Corcoran launches real estate listings app for iPad

Corcoran has become the first major New York City brokerage to put out a real estate application specifically designed for Apple’s popular tablet, the iPad. Launched this week, the app lets iPad users browse listings and contact agents on the device; using GPS, it enables home-seekers to find out about apartments available for sale and rent nearby, as well as neighborhood amenities.

The app provides high-resolution images, floorplans and broker contacts for Corcoran listings, much like the firm’s website but with the touchscreen interface the iPad offers. The pictures are lovely and the GPS convenient, but there appear to be a few kinks to work out — not uncommon with new-to-the market apps. When The Real Deal test drove the app, we found buttons that didn’t work, and experienced difficulty switching between landscape and letter views; at one point the application crashed, requiring us to restart the device.

That said, having a custom-built iPad app will likely be a boon for the brokerage, which has beaten most of its competitors to the milestone. Sotheby’s International Realty does offer a mobile app, SIR Mobile, that can be accessed on the iPad, and Brown Harris Stevens allows iPad users to browse brokers bios through an app called “The Portraits,” though that program does not show any listings.

Sotheby’s has also optimized its website for “fully functional viewing,” on the iPad, a spokesperson for the brokerage said. Halstead, Town, Prudential Douglas Elliman and Core do not yet have iPad apps, representatives indicated.