|
18 March 2011
Posted in
News -
Site
The iPhone has become a major part of many of our lives, simply for the fact you can do almost anything on it. GPS? Check. Calculator? Check. Random app that involves you flinging small (and large) birds at pigs fortified in towers? Yep, it's got that too. But I won't be writing about those apps today. Today I'll be doing a bit of a comparison between two apps, and I've decided to do a write up on each, and then my personal opinion on which I think is best.
Hopefully it'll be easy enough for everyone to follow along, and I'll try and be as thorough as possible. So, I'll stop rambling now and get onto the reviews...
Trade Me: Our ebay, New Zealand's largest op-shop, and an integral part of most Kiwi's existence. Today I'll be focusing on the Real Estate part of this app, so we'll be mostly ignoring the other features. I may cover those in a separate review. So first off, how easy is this feature to use? Not incredibly difficult, simply a case of clicking search followed by tapping the property button. Once you're there, you'll be greeted with either choosing a property keyword or id, or narrowing your selection by choosing categories. I decided to see which properties were for sale in my area, and within 20 seconds had 40 results. Very simple, easy to use interface here.
Unfortunately my experience was marred by a few crashes while I was using this app. Hopefully this is something Trade Me can fix in the near future, as it does get slightly frustrating having to reopen the app when this happens. Who knows though; maybe it just doesn't like my device. After clicking on a listing you're greeted with the option to view a photo slideshow, and (obviously) a list of information about the property. You have the options to view the location on Google maps, and also the contact numbers for the seller are present at the bottom of the listing. Well laid out, although I personally found the full screen slideshow option to be a bit cumbersome. Just my opinion though, I know it may well be ideal for some people. The touch of a button adds the property to your watchlist, so that you can view it any time you please. It may also be worth noting that this app has Retina support, both in-app and for the icon, so you iPhone 4 people do not have to worry about unseemly graphics. Well, that's covered the basics of the Trade Me app when it comes to property, information on the Realestate app after the break.
Now this is an app dedicated entirely to Real estate, unlike Trade Me, which ahs it as more of a sub feature. On opening the app you will be asked if it can use your current location, I said yes, and immediately a picture of the nearest for-sale house was displayed. You also have the options to view properties near you, search for properties, or go to "My Property", the equivalent of Trade Me's Watchlist. On tapping "Near Me", you'll be taken to a Google map picture of your location, and any nearby houses will appear as red pins. A simple tap will open that listing and allow you to view the details, description, and photos. I found that many of the descriptions were not as detailed as that of Trade Me, the main reason being Trade Me has more of a filter-search system, requiring sellers to input more details about there houses, ie the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, garages etc. If you find there's an influx of properties on the "Near Me" part of the app, simply clicking the "Refine" button will open up a new window allowing you to limit the houses shown to whatever it is you are looking for. There is also another button that replaces the map view with a simple list of houses, that you can sort by price or the most recently listed.
The search feature of this app is easy to use, you can search via region, or input a location into the search bar. You can refine your search by any option you can think of, from price to whether or not they have open homes. Again, this app has full Retina support, including the icon, so it really looks good on the iPhone 4's screen. Bear with me people, we're almost there.
My personal opinion for these apps...
Well, when I started the review I was sure I would go for the Realestate app. But after playing round, I'm not so sure. Yeah, if you only want to buy a house, then the Realestate app probably is the better choice. But most of us want as much from each app as we can get, and that's where Trade Me really stands out. Not only can you search for property, you can search for anything else you might want. Also, people can list their houses on Trade Me without needing to go through an agent, where with Realestate you are limited to agent-only listings. They really are almost neck and neck.
To be perfectly honest, if I could only choose one, I'd go Trade Me, simply for its versatility. But the thing is, we don't have to choose; they're both free. Try them out, see what you think, and let me know you're opinions. Thanks for reading my review, I hope it's been descriptive enough for you.
This is the first review I've had on this site, and one of the first app reviews I've ever done. I've recently just started my own app-review blog, http://iforkiwi.blogspot.com/, but it's only just starting out, and I don't want to just write to myself. Check out the blog, let me know if you'd be interested in reading, suggest something for me to review, and I'll get started.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/hide comments
Show/hide comment form
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|