The best property apps for buyers, investors, renters

• Buying, investing, renting, renovating?
• A look at the best property apps.
• Key features and benefits of each.

Whether you are buying a house to live in, investing in property, renovating or renting, there are plenty of apps to help you with the information you need.

Buying or renting a property can be a bit of a minefield. There is usually a lot of information you need to gather and things you need to put in place before you are in a position to buy.

What sort of house are you looking for? Where would you like to buy? How much can you afford to spend? Have you got references handy? How much will you be able to borrow? Can you physically attend auctions?

Once you buy a place, maybe you need to do some renovations. Or perhaps you have to manage an investment property.

These are just some of the things you need to consider and thankfully the apps below have you covered:

Real Estate - Market research

Far and away the most popular real estate website in Australia, with roughly 6 million unique users per month, realestate.com.au also boasts the most popular app.

It has a simple interface that gives you most of the same features as the desktop site.

There are four ‘tabs’ at the bottom of the app page: ‘search’, ‘collections’, ‘notifications’ and ‘me’.

You can search under ‘buy’, ‘rent’ or ‘sold’ and use a whole range of parameters to narrow down your search at the tap of a button, including price range, number of bedrooms and type of property.

The collections tab allows you to save, organise and monitor your favourite properties.

Your notifications can include things such as updated inspection times, a new property coming onto the market or new pictures being added to a property listing you liked.

The ‘me’ tab features things such as the estimated value of your house, and similar sales in your area. It also features suggested properties, based on ones you have ‘liked’ on the app.

Credit Health - Get your credit score

If you are going for a home loan, having a good credit score is a key consideration.

Having a good credit score means you are much more likely to get the loan as your lender will see you as trustworthy with debt. You are also more likely to be offered a more favourable interest rate.

Credit Health from Finty was the first credit score monitoring app to be released in Australia. It makes it easy to monitor your credit score for free, so you can see how it changes over time. There is also clear information about what your credit score means.

Once you download the app, signing up for free is a simple process, and after giving verification details, you can access your credit score.

You can check your credit score as often as you like, and get notified if it has changed. As well, you can track your repayment history and keep an eye on the accounts listed in your credit report.

Credit Health also allows you to watch out for any unusual activity, like any applications you didn’t make.

Still within the app, you can compare credit cards, personal loans and home loans and apply over your phone at the touch of a button.

Gavl - Place remote bids

Want to place a bid on a property at auction but can’t get to the site?

The Gavl app allows you to watch auctions and place bids on homes from wherever you are.

You can track property listings and set reminders for when auctions are going to start. Then settle in and watch.

A Gavl representative at the auction will check their electronic tablet for bids and bid on your behalf.

If your bid is successful, you can even sign legally-binding documents and pay deposits using the Gavl app.

The app also gives you auction results immediately after the auction finishes and can tell you how many people were at the auction and how many bidders there were.

Another feature of the app is live-streamed home viewings so you don’t have to go to a property to check it out.

The auctions Gavl covers aren’t restricted to Australia, with the app showing auctions from a number of countries.

BrickX - Fractional real estate investing

Wanting to get into property but deterred by the cost?

Fractional investing in real estate, where many people buy a share of a property, could be a solution.

BrickX is a fractional investment platform that describes itself as a simple and low-cost way to enter the property market while building up a deposit.

It works like this: BrickX representatives buy real properties and divide them into 10,000 ‘bricks’ which are made available for people to buy.

For example a property bought for $1m would be divided into 10,000 bricks worth $100 each.

The value of the ‘bricks’ tracks the real value of the property, so if the property value increases, so does the value of your bricks.

Brick owners earn rental income on the property according to how many bricks they own and if they later sell their bricks (to other BrickX owners) they are eligible for capital returns.

Once you sign up, you agree to make monthly investments.

You can either have the BrickX team invest in houses from their portfolio, or you can choose directly which houses you want to invest in.

While not an app, the BrickX site is mobile-friendly and easy to use.

It gives clear instructions about how the process works and also lists the properties the BrickX team has invested in, showing a picture of the house, the purchase price and number of investors, estimated rental yield and 20 year historical growth for the suburb.

It also includes a jazzy calculator which will estimate your rental and capital returns.

Differently - Property management made easy

If you own a property, keeping track of maintenance and finances can be a hassle. Differently aims to simplify the process.

The app keeps all of your property maintenance information in the one place, so it is easy to.

It has a simple interface that lets you track key items such as:

• Expenses. Track all your incoming and outgoing expenses as well as historical data.
• Maintenance. Check all past and present maintenance requests.
• Lease. How long and for how much your property is being leased for, how long is left on your lease and details on your tenants.
• Documents. You can store all your documents, such as your lease agreement and landlord insurance, on the app.

Airtasker - Find tradies

Airtasker has expanded to include a whole section for tradies, so when you need something done on your property you can hire a qualified tradesperson for the job.

You detail what job you want done, the time and place and how much you are willing to pay.

Tradies will then ‘bid’ for your job and tell you why they are the best person for the job.

The app includes ratings of tradies so you are likely to get a good idea of what they are like before you engage them.

Rent - Compare the market

The Rent.com.au app aims to take the hassle out of finding a place to rent. It’s packed with a host of handy features that allow you to keep the information you need in one place.

It includes maps of areas you are interested in with price tags of available properties to rent, information about local areas and rental insights into median rental prices in the suburb you are interested in.

One of the most useful features is the WalkScore. When you call up a potential property to rent, the Walk Score, which is ranked between 1-100, will indicate how walking-friendly the suburb is, i.e. will you need a car to get around, or are most shops and amenities within reasonable walking distance? A score of 100 means the suburb is great for pedestrians, while a score at the lower end of the scale suggests you will need a vehicle.

It also allows you to set up a ‘renter resume’ including things such as a short bio, details about your employment, rental history, references and when you are available to move.

This saves you having to fill out all that information each time you apply for a rental property.

Another couple of handy features include the opportunity to have your bond paid up-front (you repay in instalments) and have your gas and electricity connected through AGL before you move in.

The app will also tell you if the property you are keen on renting is NBN ready and will send you notifications when new places become available to rent.

Pinterest - Design inspiration

The hugely popular platform is full of inspiration for all manner of pursuits and renovation is no exception.

If you are looking for ideas for your renovation, there is a good chance someone else has done it already or has a unique take to share on Pinterest.

Search for a relevant keyword and check out the thousands of detailed descriptions (with great pics) that people, and companies, have posted on the site.

Kickback - Cashback on renovation

This site lets you earn cash back on purchases at a huge array of shops including The Good Guys, Catch, JB Hi-Fi, and Bed Bath N’ Table among others.

Kickback earns a commission for each purchase they send through to stores from their site and when you buy something through them, most of that commission goes to you. The money is sent either directly to your nominated bank account or to PayPal.

You can search for products using ‘merchants’, ‘brands’, or ‘categories’ menus. You can also use the search bar at the top of the site.

We looked for a shovel using the search bar and found an aluminium collapsible utility shovel from catch.com.au for $44.99 with an estimated cashback of $1.35.

The more you buy, the greater the cashback you can get.

At the moment, Kickback is running a mobile-friendly desktop site and its app is coming soon.