#1   My Mortgage Mentor

My Mortgage Mentor does pretty much what it says on the tin - a catch-all app which keeps track of multiple properties and helps analyze the finances of each. The strongest arrow in its quiver is the way it handles hypothetical situations, letting you analyze all manner of mortgage-related queries, such as how much you can afford to borrow, and a variety of other what-if scenarios. The results are then displayed in beautiful, simple graphs which make tricky decisions a whole lot easier.

After playing extensively, we have to say that there's little else a homeowner could want from this smart app. It's a British app but works fine on both sides of the Atlantic (currency can be changed in the settings menu).

#2   Knight Frank Property Search

If you love living the high life (or simply like to dream), we can highly recommend the Knight Frank Property Search app which specializes in locating luxury homes available for sale or rent. The GPS functionality lets you use your iPhone to find the smartest apartments and houses near you, or you can cast your net further and search for properties around the world. The search function is very powerful, allowing users to zoom down to the zip code level and even search by criteria such as 'lifestyle'.

Once you've found your dream home, the app doesn't just stop at showing you high resolution pictures - it also delivers floor plans and brochures for you to really get a feel for the place. Don't forget to upload to Facebook and stir a little envy among your friends!

#3   Realtor.com® Real Estate Search

The Realtor app has so far been lavished with praise from authority sites such as MSN and Macworld, and for good reason.

As a general-use property locator, this has everything you could need and more. Often, the measure of a property search app is the number of listings they have; if you can't find any homes in your area, the app is next to useless. No such problems with Realtor, which has an impressive 4 million properties readily available sale across America. The extra features are equally as stunning, as these let you sift right through and find exactly what you're looking for based on your requirements (must have a hot tub? You've got it). Unfortunately, it doesn't allow you to search for rentable properties, but its detailed pricing and regular updating (every 15 minutes, in fact) still make this an invaluable app for home hunters.

#4   MyTown

Let's face it, a good property app may be indispensible but it's not always very fun… for a bit of light relief, we absolutely have to tip a nod to MyTown. If you're a fan of Monopoly, you will love this property management game which comes with a novel twist – it's entirely location based, meaning you buy and own real-life shops and buildings in your own town. As a free game, it's one of the more addictive and well-polished in the store (all previous issues have been ironed out, leaving a flawless game for us to fiddle with in between doing real property management). Over 3 million MyTowners can't be wrong.

#5   Investment Property Valuator

Designed and developed by Big Fresh Media, this is a very recent app which we were keen to test drive. It did not disappoint.

Given the complexity of the subject matter, a lot of either investment calculators are too bloated for general use or too simplified to offer any real value, but the Property Investment Calculator strikes the balance right. You can tell that actual real estate pros helped in the development of the IPV as its interface is cleverly designed to give you precisely the information you need with very little input, with the ability to set the investment period up to 10 years. Investing in property is not something which should be leapt into without careful consideration – we're happy to report that the IPV has got your back.

#6   iLandlord

While property letting can be lucrative, it is a renowned time sink and potential problems linger for the duration even if you're lucky enough to have dream tenants. Many of these problems can be prevented with good organization and iLandlord is a fine tool for keeping on top of things (and if disputes or other minor crises do occur, with this app you'll be better equipped to sort them out).

iLandlord has all the things you'd expect from a professional letting management app – work and financial histories for each property, operating expenses, late payment alerts – but it's the communication platform which makes this one shine. At the touch of a button you can email tenants or contractors, with standard forms including lease agreements and problem reports saving a lot of time. No landlord can do without.

#7   Houzz Interior Design Ideas

Just moved and need some inspiration on what to do with the new place? If so, you'll probably be interested to learn that there's a single app with over 100,000 photos showcasing the best design ideas and decorating tricks. Virtual idea books are thrown into the mix – think of them as scrapbooks filled with magazine clippings – and you're free to make and upload your own which is useful for local or offline access. Alongside all the inspiration, Houzz also helps you find contractors and designers in your area, so your ideas don't have to remain solely on a digital picture; email them your scrapbook with a note along the lines of "see that heated towel rack? I love it," and let the professionals bring it into fruition.

#8   TourNarrator

TourNarrator is one of those clever ideas that you wish someone had invented earlier. If you're selling a home, the thing that can make or break the deal is the property tour. Conducting a good tour is something of an art form and we recommend TourNarrator as a good tool to have in your armory.

The app allows you to quickly note, with photos and voice recordings, any questions or comments from potential buyers which can be addressed afterwards. Often you'll think of extra features you'd like to show off or explain further, and TourNarrator is a great way of quickly adding these to your tour notes (and even present the updated portfolio as an image-rich PDF to send directly to the potential buyers). The app is packed with great features like this, making it indispensible to the real estate agent but it also has a use for private sellers conducting their own tours or marketing their home.

#9   iOwe

iOwe is a simple but effective app for keeping track of rent, mortgage payments, utilities, coffee bills… you name it, iOwe can keep tabs on it. True to the app's ethos of keeping things easy to manage, it can import all your contacts from the standard iPhone address book so linking an entry with a specific person couldn't be easier. An interesting new feature packed with the latest version allows you to see a statistical analysis of previous transactions – a good way of finding out which of your friends are the most generous or most dangerous to lend money to!

We'd particularly recommend this one for shared homes in which the roommates are often living in each other's pockets.

#10   SilverDoor

SilverDoor is a leading serviced apartment agent in Europe, and we're pleased to see that their iPhone app works on a global level. This one is perfect for business people on the move or for those who like to stay in something a bit more substantial than a hotel room when traveling – find photos, ratings, descriptions and rates of serviced apartments around the world and save your favorites if you regularly travel to particular cities or areas. It's not going to win any awards for additional features, but it does its job more than amicably and caters brilliantly to a particular niche. We take our hats off to the fast interface and ability to search with strict budgeting criteria… and hey, it's completely free!

The Best iPad Property Apps

#1   Zillow Real Estate Search

Zillow is a fantastically comprehensive tool for finding houses available for sale and rent, but it doesn't stop there. As well as comprehensive price information, the app also lets you view pictures of the neighborhood (and in some cases even interior shots of the houses themselves). While it works all across America and has an impressive number of listings, we particularly recommend it if you're looking for property in a specific area as push notification will let you know the second new houses appear on the market.

#2   The Family Handyman Magazine

No matter at what skill level you're at, if you're a DIY fanatic you can do much worse than pick up this excellent magazine app. There's a wealth of content in The Family Handyman, and you wouldn't otherwise guess that it's completely free given the quality of writing and page design. It's funded by adverts, but these are well-targeted to the demographic of reader and never overbearing (if you do see something which catches your eye, one tap will take you to the third party's homepage).

A great example of an iPad magazine app made exceedingly well. Sadly however, there is no iPhone equivalent (at the time of writing).

#3   Dream Home HD

Passionate about interior design but stumped for ideas? No problem – Dream Home HD has got you covered. Searchable by color, room type and theme, you'll not be feeling uninspired for long as there are masses of beautifully rendered photos to pore over (with new content added regularly). Alongside these, a blog (of sorts) can be mined for further ideas and design trends. It may be sparse on features, but given the volume of content and the fact that the 'HD' part of the title lives up to its name, there's little wonder why it has received near-universal praise from users. Even if you're not planning on decorating any time soon, you can still lose hours just flicking through it!

#4   InteriorMag

InteriorMag is a bible for home lovers and works well as a supplement to Dream Home HD. Developed by iCandyApps, it has so far found numerous fans with its zoomable high-quality photos and the ability to share ideas via social networking and email. Inspiration is never too far from hand with this gem of an interior design tool, and it's a very fluid app when it comes to glancing through the content on offer (we particularly like the slideshow app – so much so, it's tempting to set it running and use the iPad as a digital picture frame!).

It's light on features, but that's no hardship as InteriorMag efficiently does exactly what it's designed for.

#5   HomeBudget with Sync

Following hot on the heels of its tremendous success on the iPhone, the HomeBudget app for the iPad is, quite possibly, the easiest way to keep your household finances in order. Of course, there are scores of such apps in the iTunes store, so what has HomeBudget standing head and shoulders above the rest?

It's no secret that it has one of the easiest designs for setting up and keeping track of all incomings and outgoings, but perhaps its greatest strength comes from its 'Synching' ability – that is, everyone in the house with the app can work within the same budget in real-time (which includes sharing expenses information and other neat tricks to keep you all coordinated). The price may seem a bit high, but consider that you only have to purchase it once for all users, and there is a free version to try first if our recommendation doesn't sway you.

#6   Mortgage Calculator - The Amortizer

Again, The Amortizer is not alone in finding itself in a competitive market. Type 'mortgage calculator' into the app store and (at the time of writing) forty results crop up for the iPad alone. The Amortizer has no negative reviews so far, and is certainly our pick of the crop.

It's a powerful application which can handle any mortgage-related task you throw at it, making it more than suitable for estate agents and homeowners alike. If it has any downsides, it's that it may be too over the top for a humble buyer's needs, but we'd rather have an app which caters to all rather than one which is dumbed-down and simplistic. Indeed, you could write anything this app doesn't do on the back of a postage stamp – breakdowns of interest and principle payments, PDF summaries, predictive functions and multiple property support are all included.

#7   Home Design 3D

Here's a novel app which is exclusive to the iPad, and takes full advantage of the large screen size. Available in both French and English, Home Design 3D allows you to virtually stroll through your house (or one of your dreams), decorating it as you see fit at the tap of the screen. There are hundreds of surface textures and furniture items to select from, and the best aspect about it is you can specify fairly precise dimensions for each room; a godsend for working out what will fit in the new place prior to moving. It's not without limitation – it doesn't accommodate for quirky room or opening shapes – but it is certainly indispensible for getting some rough ideas down and either way, it's fun to play around with. The floor planner, offline mode and desktop support are all neat touches.

#8   Home Improvement Calcs

Home Improvement Calcs is a very recent addition to the iTunes store, and does exactly what it says on the tin – a bundle of over 100 neat and intuitive tools for working out how much that DIY project will set you back (as we all know, these types of things can get out of hand without solid prior planning).

Not only is it useful for working out costs, it is a handy way of cutting out unnecessary trips to Home Depot – the app can calculate exactly what resources you'll need to see a job through to completion (see the description in the app store to check out the impressive list of projects it can help out with). What's more, conversion tools make sure there's no confusion when working with different measurements.

#9   FindHouseUS

The FindHouse app has been rolled out in numerous countries to great success, including the UK, Canada and Australia. The US version is equally as effective at finding properties via a fully interactive map modeled around Google's flawless map service, taking advantage of standard and satellite views. To boot, developer Fan Tian supports the app to the utmost by updating the property listings daily.

Finding properties in your desired area is an absolute doddle (?), and from there the amount of info you'll find goes above and beyond most property apps (even right down to which year the house was built!). The features themselves are fairly basic compared to its counterparts, but this only serves to streamline the whole affair.

#10   Garden Planner HD

For many, the outside of the house is just as important as the inside. While there's plenty of great apps for buying, renting and decorating properties, there are only a handful of apps designed to help you get the most out of your garden… and this is easily the best among them.

Garden Planner HD is geared towards those who want to manage their own produce, no matter how big or small the garden may be or what kinds of fruit, vegetable and herbs are sought after. To say it's comprehensive would be a massive understatement – it goes beyond being an encyclopedia of pretty much everything that grows as it also serves as a really efficient method of keeping track of it all. Add photos to categories, follow tips on how to gain a better yield and set up to-do lists – it's all here, and more.