The pick of the season among real estate listing services is to launch an iPhone application (1, 2, 3 and 4). Yesterday it was Hemnet, the leading Swedish service, turn to put their services to the table.

First impression

Impressed! Not bad at all.

You're able to search both using the built in GPS or by choosing any municipality. Easy to use map. Multiple photos. Save listings to 'My Hemnet'. Calculate monthly costs. Able to contact the agent through a call or email.

However, the best thing is the ability to take your own photos from the open house and store them together with the listing.

Room for improvements

The search is a bit confusing in the beginning. Took me a while to find the detail search page (first do a search, then click 'filter') and understand what types of listings that are presented.

But the biggest disappointment, after 15 minutes of hard search on the Internet version of Hemnet, was to understand that their is actually two different 'My Hemnet'. One on the Internet version and one on the iPhone. The highlighted listings are synced but not the photos I've taken on a listing. Confusing and takes away the benefit.

One functionality that I don't understand why they put into the application (both versions) is the register of building suppliers, removal companies, storage and so on. There are 'yellow pages' services doing this much better. Instead I would like to see more statistics and tools for handling the process of buying a home.

Finally, the video from Hemnet showing their new iPhone application.