Recently-released apps for real estate agents, developed by Visionary Apps, have tweaked this model to give agents an overt way to advertise their services and mine for prospective leads while not disrupting the user experience - at least not too much.

The apps - Complete Foreclosures and Complete Homes - list homes for sale nationwide. The Complete Foreclosures app has proven to be popular, making into Apple’s top ten business apps. It lets users search foreclosures by an area and provides information of the foreclosed home.

The advertising option allow agents to purchase specific zip codes in this app. When the user searches for foreclosures and homes in a certain zip code or by GPS location, he or she will also see an advertisement from the real estate agent, who also receives qualified leads.

Only one agent is displayed per zip code for each app, creating exclusive referral territories and also allow the real estate agent to “lock out” the competition. Users see details on the participating agents, including their picture, profile, e-mail address, phone number and Web site address.

A New Way

The Complete Homes and Complete Foreclosures apps are something of a departure from the typical app model, which are usually developed with an eye to making money through downloads or just to generate brand awareness. Sit and Squat, a mobile guide to public washrooms sponsored by the makers of Charmin' bathroom tissue, was an example of the latter.  It was a huge hit, with 81,000 people downloading the application onto their mobile devices within the first day.

Games have also become a popular way for companies to monetize apps. Last year Volkswagen launched an adverting-based gaming app for its 2010 Volkswagen GTI called "Real Racing GTI.”