RealEstate.com on Wednesday announced the debut of  a mobile application on its web site that allows house hunters to access detailed, location-based information about homes by cellphones.

Difficulties in the capital markets have shrunk the availability of credit, which  has forced many house hunters to postpone or ditch plans to purchase homes. Using technology to create new opportunities to woo and capture impulse buyers is critical.

Two weeks ago Trulia, a RealEstate.com rival, launched an application that extended its housing search capabilities to mobile phones along with a GPS navigation extension for driving directions. (see Trulia Makes Real Estate Mobile)

RealEstate.com’s GPS-enabled mobile application makes the entire Multiple Listing Service available to house hunters along with single click access to a realtor in the area.

“In addition to this being consumer-oriented, it is very agent oriented as well,  so it expands on our core business which intimately involves realtors,” said Bret Violette, president of RealEstate.com.

Unlike Trulia and Zillow, two of the leading online realestate sites, RealEstate.com is not a standalone business. It is part of LendingTree, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based online lending exchange that connects consumers to lenders.

RealEstate.com, also based in Charlotte, operates as a brokerage in 15 markets with about 1,000 agents who work directly for the company. In the rest of the country the firm partners with a network of 300 independent real estate firms that receive leads from RealEstate.com.   

“This mobile app plays well for us so an impulsive inquiry from a potential buyer can be quickly transferred to an agent who can help them,” said Greg Hanson, a vice president at RealEstate.com. “It is our same strategy except that the buyer is not in front of a computer, they are in their car in front of the house.”