If you're over the age of 30 and ever had to hunt for an apartment, you know it used to take weeks of scouring the newspaper classifieds, making a ton of phone calls, and visiting neighborhoods and buildings to make sure you weren't moving into a slum. All this while hoping that the piece of notebook paper you wrote all the information on didn't get lost. Luckily, smart phones have taken the place of the newspaper and the notebook by providing apps that not only help you find apartments for rent, but also organize the information to make it easier to choose. Here is a list of 5 apps that can help make apartment hunting a little less nerve-wracking.
Nestio
Nestio makes your apartment hunting notebook obsolete. This app can save multiple listings with notes and pictures while also plotting all addresses on a handy map to make finding listing locations even easier. If you have roommates, you can share notes and photos with each other so no one has to feel left out of the decision making process because a hectic schedule prevented them from attending a showing.
Rentenna
For apartment hunters in New York City, Rentenna offers apartment building ratings based on amenities, price, access to public transit as well as consumer complaints to make comparing different buildings less complicated. You can also place alerts that tell you when an apartment in a specific building opens up. The app offers the ability to review apartment buildings and see who in your social networking circle has lived in a building to get first hand reviews from friends.
PadMapper
This app helps you narrow where you want to live down to a specific area by displaying available rentals on a larger map, then giving you the ability to filter the results based on criteria like price, number of bedrooms, and type of rental contract. PadMapper is great if you have a certain area you would like to live in already in mind and need to see what is available in that specific location.
Apartment Search by RENTCafe
The apartment search app by RENTCafe allows you plot the available rentals that meet your search criteria on a map using GPS. The app is designed to let you search for an apartment quickly and is fantastic if you need to find a new apartment in a hurry.
Smarter Agent
By utilizing GPS and a database of listings, Smarter Agent not only shows the available apartments in a designated area, it also displays local grocery stores, schools, and other points of interest to give you a more complete picture of the neighborhood. Providing demographics and weather info help fill in the blanks to prevent any nasty surprises after you have already moved.