Technology advancements help us improve our lives in many different ways. With the fairly recent rise of smartphone use, app developers have created a variety of handy applications that make some routine tasks much easier. Whether we are talking about home security, finance and budgeting, maintenance, or simple grocery needs – there is an app to assist you with it. These are some the best and most useful apps for homeowners, designed to help you with your everyday home duties.
OurGroceries
This is a grocery list app that you can share with your family members, partner, or roommates. The way it works is simple: just download the app and access one joint account by entering the same email address on the setup screen. Confirm the email and create shared lists. Those who share a joint account can update the lists by adding or removing items, and every change will be pushed out to all devices and visible in a matter of seconds. Try sorting grocery lists by types of food (meat, vegetables, or dairy), title grocery lists, and cross items on the list when you purchase them. OurGroceries is a cross-platform app, available for iOS, Android and Blackberry. Besides grocery lists, you can use it to make whatever lists you want, such as movies you want to watch, gift ideas for other people, or books to buy.
Rental Rewards
Probably the easiest way to pay your rent online, with payments being processed automatically as frequently as you wish (weekly, fortnightly or monthly). Rental Rewards is an Australian company that offers convenient rent payment methods. You can pay rent through this service to any real estate agent on the continent, with the service processing payments on your behalf and forwarding the funds to your real estate agent. By using Rental Rewards, you will never forget to pay rent, you can login to your Rental Rewards account to see your payment history, and will receive email or SMS reminder when rent is due. You can pay the rent with a simple “YES” reply, or pay a different amount by replying “YES $280.20”. The company charges your credit card a small fee per each transaction, while you will save your rental agent the trouble of dealing with rent collection.
Alfred
As for home security, you cannot go wrong with an app that bears the same name as Batman’s butler. Instead of spending a fortune on a home monitoring system, you can install Alfred and monitor your residence for free. The app is easy to use, without lengthy signups or logins and a strikingly user-friendly interface. If you have an old Android phone lying around, you can turn it into a security camera which can monitor on a simple command. The app has motion detecting capabilities and it can send you snapshots when motion is detected on your viewing Android. When you tap on the snapshot, Alfred will turn on a live feed of the surveillance video.
Spendbook
Some people find it annoying to keep track of their expenses manually. If you have several different sources of money to deal with, this iPhone app makes finance tracking much easier. Spendbook is an app that can put some order in your spending habit chaos. It has an interface that is easy to master, with a lot of interesting and useful features. With only a tap or swipe down gesture you can make expense entries and classify them it by filing them in the right category. You can check all upcoming expenses in a daily/monthly calendar layout (cell phone bills, insurance, medical bills and mortgage), add notes to the transactions, track income, and view graphs and charts that visualize all your spending and earnings in detail.
DocuSign
An app perfect for homeowner who do not want to wait for mail documents that need to be signed or pay fax costs. With DocuSign, you can import various documents, fill them out, and sign it on your tablet or smartphone simply with your finger. Save the document to your DocuSign, Google Drive, or DropBox account, and email it back to the sender. In this way, you can sign important electronic documents and send them back from any place in the world. This app makes renovations and home repairs, home management, finance and budgeting much easier.