Buying a home is a big deal! Once the euphoria of deciding to buy subsides, the home buying process can become stressful, expensive, and extremely time consuming. But don’t despair, there are great tech companies out there improving every aspect of this process. They’re the new answer to many of these age-old home buying questions.
HOW DO I FIND MY NEW HOME? THERE ARE SO MANY LISTINGS!
We have a few recommendations to help you sift through listings in search of your dream home.
RedFin helps you to discover and buy your new home with the help of the local agents. Big champions of customer service and satisfaction, they charge 1.5% broker fee (1% in DC!) versus the traditional 3% fee. RedFin is available in most major cities (sorry New Yorkers) and will undoubtedly makes your life easier.
Compass is a superbly designed, tech-enabled brokerage that pairs you with agents that are experts in navigating the rough waters of your city’s real estate market.
Want to skip that broker commission all together? Trelora does away with commissions and charges a flat service fee of $2,500 no matter the cost of the home.
HOW DO I SAVE FOR A DOWN PAYMENT?
There’s a lot of savings apps out there now but Qapital strikes us as the one best to help with down payment. An everyday banking app that lets you choose your savings goals and helps you set up rules to trigger automatic savings – it’s simple, easy to get started and you save money by just living your life. Read our post on how to start saving for more info.
HOW DO I ACTUALLY PAY FOR MY HOME? I THINK I NEED A MORTGAGE.
Enter Morty. The mortgage process is a huge pain point when buying a home. It’s confusing, extremely difficult to compare offers, and seems to drag on forever (47 days on average!). Morty has a single application for many lenders, so you can make an apples-to-apples comparison of offers from different lenders. You get real rates, not hypothetical quotes – plus it’s all online, no snail mailing applications 🙂
NOW I HAVE TO MOVE, WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL MY STUFF?
Check out MakeSpace, storage for busy people. MakeSpace picks up, stores and brings back your stuff at a competitive price. The cherry on top is that you can view your catalog of stuff directly on their app. You won’t go back to self storage after this.
I THINK I NEED TO BUY FURNITURE?
Looking for some feng shui help–Houzz has the interior design process in a single platform. Browse design ideas, find the right home professionals, and shop from curated collections so that your home really feels like home. It’s a great way to spend all the money you’ve saved from using these other services!
Published on 8/18/16 updated on 4/26/17
