Estately releases an app you need to download now

Estately released its first mobile iOS app today. It’s awesome. Go download it now.

The company, which has always been ahead of the pack when it comes to design on the web, has finally made the leap to the handset.

I think this is significant for a couple of reasons:

First, we’re now seeing the first wave of truly native iOS 7 apps hit the app store. The introduction of iOS 7 caused a massive sea change in mobile app design. I know loads of startups that jettisoned everything last summer to begin reworking their apps.

And while many big players rushed updates into the store with flatter designs and stripped down interfaces, few took real advantage of the updates to Apple’s mobile OS.

Estately, on the other hand, which never had a legacy app and codebase to contend with, was able to leapfrog the big guys by designing their experience from the ground up, specifically for iOS 7.

The care and attention they put in shows: unique and colorful animations give the app a distinct personality not found in its competitors; iOS 7-only features like instant drive times on every listing; the ability to add an open house to your calendar with a single tap.

They’ve raised the bar here, for everyone.

Which leads me to my other point.

This is yet another huge sign that mobile has finally “tipped.” One of the last great web-only holdouts, and arguably one of the web’s better search experiences, has been repositioned as an app. The company is making a deliberate strategic shift away from the web.

This is big. It leads to a lot of questions…

Real estate search is moving to the handset. Brokers, can you afford the resources required to play in this space? What are you doing today to plan for iOS 8?

Can you keep up with all of this?

More significantly, as user behavior begins to silo itself into apps like Estately, traditional SEO tactics for lead generation start to look pretty antiquated.

Which leads to the larger question… as lead volumes off the web drop, where will you turn? Brokers, what are you going to be doing with your website in 2014? How are you evolving?

Lots of questions. Answers to come. In the meantime, I recommend you go download Estately’s app now and start thinking.