Home search

Buying a home is challenging and complicated, especially with a high interest rate. HomeLight provides assumable mortgage, a home loan that allows homebuyers to take over the existing mortgage terms from the seller. 

The initial buying experience was a subscription-based experience and it was launched in Florida to drive initial interest. We reached 50% live listing coverage, but engagement from buyers was poor. Only real estate agents were willing to pay the fees and buyers felt they needed more education about the program.

Our team added features on the Home Search webpage to make it easier for a buyer to view listings, message their agent, work with a preferred agent, and save searches. These initiatives will also allow HomeLight to scale operations and grow the business.

 

I worked on this project from Q4 2023 - Q1 2024. I ideated on the early discovery phase, presented regularly to stakeholders, and delivered final assets for production. I worked with a team of 1 product manager and 4 engineers.

 

Problems

Our MVP home search product was a cumbersome experience which resulted in poor engagement and low conversion. Buyers found that exploring homes should be more accessible and felt that they shouldn’t need to enter a payment method for a free trial. It caused buyers to drop off.

 

Goals

User: Make all the qualified Ultra Low-Rate homes accessible for buyers. Allow buyers to add save search criteria, save favorite homes, message their agent, and make listing information free


Business: Increase gross profit through home search and only agents pay for the program fees


Product: Increase engagement and conversion

 

Research

I used the “Job To Be Done” framework to understand agents' processes. It provided insights into how agents navigate the local market, understand buyer preferences, communicate with multiple buyers, and facilitate successful property matches.

How do buyers and internal operators interact with the product?

  • Confusion around how HL calculates the interest rate

  • Ultra-low rate listings are blocked, is this a scam?

  • Agents and buyers are frustrated on how we handle when a lead comes in

 

We conducted rounds of research to better understand the user, validate the hypothesis and reduce uncertainty, thereby and minimize the risk of failing the product-market fit. I used tools like hotjar, user testing.com and dovetail to gather research.

 

Buyer’s view

Agent’s view

 

Internal sales dashboard and agent dashboard

After the buyer submits a lead, our Home Consultant will be in contact to discuss all the details before passing on to the real estate agent. We empowered HC to open up more topics by added “Nearby Ultra Listing” function.

 

Buyer’s view - first lead

Reduced fiction by letting buyers message their agent through native messaging.

 

Buyer’s view - second lead

 

Messaging between buyers and agents

 

Buyer’s view - save searches

Allowed buyers to save their search criteria and receive emails from HomeLight when there are new listings within their saved search.

Buyer’s view - favorite homes

 

What we learned - first lead experience

We conducted rounds of user testing to validate designs and iterated based on feedback.  We
tested designs with buyers, agents, and HomeLight sales who requested a tour on the listing page.

 

Result

With the new design, engagement went up 25% after we launched the project. Buyers found it much easier to view HomeLight Ultra listings without paying for the subscription. Agents and HomeLight employees felt that this would drastically improve their efficiency and ability to support more buyers. Additionally, we closed our first deal!