Moving House? There's an app for that!

Posted 16 June 2007 by Angie Blunden

We are now seeing more and more people accessing our website using their iphones, so we have put together a list of apps to make your house move and search easier because as the saying goes…’there’s an app for that’!

Our top 5 are:

• Rightmove
• Mortgage Toolkit
• listentotaxman.com
• Crime Map UK
• Around Me

If you are searching for property to buy, our top of the house hunting apps is Rightmove –  you can type in the area you are interested in, for example, Storrington’ to generate a list of houses for sale locally and then refine your search. Alternatively, if you are standing in say Horsham, you can hit ‘find my current location’ and the app will give you a list of all the flats and houses for sale around where you are in Horsham. This provides pictures and information on the property together with the selling agents details. As this shows properties from all the estate agents on Rightmove, it’s a one stop shop for your property search. 

Mortgage Toolkit is a great little app if you are sorting out the finance for your property purchase. It includes a mortgage calculator and also very handy guides to buying and selling properties. You can review the best buy mortgage list (although we found this a little restrictive, and request a callback from a mortgage advisor as well. Mortgage Assistant also provides you with a best buy list and this one includes deals from all the high street banks and big mortgage lenders. There is also a useful blog feature with lots of mortgage news and updates.

Whilst sorting out your mortgage you may need to some budgeting and calculations relating to your salary, and there is an app for that - listentotaxman.com works out your tax payments and you can add in other deductions as well to work out exactly where you stand each month. It updates in line with budget changes so in theory should always give you the most up to date picture (providing you download the updates!). UK Salary Calculator does a similar job so may also be worth a look.

If you are reviewing the area you are looking to move to, Crime Map UK locates where you are with your phone and then shows a map with pins indicating all the crimes locally – you can then touch to see the type of crime committed. There is a neighbourhood overview, and a camera feature although this costs extra. We’ve have been checking out our local areas of Horsham, Storrington and Pulbrough and its quite enlightening to see what has been going on.

AroundMe is a very informative app to discover what facilities there are locally. Using GPS, the app provides a list of services you may be looking for, from cashpoints to petrol stations to hospitals. You select which service you are looking for to get a list of them together with how close they are to you and exact location. This also covers restaurants, taxis, theatres and the weather – a very comprehensive app. Once you’ve moved in to your dream home, vouchercloud is a similar app, but lists businesses close to you offering deals and discounts using your iphone.

After all that, if you’d like some down time from property searching you could have a go at being an estate agent using the game app Build-a-lot where you have to buy plots, build houses and keep them in good repair and then sell them at a profit – lots of fun and quite addictive! 

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