly payments, taxes, and insurance, whereas down payments, interest, and taxes determine property expenses.

• Real-time Messaging

Comprehensive instant messaging should be available for agencies, agents, and homebuyers to interact with one another. As a prominent mobile app development solutions provider, we advise introducing voice and video conversations to increase the number of open communication channels.

• Push Notifications

Push notifications are a great way to stay in touch with potential customers and occasionally provide industry news. Even when a new property is introduced, or the prices are altered, you may let the users know.

Advance Features For Real Estate App Development

Making an app for real estate agents that could stand out may take more than just basic functionalities. Here’s an overview of the additional real estate mobile application features:

• Comparison Feature

Tenants and homeowners will find life easier with the comparison option. Users will compare housing offers on a single page rather than in different tabs. Ask your real estate app development services to embed this feature into your application to stay ahead of the competition.

• Currency Converter

Ensure that an in-app payment function is integrated with a currency converter. It will provide your consumers with even more convenience throughout the payment procedure.

• Chatbots

A chatbot for real estate industry enables customers to receive instantaneous, on-demand solutions. Automatic responses to frequently asked questions allow users to learn more about a specific topic without hunting for it within the app.

You can consult with a leading chatbot development services provider to build conversational chatbots that are intelligent and adaptive.

• Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence in real estate has advantages for both vendors and purchasers. Using AR in your app allows users to personalize residences by changing the furniture, wall colors, and interior designs.

Artificial intelligence development services incorporate your app with AI-powered tools to assess market conditions and identify investment opportunities more precisely.

• 3D Virtual Tours

Listings with virtual tours may be more appealing to homebuyers. It offers a more thorough view and arrangement of the property, giving a precise perception and comprehension that descriptions frequently need to catch up on. Ask your real estate software developers to develop real estate in the metaverse to provide a more immersive experience to your users.

Technology Stack Needed For Real Estate Application Development

For real estate app development, you need a robust backend. The following list incorporates valuable tools for real estate mobile app development solutions:

Language	Java or Kotlin for Android Swift or Objective-C for iOS.
Cloud Storage For Listing	Amazon S3
Facebook sign-in	Facebook SDK
Saved property lists	CoreData frameworks
Local or neighborhood details	Google Places API
Develop Custom Maps	Mapbox or Google Maps API
Push Notifications	Firebase SDK or Apple Push Notifications
MLS Data Flows	Spark APIs, SimpleRets
Information and Listing	Zillow API

How to Build a Real Estate App: Step-by-step Process

Now, we have reached the real estate app development procedure. Foremost, all mobile app development processes are the same:

• Research the market
• Build the product
• Launch in various stores
• Keep iterating

However, real estate app development has some particulars that make it distinct.

Step 1. Identify Your Goals

Your app cannot be created in a vacuum. Your product will fail even if you succeed. You must decide which user issue the product will address to prevent this result. To do it, you must:

• Decide which market to target
• Select the intended audience
• Investigate the market to learn about user pain points

Step 2. Determine Your Unique Selling Proposition

How are you different from them after conducting market research? What quality, feature, or offering distinguishes you from the competition?

It’s just that your product shouldn’t be unique. What if the value of your product lies in its availability? You could provide a seamless functionality that your competitors don’t offer.

Step 3. Aggregate Property Listings

The major portion of real estate apps are listings. These are ready-to-integrate real estate databases of apartments and houses into your application. Listings are necessary for real estate aggregator app development. Thus, you must ensure you have something special to give consumers when you launch a real estate app.

Step 4. Hire Mobile App Developers

When dealing with a fresh idea, it’s alluring to fall in love with it. Unfortunately, it is difficult to question something you are in love with. You need a pool of product team members who can test your proposal with actual users in order to avoid this circumstance. The development phase cannot, therefore, begin until the idea has been validated. Here, too, a team of developers is necessary.

Step 5. Build the MVP

Building a basic version of your product quickly and efficiently is crucial for MVPs. However, consider how your product might scale up and modify the architecture accordingly. A custom real estate app development solutions provider can assist you here. They will assist you in determining the simplest way to put your idea into practice.

How Much Does Real Estate App Development Cost?

Now that you know the benefits and types of real estate app development, you may be asking how much app development costs. Many factors influence the cost of developing real estate software.

Usually, the real estate app development cost relies on the following factors:

• Features
• Design
• Platform(iOS/Android)
• Technology Stack
• Hourly rate of the app development company

The mobile app development company’s location significantly impacts the hourly rates. For instance, hourly rates in North America typically range from $50 to $250, while there may be an affordable cost in Eastern Europe. The approximate cost of developing a smartphone real estate app ranges between $60,000-$65,000.

Wrapping Up

The development of mobile apps for real estate is a competitive market. Developing real estate apps like Zillow and Trulia is a challenging task. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attempt to compete in this race. Determine your specialty, market, and audience, then offer real estate mobile app development solutions to that specific group. Contact us for further recommendations on how to put your concept into practice!

Frequently Asked Questions

Q:1 What considerations should be taken before starting real estate app development?

A: Analyze existing competitors’ applications, revenue streams, and features before you begin building your real estate app.

Q:2 What were the primary challenges in developing a real estate software solution?

A: Maintaining an established and recognizable brand identity while reaching out to new markets is one of the most challenging tasks in creating any real estate management app. A very competitive market and the requirement to integrate multiple APIs could present further difficulties.

Q:3 How to select a real estate app development company?

A: To select a real estate software development company, you should analyze their portfolio, experience, and expertise, check testimonials, and read company reviews. Further, you can interview to determine whether the company is the right fit for your business.

Q:4 How do real estate applications make money?

A: There are various methods to monetize a real estate app. The most common are:

• In-app advertising
• Freemium model
• White labeling