Real estate professionals are no strangers to using apps. Over the past few years, mobile and web-based applications have become indispensable to agents and brokers. But there's an entire category of real estate app that you may not have heard of--public service apps. These tools can help you better serve the needs of your community and position your business as a valuable resource.

Apps for Serving the Community

Coined by MRED CEO Russ Bergeron, the term "public service app" refers to web-based tools that offer benefits directly to the consumer. The apps augment MLS listing data with information that motivates a consumer to purchase a home or helps a seller better market theirs. To get a clearer idea of what we're talking about, let's look at a few examples:

• Walk Score - Provides information on the walkability of neighborhoods, nearby public transit and amenities. Consumers can also calculate commute times in order to find a home that's close to work.
• SourceMLS™ - When the SourceMLS badge appears on a listing, consumers can rest assured that the data is timely and accurate because it comes directly from the local MLS.
• Fannie Mae Short Sale Assistance Desk - Helps expedite the short sale process, reducing the chance of foreclosure.
• My Home EQ/My Home Energy Score - A utility tool that reveals the energy efficiency of a home, enabling consumers to make a better informed choice about where to live.
• Down Payment Resource - Flags properties eligible for down payment assistance programs within the MLS data feed, and provides consumers information on those programs.

A Closer Look at One Public Service App

For a more thorough understanding of how public service apps can help real estate professionals serve their community, let's take a closer look at one public service app that RE Technology readers are no doubt familiar with--Down Payment Resource.

Down Payment Resource (DPR) takes active single family listings and processes them against their database of all the programs--state, county, city, neighborhood, non-profit--that exist in a market. It then matches the properties that are eligible, based on location and list price, to all of the programs for which it would qualify. This information is available to agents in the MLS, and to consumers via IDX feeds on agent and broker websites, or on MLS public facing websites.

For a specific example of how DPR can benefit a community, we turn to NorthstarMLS President, John Mosey. "The market in our part of the world was in desperate straits," he told RE Technology earlier this year in a webinar on public service apps. "One of the immediately obvious benefits of this program was the potential to make sales happen where they weren't. It's creating that opportunity for the person who couldn't come up with down payment money to get into the homeownership market."

Down Payment Resource is one public service app that enables agents and brokers to better serve their local market--in this case, by removing down payments as an obstacle to homeownership. Using apps like these is just one beneficial thing that brokerages can do for their community at large.