Investors who want to find the top deals, remain profitable, and beat the competition in 2023 need to use the best app for real estate investing.
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The introduction of various real estate apps has helped rental property investors who aim to earn a high income and grow their investment portfolios. Now it’s possible to conduct on-the-go investment property searches and get detailed info and accurate data on the listings available on the market.
Currently, countless online and mobile apps are intended exclusively for the benefit of real estate investors and agents. However, they differ significantly in the scope of services they offer to their users and the quality of data and analysis they provide.
To make the right choice, you should be familiar with the tools’ characteristics, advantages, and possible disadvantages. Continue reading for our in-depth analysis of the top-rated real estate software tools currently available in the US residential and commercial market. We’ll help you choose the best real estate app for your particular needs.
Best Apps for Real Estate Investors and Agents: The Rundown
As we’ve already mentioned, there are a handful of real estate apps available on the internet. But they come with differences in the functionalities, tools, and data they offer investors and real estate agents.
So, before you subscribe to any of them, be sure to go through our rundown of the best real estate apps and select the top choice for your specific situation.
1. Arrived Homes: Best for Fractional Real Estate Investing
Arrived Homes is the first on the list of the best real estate apps for investors because the platform is available to both accredited and non-accredited investors.
Through its model of fractional ownership, the tool is democratizing residential real estate investments. The app gives access to top opportunities to those with small budgets and no previous experience in the industry.
It’s popular among beginner and part-time investors because it offers investments as low as $100 in income-producing real estate investment properties. You get to make money both in the short and long run as you receive dividends from the rental income, as well as from the long-term appreciation.
Meanwhile, you’re free from the obligations and obstacles a landlord might encounter. It is because the platform finds properties and tenants for you and then handles all the daily responsibilities related to property management. So, you can generate totally passive income.
Here’s what real estate investors can do with the Arrived Homes app:
- Browsing homes: Separates the categories by “Trending,” “For Sale,” and “Sold Out”
- Selecting shares: Shows per-sale prices for available shares
- Signing and investing: Reviews the terms and conditions of investments
- Earning income: Manages the property while earning rental income
2. CityVest: Best for Institutional Real Estate Investments
Next on the list of the best real estate apps for investors is CityVest. The platform allows investors to access the most sought-after institutional investment properties. An institutional investment property implies a property that was formerly or is currently owned by the state or used for charitable purposes.
CityVest is yet another app disrupting the real estate industry by making large investments more accessible to average investors.
The CityVest model is based on raising capital for its “Access Funds.” They then manage to pull together capital investors and give them access to HQ investment opportunities.
The approach is aimed at investors interested in crowdfunding and hoping to avoid the obligation that comes with a total investment of $25,000 (the minimum for the platform).
The CityVest platform offers:
- Transparency: Browsing funds and accessing countless investment opportunities without the need to register
- Investment dashboard: Reviewing info on quarterly reports, tax documents, etc.
- SDIRA Investing: Self-directed IRAs investing in the platform
3. PropStream: Best App for Brokers
Third in our best real estate app round-up is PropStream, with a price tag of $99 per month for the standard subscription. However, before you sign up, you need to note that the platform offers add-ons for additional fees.
It’s primarily aimed at brokers, agents, and investors looking to explore the real estate market data in more detail. But it also helps contractors, lenders, loan originators, appraisers, and property managers.
Some of its standout features include:
- Nationwide data: Gives access to cross-country listing data, MLS records, private data sources, etc.
- Property search: Enables thorough market search by address, zip code, drawing features, etc.
- Generate target leads: Uses 120 filters to generate leads and marketing lists faster
- Accurate comps and property evaluation: Compares active sales to determine properties’ values
While PropStream offers a lot of real estate data points, none of them really focuses on the potential performance of a property if rented out as an income property. Thus, the platform does not meet the needs of many investors.
Also, PropStream reviews reveal that many customers find the UX/UI to be user-unfriendly and even annoying.
4. Mashvisor: Best for Short Term and Long Term Rental Strategies
Fourth on our list is the best app for real estate investing for those interested in rental properties. It is our own investment tool, Mashvisor.
The Mashvisor real estate investment platform ranks near the top of the list due to its specialized features and advanced functionalities crucial to potential investors. It’s safe to say that it is—or should be—among your top choices when investing in long term and short term rentals for sale.
There are many functionalities that set Mashvisor apart from its competitors. Nevertheless, the main difference is that no other platform allows you to analyze the investment potential of both traditional and Airbnb rental properties simultaneously.
Following is a detailed description of all the main tools available on the Mashvisor real estate investing app:
Real Estate Market Analysis
With the Mashvisor app, you can analyze the performance of entire markets. As we all know, location is crucially important in real estate investing, and it refers to both the city and the neighborhood within the city.
After selecting one of the best long term or short term rental markets for 2023 on the dedicated section of our real estate blog, you can conduct a neighborhood analysis. The real estate heatmap will help you identify the top areas for either rental strategy by showing you areas with the following:
- Low listing prices
- High long term or short term rental income
- High long term or short term rental cash on cash return
- High short term rental occupancy rate
Furthermore, the Mashvisor neighborhood analysis pages will allow you to zoom in on any neighborhood that catches your eye. It helps confirm that it is indeed the ideal location for your strategy. You will get access to dozens of important real estate and rental data points, as well as the top rental strategy for the given area.
Mashvisor’s real estate heatmap gives you a quick overview of the best parts of a city for your preferred investment strategy.
Long Term and Vacation Rental Property Search
Another feature that makes Mashvisor a top choice among other real estate investing apps is the ability to search for profitable traditional and Airbnb rental properties for sale. Aspiring investors can use filters to focus their investment property search on their exact needs and expectations.
The most prominent search filters include:
- Location: City, neighborhood, street address, or zip code
- Property type
- Number of bedrooms and bathrooms
- Listing price
- Financing method: Cash vs mortgage
- Rental income
- Return on investment
The two tools that help with the above are the rental property search engine and the Property Finder. Importantly, the latter allows investors to look for and compare MLS listings, as well as off market properties, in up to five locations, simultaneously. In such a way, they can find the top deals for their respective investment strategy.
Traditional and Airbnb Investment Property Analysis
Last but not least, the Mashvisor app for rental property investing also provides a real estate investment ROI calculator. With the ROI calculator, both experienced and beginner investors can conduct long term and short term rental property analysis in a matter of minutes.
The best part is that you can analyze the rental potential of MLS listings and off market properties available on our platform, as well as any other residential property in the US.
Some of the data points that you will be able to access include but are not limited to:
- Purchase price: listing price and Redfin estimate
- Startup costs
- Traditional and Airbnb rental income
- Recurring monthly costs
- Traditional and Airbnb cash flow
- Traditional and Airbnb occupancy rate
- Traditional and Airbnb cash on cash return
- Traditional and Airbnb cap rate
The side-by-side traditional and Airbnb investment analysis will allow you to confirm that your preferred strategy is truly the best approach for each selected property.
Moreover, it’s important to mention where the data and analysis come from. All data available on the Mashvisor platform comes from the MLS, Zillow, Redfin, RentJungle, Airbnb, and other reliable sources. The analysis, meanwhile, is based on the performance of actual rental listings in the area, known as traditional and Airbnb rental comps.
But there’s no need to take our word for granted. You can check out what Mashvisor customers think about the platform here.
You can also start a 7-day free trial with Mashvisor to check for yourself that it is really the best traditional and Airbnb rental property calculator on the market.
5. Zillow: Best App for Home Searching
Zillow falls right in the middle of our best real estate apps round-up.
The Zillow platform is well known among real estate investors, thanks to its nationwide coverage and filtering system. However, its most common purpose is not calculating rental data but home searching instead. It’s easily one of the best house hunting apps in the US market.
Zillow reviews by customers show some downsides; the main one being that the Zestimate feature isn’t always that accurate. The fact that information and data on Zillow homes for sale might be outdated is a red flag homebuyers and real estate investors need to consider. After all, the best app should not face accuracy issues.
Meanwhile, here are some of Zillow’s key features:
- Listing syndication: Allows home sellers to list their homes and gain visibility
- Advertising and marketing tools: Enables emails and newsletters for local advertising of current and available listings
- CRM integration: Integrates listing services with real estate agents in order to collect leads and referrals
- Website integration/widgets: Incorporates widgets, shares listing data, provides market monitoring tools, and more
6. AirDNA: Best for Vacation Rental Hosts
You’ve probably heard about AirDNA in one of our previous articles. So, this is yet another opportunity to look at this platform and evaluate its effectiveness, especially when compared to other best apps for real estate investing.
The platform focuses on providing short term rental data. While it’s one of the most popular tools for analyzing vacation rental properties, it doesn’t perform as well as other apps on our list, mainly because of the data quality. Moreover, it doesn’t allow investors to search for Airbnb rentals for sale.
Yet another drawback in the AirDNA vs Mashvisor comparison is that the former does not cover traditional, long term rentals. Thus, in case, as an investor, you ever decide to switch your rental strategy, AirDNA will be of no help.
This platform is divided into two main branches:
- AirDNA Market Minder: Focuses on providing statistics on local Airbnb properties such as average daily rate, RevPAR, active listings, etc.
- AirDNA Rentalizer: Analyzes individual vacation rentals based on occupancy rate, annual revenue, seasonality’s impact, long term appreciation and depreciation, etc.
7. PropertyRadar: Best for Commercial Real Estate Investors
PropertyRadar is seventh on our list of the best real estate apps for investors. It is a platform that is equally aimed at residential and commercial real estate investing deals. However, it’s proved more efficient with the latter.
In brief, PropertyRadar users can search for any property – residential or commercial – and acquire relevant data on it and its owner.
The app boasts simple yet important features, including:
- Property data: Enables a quicker search for opportunities in the real estate market based on location, value, characteristics, taxes, vacancy, and more
- Owner information: Provides access to all relevant information on the owner of the property listed on the app, including contact information
- Community information: Provides access to relevant community information, including risks, statistics, and demographics
8. Flipster: Best Tool for House Flipping
If you’re determined to try your hand at the art of house flipping, then you can enlist Flipster as one of the best real estate apps for the job.
That’s not the final verdict, though. Flipster is not strictly limited to this area of investment as it offers the following benefits as well:
- Custom websites: Gives investors a chance to create their own website and appear more attractive to future buyers
- Contract library: Allows access to a list of attorney-approved contracts
- Bid management tools: Keeps all essential information in one place
- Motivated seller leads: Connects investors and brokers with motivated sellers to close deals faster
- Instant Deal Analyzer: Allows collection and analysis of information on a specific property
A basic subscription to the Flipster software comes at $97 per month.
9. BiggerPockets: Best for Learning Real Estate Investing
Whether you’re just beginning your journey or are ready to take real estate investing to the next level, BiggerPockets is an app worth considering.
What sets BiggerPockets apart is not its features but membership levels:
- Free: Provides access to blogs and community forums, with the latter being the platform’s real value
- Pro: Provides access to actual resources and investment calculators
- Premium: Provides access to data aimed at well-established companies and big lenders
10. Xome: Best for Buying Homes on Auctions
Xome is a real estate auction database that features online bid listings. It is user-friendly, keeps you well-informed, and promises transparent bidding. And with the “Homes Only” feature, you might be able to discover foreclosures, short sales, and bank-owned homes—often before they officially hit the market.
You can browse through properties using the following filters:
- Auction status
- Asset type
- Property type
The Benefits of Real Estate Apps
Now that you know the 10 best apps for real estate investors and other industry professionals in 2023, we’ll now focus on the apps’ advantages and how they can contribute.
Direct Communication
Being in touch with the right people—at the right time—is imperative in the real estate world because—here—timing is everything. When you join any of the platforms, you get a chance to communicate with other users like property owners, motivated sellers, buyers, agents, etc., which, in turn, grows your network.
Faster Property Search
One thing that most—if not all—real estate apps share is the advanced filtration system. You’re no longer expected to go through endless listings page by page. Instead, it’s possible to narrow things down to your preferred options and effectively search for the right type of investment property or home from the get-go.
Extended Reach
Mobile-based property research is more convenient than the traditional means of finding the right investment opportunities—there’s no doubt about that. It’s possible to cover a wider area and discover properties that you might’ve missed otherwise, which automatically opens you up to better opportunities. Moreover, you save time and money by avoiding driving for dollars.
Faster Sales
Think about what the apps offer to buyers—instant access to the necessary info about the property, including value, owner info, location, and more. With such extensive information readily available and comparing across properties means the buyer is more likely to take action once they identify the property that fits their needs.
Enhanced Profitability
Ultimately, what all of the above boils down to is that using the best app for real estate investing helps investors boost their bottom line. They can make faster and more profitable investment decisions. They can discover lucrative opportunities before competitors, analyze properties for sale confidently, and rely on the performance of real estate comps.
In 2023, using the power of big data and AI means optimal return on investment, whether you look at rental income, cash flow, cash on cash return, or cap rate.
Final Words: Getting Started With the Best App for Real Estate Investing for You
We just covered in detail the best real estate apps for 2023 and how using them can optimize the results for investors and agents. Now, it’s time to wrap up our round-up by going over the most important ones and highlighting why they’re worth your time and money.
Arrived Homes and CityVest are the top platforms for investors interested in previously unattainable opportunities. PropStream and PropertyRadar do an excellent job at providing a wide range of real estate data across the US market.
Zillow, Flipster, Xome, and AirDNA are best for buyers with specific interests, including buying a home, house flips, auctions, and Airbnb rentals, respectively. BiggerPockets, meanwhile, is worth checking out if you’d like to learn the basics of real estate investing and connect with other investors.
And if you want the absolute best app for real estate investing in traditional and Airbnb rentals, then Mashvisor is your go-to option. With our platform, you can find profitable locations for buying rental properties, search for investment properties for sale, and analyze the potential of listings.
In other words, we’ve turned three months of real estate research and analysis into 15 minutes.
To get access to our real estate investment tools, sign up for a 7-day free trial of Mashvisor today, followed by 15% off for life.