Last year, HomeSnap (aka the Shazam of house hunting) was born. It’s an app that lets you snap a photo of a house on your iPhone and immediately see the asking price and potentially other details, if they are a matter of public record. In fact, the data they provide is about to get even more detailed, which may send other app-happy companies like Zillow and Trulia scrambling to keep up. Mortgage calculators and property listings simply won’t be enough for the hungry house hunter on the go.

This kind of access is long overdue. As the real estate industry starts to grow again and agents get busy, they cannot lose site of the way their potential clients look at the world. House hunters, by nature, are bound to check out houses while on the road, not just in the areas they think they want, but in the cities they might keep in the periphery in case they can’t afford their dream. The tools that they now have access to via mobile can have major influence on purchasing decisions in a much quicker fashion.

Agents who want to have long-term viability need to be a part of this revolution.

For many real estate agents, that means downloading a bunch of free or low-cost apps and piecing everything together as you go along.

Or it might mean working with an app company like REcake or smarter agent, who help agents create their own customized apps, offering varying levels of lead generation vs. lead nurturing.

And if your numbers are good enough, you can actually apply to partner with HomeSnap, where you can get new leads and (as far as I could tell) you don’t have to shell out your life savings for them. But you’d better have the credentials for this one. No rookies allowed.

Real estate agents, which mobile options have served you the best so far?