Title Insurer Launches Mobile Real Estate App for Agents

First American Title Insurance Co. has created AgentFirst, a free mobile application for Android and BlackBerry smartphones. The app, which was previously released for iPhone in April 2010 for download at no charge through the iTunes App Store, provides real estate and lending professionals access to property and ownership information that covers 97% of all U.S. real estate transactions, the company says.

Users with active AgentFirst accounts on their mobile devices are promised the ability to easily look up property addresses while in the field and gain access to property information, transaction history and tax data. In addition, the new mobile application is design to allow agents to place title and escrow orders directly through their mobile device.

According to market research firm comScore, smartphone ownership in the United States has now surpassed 49.1 million users as of the second quarter of 2010. With all four major U.S. carriers now offering at least two Android smartphone devices to their customers, Android smartphones are seeing a significant increase in market share, while Research In Motion http://www.rim.com, maker of the BlackBerry, remains the dominant U.S. smartphone platform, representing about 41% of the market, comScore says.

The AgentFirst application is available for BlackBerry users to download here, and for iPhone users here.