Hundreds of real estate and mortgage applications are cropping up in the growing catalogue of housing related apps for Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch and they put housing information at your finger tips.

While the apps come with the convenience of having your home, mortgage and real estate market information in your pocket, be aware that some of the apps connect you to the Internet and/or require you to input personal private information, including name, phone numbers and email.

As is the case with any request for personal information online or off, be sure to check the requesting party's privacy policy, terms of use and disclosures regarding how the app maker, real estate company, agent, lender or any related third parties will use your private personal information.

Apps mentioned in this article were selected randomly without review, comparison or examination beyond each app's own description and are included only to provide examples of what is available.

Home buying, selling, renting apps

The largest crop of real estate apps are listing engines designed largely to help you buy, sell or rent a home.

Depending upon the app, in addition to offering listings of homes for sale or rent -- searched with myriad criteria -- some also offer images of the homes inside and out, open house schedules, mapping and location information and general information about home vales, prices, neighborhoods and a host of related and peripheral information on everything from appraisals to zoning.

Realtor.com's "Real Estate Search" is the 800-pound gorilla of the bunch from the National Association of Realtors. It boasts a whopping 4 million listings you can search for photos, property details, open house info, pricing and a connection with your real estate agent. It also includes a rental search.

With some of them plugging into Realtor.com's vast data base, virtually every real estate company and online real estate operation offers a listings app with varying levels of features and usefulness, including Redfin, Trulia, Zillow and ZipRealty as well as national and/or local offices of Better Homes and Gardens, Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Keller Williams, RE/MAX, Prudential, ERA and others.

• NewHomeSource.com offers "New Home Search" for newly-built homes.

• For rental housing, along with Realtor.com's rental listings, try "Complete Rentals," "CribQ" (Craig's List), "Find An Apartment," "Rentals.com," and "Apartment Search - Near Buy."

Mortgage, finance apps

Mortgage shopping applications run the gamut from simple mortgage calculators (there are 130 of them!) and average rate monitors to those offering interest rate and loan comparisons.

For a review of some of these apps see: "Mortgage apps for iPhone/iPod reviewed".

Utilities

Utilities run the gamut from checklists and comparisons to special listings.

• Checklists - "Selling Your Home Checklist" tracks your selling chores. "Rentals" allows rental home searchers to collect details and pictures of rentals visited and later make comparisons. "iHouse" does the same for home buyers.

• Comparisons - "Mortgage or Rent" runs the buy-vs-rent decision. "Home Value Pro - RealQuest Mobile" examines home values. "iCrimeAware" puts crime stats at your fingertips.

• Education - "First Time Home Buyer" schools newbies. "Real Estate Investor" tutors investors. "Flip Houses" teaches you how to flip. "Property Flipper Lite" allows investors to analyze flipping schemes.

• Reference - Realty glossaries include "The Real Estate Handbook"; "Kaplan Real Estate Terms Flashcards and Reference"; and "iStudy: Real Estate Terms".

• Special listings - Auction.com's "Real Estate Auction Search" points you to auctions. "Get Foreclosures Now" finds foreclosures. "Moofuslist" finds bank owned properties (REOs).

Special apps

"Condo Rants and Raves" offers comments -- good, bad and ugly -- from residents of 20,000 condo complexes nationwide. "WhereULive" uses numerology to determine the "energetic nature" of a property. "The Walk Score" iPhone app determines "Walkability" (reduced dependence on a car). Games

Games

"Build-a-lot" lets you build, buy and sell homes. "Trump Tycoon" makes you an apprentice in the employ of The Donald. "Tower Bloxx" lets you build modular housing to the sky. And of course, there's "Monopoly".

Published: April 29, 2010

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A journalist for 35-years, Broderick Perkins parlayed an old-school daily newspaper career into a digital news service offering editorial content and consulting services. Perkins' San Jose, CA-based DeadlineNews Group includes the flagship news site, DeadlineNews.Com, offering real estate, personal finance and consumer journalism, and a backshop, the Deadline Newsroom.