High-Tech Real Estate Gadgets Changing Industry

You can do just about anything from your fingertips these days, including, house-hunting.

The real estate industry is finding ways to creatively use gadgets like the upcoming Apple Watch and Google Glass. More and more house hunters are beginning their search online, and more and more services are now available on a mobile device. It only makes sense that things have come to this.

Here are some of the coolest and most tech-savvy apps and products intended to make life easier (and probably more expensive) for house hunters, real estate agents, and designers.

Zillow on Android Wear

Android Wear, the smart watch that was released earlier this year, now supports the Zillow app. Here’s how it works: if you’re in a neighborhood, your watch will notify you when there’s a nearby open house, or a nearby house you marked as a favorite through your Zillow account. The watch will also give you directions to the house and can record your voice notes about the home. Downloading the Zillow app on your Android phone will allow it to sync with the Android Wear.

As for whether the Apple Watch – which will be available in early 2015 — will do the same, Zillow doesn’t have anything to announce yet, so stay tuned.

Google Glass

A real estate agent can don Glass to show a house to clients miles away, or even overases. Google Glass can answer to voice commands and can also superimpose images. Glass can make virtual viewings more useful, as the agent can shoot the video, hands-free.

Last year, listings giant Trulia announced it would debut Trulia for Glass. Glass wearers can be notified of nearby properties for sale, scroll through photos and detailed information, and get directions to the house if they’re interested.

Drones

Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, could change the way agents and brokers market their listings. Flying a drone overhead allows potential homebuyers to see the whole neighborhood or community.

But the Federal Aviation Administration is not so enthused. Along with privacy concerns, using drones for commercial purposes need special approval by the FAA. The battle between the FAA and the National Association of Realtors is still ongoing.

RoomScan

Open this app on your phone, tap it against all four walls in the room, and your phone will sketch out the floor plan of the room. According to the iTunes description, the floor plans are accurate within a half foot. The app is free for iPhones, but you can upgrade to the pro version for $4.99 and more features like choosing custom floor plan colors.

Romo

This is an iPhone on wheels, to be exact. You can program simple behaviors for Romo, and he’ll roam around the house, or even play chase. For real estate, you could set Romo (available for $129) free to take camera footage of the house and share it, or Skype a family member who couldn’t make it to an open house. The larger version of this is Double, an iPad on wheels that can be raised four to five feet.

KnocKey

Here’s how this web-based keyless entry system works: If the owner of the house has given you access to a locked house, you log in through a web browser, knock on the door, and it will give you 30 seconds to enter the door. KnocKey is useful for real estate agents who need to enter properties to show it to prospective homebuyers. The system, which is still in development, is cloud-based so an owner can give you access from anywhere. KnocKey won the “Audience Choice’’ award at the Web Innovators Group event in September.

Floored

Using 3D camera technology and laser scanners, Floored scans rooms, apartments, and houses and then builds a customizable and interactive 3D floor plan model. With the interactive floor plan, you can then move around parts of the room, or add in furniture, or walls without any plug-ins or apps. This New York-based startup recently raised $5.26 million in a RRE Ventures funding round.