Ever raced to a sweet apartment eager to be the first hand a landlord shakes – only to find the place teeming with would-be tenants?

Zillow is rolling out a new app for iPhone and iPod today aimed at giving users an on-the-go edge to prevent such a calamity, with features like instant email or phone access to landlords and color-coded results that show which properties have already been viewed.

“As rents rise in many parts of the country,  local rental markets are becoming increasingly competitive,  creating a demand for renters to have instant access to tools that can help them track the newest listings and contact landlords anytime, anywhere,” Jeremy Wacksman, Zillow’s vice president of consumer marketing and mobile said in a news release announcing.

The online real estate company launched its Zillow Rentals app for Android in April. (No word on how it’s fared so far.)

Both apps let users compare favorite homes in side-by-side lists, draw customized search boundaries around neighborhoods and sift through “Zestimates” – estimated rental prices on more than 100 million homes across the U.S.

A feature that’s unique to the iPhone app: real estate maps that layer in grocery stores, coffee shops, schools, parks and other amenities.

More homes are now viewed on Zillow with smartphones and tablets than desktops. “We’ve tipped towards mobile in terms of usage, and I think the bull case on Zillow and the reason why we’ve done well as a stock is we monetize on mobile,” CEO Spencer Rascoff told Bloomberg TV last month.

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