These Are the Top 3 MLS Apps for Real Estate

Buyers and real estate professionals use different MLS apps for real estate to search the respective MLSs for properties or collaborate with colleagues and clients.

Many versions of these apps are on the market, both for Android and iPhone (Apple) devices.

So, you may ask yourself which ones are the best or the top 3.

Finding that out is a complex endeavor because you need to scroll and swipe through many options on the Google Play platform or the Apple app store.

According to the scoring of my in-depth analysis, the top 3 MLS apps on Google Play (Android devices) are Trulia, Redfin, and Homesnap Real Estate & Rentals.

The top 3 on the Apple app store also include Trulia and Redfin, but Movoto Real Estate is number three. 

Read on if you would like to know how I came to this conclusion and also learn more about my observations of the MLS app usage in the real estate industry.

 

What MLS Apps Usually Do and What They Can Help You With

Before I describe what MLS Apps across the market can usually do for you, it’s first important to know the workings of multiple listing services. 

I am sure you already know more or less what it is, but you never know. 

It’s a database made by different cooperating real estate brokers, including properties for sale.

The aim is to see one another’s property listings so you can better connect home buyers to sellers.

So, in a way, it’s a collaboration tool that supports co-brokerage activities.

Usually, only affiliated brokers and licensed real estate agents can access this database, and they update it regularly.

To get access, they pay a membership fee.

Nationwide, there is not just one database or MLS but many different ones. It was 580 in the U.S. in 2020 (source).

Why so many different ones?

This is because local brokers work together in their respective geographic areas, and to better work together, they are building or have built their own regional MLS.

The existence of so many different ones often means they have their procedures. 

They are not entirely free in that aspect because they need to follow some guidelines and rules defined by the National Association of Realtors.

What rules need to be followed?

Most importantly, a property listing must include information about the commission charged to the seller.

So, what do MLS apps usually do in this context?

They give you access to an MLS on your smartphone to search different properties using it.

But different apps differ in functionality and what they can do with the data they access from the MLS. 

Some apps are more tailored to potential buyers, so they can search for properties and then contact a realtor.

Some are more tailored to real estate professionals, such as realtors who can edit, share, or suggest property listings with colleagues.

Here is a collection of typical features and functionalities all these apps have (some more, some less):

For Real Estate Professionals

• Editing basic listing information
• Automatically syncing data with the respective MLS
• Communication with customers (text, phone, email, etc.)
• Sharing property listings with clients
• Sharing property listings with colleagues
• Social media sharing of property listings
• Generating market statistics
• Client activity tracking
• Automatic property listing suggestions to clients
• Accessing property history (tax, mortgages, etc.)
• Home value estimation
• Display of parcel boundaries
• Open house planning
• Scheduling showings

For Potential Home Buyers

• Basic search with filters
• Map search
• GPS-based property search
• Saving searches and contacts
• Sharing of property listings
• Scheduling showings
• Communication with real estate pros (text, phone, email)
• Mortgage calculations
• Accessing tax information
• Navigation functionality (via GPS)
• Open house search
• Agent and office information look-up
• Satellite Imagery
• Display of parcel boundaries
• Property alerts
• Market stats and trends
• Walkscore Rating
• Accessing property history (taxes, mortgages, etc.)
• Home value estimation

 

MLS Apps for Android and iPhone

Before we can rank the different MLS apps in a nice overview table, let’s see which ones there are, including their features.

You will see that some are compatible with nationwide MLSs, and some are more restricted and use only a regional or statewide MLS. 

Additionally, some apps are developed by larger brokerage firms, others by independent software companies that partner with different MLSs.

One last thing to consider is that some apps have a stronger focus on potential buyers, some give both user groups an equal share of functionality, and others focus more on realtors and brokerages.

You can compare all the features in the larger overview table further below.

I only included apps that had their last update not more than six months ago. 

Why? 

A company regularly updating its apps indicates that the app is likely in use and provides some benefit to real estate professionals and/or their clients.

 

16 MLS Apps for Android

• Real Estate by Movoto
• Homesnap Real Estate & Rentals
• Real Estate by Xome
• Real Estate MN Home Search
• RPR Mobile
• MLSListings Mobile
• Flexmls for Real Estate Pros
• HomeSpotter Real Estate Search
• Showing Time
• Edina Realty
• UtahRealEstate.com
• Coldwell Banker
• GoMLS
• MLSTouch
• Trulia Real Estate
• Redfin

 

17 MLS Apps for iPhone

• MLS Touch
• MLSListings
• Trulia Real Estate
• Redfin
• Movoto Real Estate
• Xome Real Estate
• Flexmls for Real Estate Pros
• Flexmls for Homebuyers
• StahRealEstate.com
• Century 21 Local
• myTheo: Real Estate
• SFAR MLS Edge
• offMLS
• Goodland MLS
• Houston Homes for Sale (HAR.com)

Now, let’s take all these apps and put them in an overview table so you can compare their different features. 

You will also see which ones are available on Android and iPhone devices.

Based on the available features, we can sort them to get to the top 3.

On a longer side note: An observation I could make during my research, and by filtering out different apps based on when they were last updated, was that there are almost five times more MLS apps in Apple’s app store than on Google Play.

I assume that this is because app developers focus more on developing apps for Apple’s app store because iPhone users usually have more disposable income (source).

And the latter is also important when it comes to real estate transactions. 

This information about the disposable income of iPhone users is not only available to app developers. 

The same is probably true for real estate brokerages and other companies.

So, they decided, based on that, to have developers rather develop an app for Apple’s app store instead for the Android users on the Google Play store.

Before practicing my programming skills with Python, I almost went down the app development route. 

And before I started, I wanted to know where it would be more profitable to invest my time in mobile app development. 

I definitely would have gone down the app development route for iPhone users for the same reason (Apple users have more disposable income).

Another observation I made was that many of the outdated apps (many of them with the last update being five years ago) that I had to sort out were from local real estate brokerages.

Almost 90% were developed by the same company.

At some point in the past, when having an app was all the hype, they must have thought that the brokerage would also need an app but did then underestimate the continuous maintenance work necessary for software in general.

 

The Top 3 MLS Apps for Real Estate Based on Scores

Filtering and sorting the different apps was a bit time-consuming, but I think the results will be helpful to you.

Before I dive into the conclusion, I wanted you to know that I matched the pre-defined features and functionalities from above with what each app offered. 

So, some unique functions were not accounted for in the table for simplicity.

This was also to find some common ground between the MLS apps regarding functionality.

The main metrics I used to compare them were:

• The number of features (functionality).
• The user rating for each app.
• The number of user ratings.

The number of user ratings hints at how many users are actually using the app and determines the informational value of a rating. 

That’s why I counted a 5-star rating for one app as “n.a.” or “0” because it was the only one. 

I only took the rating seriously when at least ten ratings were available.

So, below, you will first find the overview tables with the different MLS apps for Android and iPhone, including their features.

 

Android MLS Apps Overview

Here you can also download the whole table in PDF format.

 

iPhone MLS Apps Overview

Here you can also download the whole table in PDF format.

To get to the overall score for each MLS app, I multiplied the different values of the ratings, the rating itself, and the number of features with each other.

Why did I do that?

Multiplying them seemed the best option because a high total result would mean that the respective app would have a high number of ratings (hence users), a high rating, and a high number of features.

The Overall Scores

Here you can also get the table in PDF format.

So, according to the total score, the Top 3 MLS apps for the Android device are Trulia, Redfin, and Homesnap Real Estate & Rentals.

And when it comes to the iPhone, the top 3 MLS apps are Trulia, Redfin, and then Movoto Real Estate.

As an additional observation, I would like to mention that although there appear fewer MLS apps for iPhone than for Android in my above table, this doesn’t mean fewer MLS apps are available on Apple’s app store than on Google’s Play Store.

Many more MLS apps for iPhone are available, and a large share is local MLS apps from different brokerages, but many didn’t make it through my filter because they were outdated.

What happens when you compare the number of user ratings of MLS apps available for Android and iPhone?

You can see pretty fast that the iPhone apps have, on average, roughly four times more user ratings than their Android counterparts (see the table below).

The only outlier is the MLS app Flexmls for Real Estate Pros, which has higher Android user ratings than iPhone.

From that, we can conclude that there are more MLS app users overall for the iPhone than for Android. 

This could mean that real estate buyers and pros prefer iPhone and Apple products over Android and Google ones. 

This could also mean that real estate market participants are more affluent and prefer higher-priced iPhones and other Apple products.

 

 

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This article has been reviewed by our editorial team. It has been approved for publication in accordance with our editorial policy.

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