The desire to own property is nothing new, but the way we go about buying and selling properties looks nothing like it did half a century ago or even 10 years ago. Emerging technologies, like real estate apps, have helped transform the industry and made property transfers that much easier.

One of the biggest ways the digital era is redefining the real estate landscape is through applications. They may be small, unglamorous pieces of software that remain tucked away on smartphones and tablets, and yet, there are many apps that are revolutionizing how real estate agents and their clients go about the homebuying or homeselling processes.

These are the apps that Patten Title professionals find most helpful.

Real estate apps have been around for a while, especially in the form of tech real estate marketplaces. Sites like Zillow and newer players like Redfin have provided massive property databases through their apps and websites for years now.

If there’s one real estate inventory app that truly stands out for real estate professionals, though, it is HomeSnap. The company is proudly built for real estate businesses while remaining accessible for buyers and sellers, too. It has a vast array of features and up-to-date data.

The app is a source of real estate information that can help agents, buyers, and sellers throughout the real estate experience. It doesn’t matter if someone needs to snap a photo of a home in order to learn more about it, look up properties from an office, or even browse through the market while on the couch, HomeSnap can help.

Real estate professionals can have instant access to information their buyers and sellers in Texas are looking for with Patten Title’s PattApp ONE. This proprietary app helps provide information like instant buyer estimates, net sheets for sellers, and more.

Other complimentary features include resources to help buyers decide if it’s better to buy or rent, loan comparisons, and more. Real estate professionals can assist their sellers in making multiple offer comparisons or refinance calculations.

With a premium upgrade, there’s even more content for your business, like lead-generation calculators, geo-specific reports, and the ability to personalize your reports with your business’ logo or photos.

Breakthrough Broker is a free marketing resource tool that can make your social media posts — and entire look — stand out. Patten Title offers Breakthrough Broker to help you build your business and your brand.

Through Breakthrough Broker, real estate professionals can utilize white-label marketing assets, set up social media posts, and even develop business plans. The app can help you create your marketing strategy, design worksheets, and even produce and develop all of your content, from open house flyers to Instagram posts.

ZOCCAM makes depositing earnest money easier and safer for buyers, sellers and real estate agents. Patten Title proudly partners with ZOCCAM because its security features are backed by the platform.

By using ZOCCAM, real estate agents can assure their buyers that earnest money is deposited quickly, and can even be done while touring the property.

ZOCCAM increases the efficiency of the closing process and makes homebuying safe and secure.

Patten Title proudly partners with Qualia and embraces all of its tools. Through Qualia, real estate professionals can do everything from placing title orders, to scheduling closing dates, to offering the option of e-signing.

Qualia also includes a closing tracker that allows real estate professionals to provide real-time updates to their clients about where the contract is in the titling process. The app also produces a checklist so that everyone in the closing process knows which tasks remain.

Marketing is essential, especially in a competitive field like the Texas real estate market. From lead generation to follow-up campaigns, there are many activities that can take up your time as you keep the homebuying process moving along its various stages.

Curb Hero is one app designed to take some of the headaches out of real estate promotion — starting with open houses. The app has a digital sign-in feature designed to maximize client info. It even offers a QR code for touchless sign-ins in the post-pandemic era, too.

After an event, the app also helps real estate professionals use the collected information to supercharge marketing, social media content creation, and lead generation. This innovative tool is customizable and can be tailored to your brand. The best part? It’s free to use.

There are many aspects and responsibilities that come with facilitating the home buying and selling process. When you extrapolate that to a team of agents working together as part of a single office, it’s easy to become disorganized.

Siloed information and dissonant schedules are common. Poor communication and time management are also a concern. Connecteam is a platform designed to streamline the minutiae through a single, all-in-one solution.

The app serves as a repository for important information, saving the need for excessive printing. It has features that help automate daily activities, such as filling out forms, managing important paperwork or requesting signatures. It also helps with time-tracking, syncing calendars and generally helping a team of agents stay on the same page throughout the day.

Many Texas real estate professionals focus their business on commercial properties. If this is your business, you are tackling larger price tags and more red tape.

LoopNet is your aid in the search for commercial real estate (CRE) properties. The real estate app is designed exclusively for commercial properties. In effect, it provides a thinned-down and targeted version of what larger apps, like HomeSnap, do for the residential real estate market.

The app has a large selection of filters that includes property types and options for sale, lease and auction categories. It even has an entire advanced search with dozens of fields to specify queries. Each property comes with a plethora of individual details and neighborhood statistics, along with plenty of visuals. The app is an ideal way to save time and money on research for those looking to make sound strategic investments in the real estate world.

From tech real estate marketplaces to marketing, logistics and commercial investing, there are many apps creating positive change in the real estate sector. The important thing is for agents and homeowners alike to remain aware of the current list of tools and their capabilities. Familiarize yourself with the list above so that you can use whatever apps are most applicable to your situation as you navigate the real estate market in the future.