Figma
How might we provide real estate investors with search tools and property listings customized to their needs?
Popular residential real estate sites make investors dig for information relevant to leasing potential, or don’t provide it at all. A market opportunity exists to go beyond general listing information and help investors more easily search for and find properties that will pay out over time.
Each listing highlights at a glance how well a property matches an investor’s personalized preferences.
…I want to quickly see how well a property fits my requirements as I’m searching and browsing.
…I don’t want to waste time viewing properties that can’t even be leased or rented out.
…I want to search for properties in targeted areas, both near me and farther away.
…I want to be able to hide properties from future searches if I’m not interested in them.
…I want to use the tool at any time at home or on the go, including as I pass properties in my daily life.
…I want to be able to save properties that I’m interested in so I can quickly and easily revisit the listing.
…I want to get a feel for a property before scheduling a showing so I don’t waste my time traveling to properties that are a poor match.
…I want to be able to customize and save searches so I can quickly check for specific types of new properties in areas that I’m targeting.
…I want to search for and/or browse properties that meet or exceed my financial requirements (e.g., cap rate, positive monthly net income).
Building on my competitive site analysis and to start visualizing the app search process and listings, I sketched a wide variety of wireframes.
I started elevating the fidelity of the wireframes by writing specific headlines and subheads. I also explored the size, scale and relationships of the core visual elements, such as the header, overlays, buttons, text input forms, search preference selectors, dividers and more.
The search filters feature a variety of selection tools, from traditional vertical checkboxes and drop-down menus to horizontal checkboxes/chips.
To support users no matter how they want to access the responsive web app, I also designed an 8-column version for tablets and a 12-column version for desktops.
Early on, I had a fairly clear idea of what information I wanted to make available for residential real estate investors. However, developing the UX and UI took many iterations to create consistency across the many types of information that needed to be displayed.
I jumpstarted the process by analyzing traditional real estate sites. Then I explored differentiated UI options that would also showcase my UX additions customized for investors, such as cap rate and 1% rule.
As a real estate investor, this is the app I wish was actually in the market…
- Dark mode option
- Provide more complex in-app calculators for investors
- Allow users to modify the size of the text throughout the app to increase its accessibility
- Research user experience issues with the final prototype