.png)
Humanizing the home buying experience one story at a time
The home buying experience is no small feat.
So why treat it like one? For many first-time buyers,
they rely on information from friends, family, and the internet.
While this system has seemed to work for many, wouldn't it be
great if you could get inside the mind of a previous home buyer?
Introducing Stories
Stories is a real estate app designed to get home-buyers in
contact with previous buyers and to establish trust between
institutions and prospective clients.
To provide first time real estate buyers with
relevant information for their next life milestone: A home
UX Research, UX/UI Design, Heat Mapping, Usability Testing, Interviews, Accessibility Testing
During a real estate transaction, many home buyers feel rushed. Especially during a hot market, it can lead to high tensions and leave many parties unsatisfied with the offer made, accepted, or denied.
With the real estate agent's job to close prospective clients to homes, it may feel too short for those looking to take their time with the home buying experience.
Due to the rushed nature of the home-buying experience, many prospective clients leave the prospect funnel. From issues like finding trusted verified sellers, knowing who to bank, or finding guidance, there is a lack of a go-to resource for these individuals.
As high as 30% of home-buyers in the Tri-State Area switch realtors before they send a bid. Many state their reason to be a lack of trust from the agent's suggestions and knowledge about the market.
To be perfectly clear, I will be building a Software-as-a-Service product.
We are focused on delivering home-buyers the guidance and trust that
is missing in the current industry verticals.
From our research, we have identified one market leader, OJO Labs based in
Austin, Texas. Having gone to the real estate industry meet-up at SXSW 2022,
I was able to meet with key stakeholders from RedFin, Realtor.com, and Zillow.
Realistically, the two leaders that will reach the majority market share will be
between Homelight, a San Francisco-based tech giant evaluated at 1.6 Billion,
and OJO Labs, an Austin-based tech startup that has recently secured a Series
D round led by Jim Breyer, of Breyer Capital.
.webp)
Homelight has made it clear that they intend to take market share of the SaaS to Broker Market where OJO Labs are looking to disrupt the B2C Market with their machine learning capabilities.
Here is where Stories differentiate itself from the current offerings. We are a software product that connects first-time buyers with their potential neighbors. From geo-located issues like which specific broker and bank a home-buyer used to the pros and cons of living in the neighborhood, a prospective buyer now has time to consider his/her options months before approaching a real estate broker.
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)
Long gone are the days of apps that offer way too much, all upfront.
So what do we at Stories do?
Simple. It makes your real estate journey to finding your home simple.
.webp)
Positive
Felt at ease with the user flow. QA testers were content with this as a feature of current offerings
Neutrals
Felt that the process offered no significant value to the real estate process
Negative
Felt that the process offered went too slow. QA testers were bogged down by the user flow.
Had we had more experts and venture funds at hand, I would have gone about designing this mobile app entirely differently. I would have loved to explored further in the gaps between consideration and purchase within the sales & prospecting funnels that Real Estate fails to address. Part of Stories' mission is to focus on the end goal of making sure the journey is just as great as moving into your new home. Each home tells a great story, why not share it with new home-buyers looking to start a new chapter themselves.
Coach Mobile Redesign(UX) | Stories Mobile App(UX) | Tiltshift Campaign(Esports)
