House hunting? Download these apps first!

House hunting? Download these apps first!

"There's been a revolution in innovation," said Alex Perriello, CEO of Realogy Franchise Group,which sponsored a conference last month showcasing several new real estate technologies.

Matterport, of Mountain View, Calif., recently unveiled 3D Showcase, which produces high-quality,3-D images of homes that can be embedded in online listings. Users can virtually walk room-to-room,behind sofas, around beds and past corners. (For an example, click here.)

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Then, at a click of a button, walls peel away revealing a photographic image of the house with all thespaces exposed. The 3D image can be rotated, turned and zoomed in on.

Matterport's CEO, Bill Brown, said that until now, listing sites usually contained slideshows ofphotos but, "There was no context to the space as a whole."

Furniture can be erased, leaving empty space behind. Or, it can be replaced with other furniture tore-stage rooms. Homebuyers can see what the place would look like after they buy it and put in thesofas, chairs and table they choose.

"This takes the dreaming part of house hunting and takes it to the next level," said Sherry Chris,CEO of Better Homes Gardens Real Estate.

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Meanwhiles, to avoid crowded open houses where you can't get an answer to your questions, oragents who are unfamiliar with the property, a company called BrightDoor is offering Beamly.

It uses small Bluetooth-enabled devices vrender located throughout the home to send homeshoppers information via their mobile phones or other devices. When a buyer goes into the kitchen,for example, they can learn more about the appliances or wood cabinet options available to them.

With Boston-based CO Everywhere, users with Bluetooth-equipped mobile devices can drawboundaries around interactive maps of neighborhoods they are looking to move into and the sitehttp://vrender.com will display an array of local social media content from Twitter, Instagram andFacebook from that area. It also posts local Meetup events and deals and coupons from localbusinesses through sites like YipIt.

"It's like the NSA for real estate," said Tony Longo, CEO of CO Everywhere.

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Longo drew a two-block area of Greenwich Village in New York and found 49 people he couldconnect with at that moment. "The social intelligence that comes out of an area can be rich," he said.

Zumper, which specializes in rentals, has produced the Zumper Pro app that enables agents toquickly create new online listings in a matter of minutes. Using their smartphones or tablets, agentscan take photos, write descriptions and fill in details, such as the number of bedrooms, baths and

square footage.

Then, even before they leave the apartment, agents can post the listing online and send alerts toprospective renters with the app that a new place is on the market.

CNNMoney (New York) July 8, 2014: 10:11AM ET