Realtor.com unveils iPhone app

Realtor.com is offering a dedicated iPhone app that allows users to search the site's 4 million listings on the go.

The Realtor.com iPhone application includes a one-tap call capability that connects users with the listing agent for additional details or to arrange a tour.

Homebuyers can also synchronize the app with their Realtor.com account, making it easy to find previously saved homes, and also store their agent's contact information in order to send them comments about properties they are interested in.

The iPhone app sorts, refines and filters search results for every property listed on Realtor.com by price, location, property type, MLS ID number, square-foot, lot size, upcoming open house events, distance from a user's current location, and age of home.

Results are returned in a map or list view, and the app can map the route to properties that users want to visit in person using the iPhone's Global Positioning System (GPS) satellite location tracking capabilities.

Users can identify open houses within a 20-mile search radius from their current location, and get directions to those properties that are updated as they drive or walk to each location.

Before unveiling its iPhone app at Apple's iTunes store today, Realtor.com offered an alternate version of the Web site optimized for the iPhone, but accessible to other smartphones and any Web browsers -- iPhone.Realtor.com.

Realtor.com also offeres a mobile app for smartphones running the Windows Mobile operating system.

Realtor.com expects the new iPhone app will be popular with first-time homebuyers seeking to take advantage of the extended federal homebuyer tax credit. More than half of all iPhone users are between the ages of 26 and 40, the company said, and the median age of first-time homebuyers is 30.

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