Real Estate marketplace that shifts power to property owners

Our main goal was to collect at one place all the tools for an effective launch, analysis, and optimization of advertising campaigns.

Hypothesis 1

Property owners will use the platform to compare commission rates, terms, conditions, and property type specialization to find the perfect agent.

Hypothesis 2

Real estate agents will use the platform to advertise their services to property owners and to ensure a steady stream of clients.

The total project duration was six months, and Artkai created and launched a user-friendly application that solved real estate seller and agent problems. Here is how we met the challenge:

Understanding the industry

To create a user-centric, visually appealing product that would address the target audience's problems and outperform the potential competition, we conducted: desk research, interviews with stakeholders, user journey analysis, and competitor analysis.

Product backlog

We created a backlog of features and requirements for MVP product release and a list of marketing activities to attract the first 10,000 users quickly.

Brand identity

A deep understanding of the competitive landscape and target customer preferences helped us design a distinct brand identity.

UX/UI design

We tested our concept by interviewing target users and uncovered hidden usability problems. This approach allowed us to unearth problems early on and Artkai saved the client dozens of hours on development. After that, we finalized the UI and handed it over to our developers.

Front, Back-end & QA testing

We developed a cross-platform mobile app using the same code for both platforms. It allows more flexibility to add new features, ease in use, and higher potential business scalability. One of our Quality Assurance specialists tested and approved the result.

We defined two main roles and created Persona’s for each of them. That helped us to keep focus on their needs and desires:

Hanyu, seller

A potential customer who plans to sell his apartment for the first time so that he can buy a bigger unit for his growing family

Pains

• A confusing mixture of offers from real estate agents on the market
  
• Hard to find an agent with a required commission rate
  
• Agent business and private contacts are mixed
  
• Inconvenient to request friends for agent recommendations
  
• Limited to a small circle of candidates to choose from

Desires

• Sell a property in 2 months
  
• Find a responsive agent
  
• Find a commission lower than 2%
  
• Always be in touch with the agent

Xiaoyu, agent

Had difficulty getting listings after the pandemic hit, and the good old door-knocking method was no longer available

Pains

• Tried to get clients via digital marketing but received poor results
  
• The cost of advertising is too high
  
• Doesn't have a network to get a steady stream of clients
  

Desires

• Have a platform where he can publish his service offers for free
  
• Have access to a good pool of potential clients
  
• Have a smooth, direct process to get clients that saves time, effort, and money
  

The industry insights we gathered helped us build
a Customer Journey Map for the property seller and real estate agent. We used this to determine which features to include in the MVP release of the app.

CJM

We created a memorable brand identity that leveraged contrasting elements. We evoke warm and welcoming feelings using the color scheme while creating a bright and fresh image using bold contrasting typography.

Branding

This feature is a core part of Prop.ly's marketing strategy to get the first 10,000 users after the application launch. Each user role has a unique referral system to motivate current users to invite new users to join the app.

The agents will receive additional tokens for sending offers to the homeowners, while property sellers will get special vouchers.

Referral option