Programs to assist with home affordability
Connecting consumers to resources and lenders like alternative loan types and down payment assistance.
Timeline
November 2022 - July 2023
Responsibilities
Senior Product Designer leading brainstorming, ideation, research, and design
Tools
Figma, usertesting.com, Confluence, Jira
Overview
Consumer pain point
At the end of 2022, the buyer journey began to shift with more consumers delaying home buying because of affordability. Affordability became the top pain point for consumers who were either a first time home buyer or repeat buyer.
Business problem
For the business that operates under a lead-generation model, our consumers were interacting less with our mortgage and lending partners, impacting overall revenue.
Partnership and constraints
Our team worked with existing partnerships like Mortgage Resource Center and formed new partnerships with Down Payment Resource Center.
Highlights
Three new programs are shown for eligible properties on the listing detail page
Impact
Click through rate of the USDA loan placement increased to 152%
35% of the population lives in a USDA loan eligible area, and placement shows 48% of the time.
Consumers can connect with a lender to better understand if they can qualify for these specific loan types.
Connect with a lender
Leads up by 42% which lead to 2X projected increase in revenue
Impact
Down payment assistance programs are available based on your personal financial situation
The recent partnership with Mortgage Research Center gave us the ability to show consumers understand the dollar amount they could qualify for and the associated providers available to them.
1.17% click-through-rate on down payment assistance call-to-action
23% of visitors completed the down payment assistance program search
15.4% visitors viewed a matched program
Impact
Overview
Product experimentation and launches
Our team took an iterative approach that included running experiments within production to prove out concepts, and iterate on current experiences.
Process
November 2022 - July 2023
Add USDA loan offerings on the listing detail page
Requirements
Hypothesis
If we display USDA loan messaging on listing detail page (LDP) eligible properties then a larger % of consumers will engage with mortgage affordability solutions because we are providing consumers with additional financing options on their home financing journey.
What we want to learn
Click through rate (CTR)
Lead conversion of pre-approval flow specific to USDA
Method
Ideation and collaboration with Lead Product Manager and Lead Engineer
Content design
Product design - Wireframe, low and hi fidelity design
Visual QA
Design process
Identify entry points
Audit content design
In this phase of the design process, attention was given to the content design of this page section by analyzing the current conversation we are having with our consumers.
Conversation we want to have with consumers
Conversation we want to have with our consumers
Audit current experience
In this phase of the design process, attention was given on layout and visual design between both mobile and desktop.
Note: During this phase of the project, realtor.com was undergoing a redesign. During this launch of this feature, the design organization was using the UI shown here.
Design process
UX flow diagram
The product trio (product, engineering, and design) worked together to understand the limitations of the API and how that could influence the flow and what was feasible for the first experiment.
Logic
Evaluate the property address to identify if the home is located in an eligible location
If the property is located in an eligible area, show placement
CTA will redirect to the pre-approval flow
Wireframes
Three concepts were presented, focusing on both mobile and desktop breakpoint.
Concept - “The neighbor”
A simple approach to integrating USDA loans onto the the monthly payment section. This is the lightest lift we could take to meet a deadline.
Lo-fidelity design
During this phase of the design process, it was important to understand where this component should live, which aligned with our desired conversation.
Our team worked with the media team to understand the potential impact on the click-through rate for revenue-generating buttons.
Placement explorations and updates to layout and UI
In this phase of the design process, attention was given on layout and visual design to the component. It was important that the component could be modular and support the addition of other programs.
Using the content design principles
The goal of the test was to understand usability and comprehension of the new program added to the listing detail page.
Usertesting to understand usability
Unmoderated test using usertesting.com
First-time home buyers, and repeat buyers
$60K + income
Methodology
Outcome
As a 2-week experiment in production, our team launched a variant to a percentage of consumers. Our team was able to understand interest from consumers and revenue generated from this placement.
✅ Results
Click-through rate (CTR) increase by 152%
Pre- approval leads increased by 42%, revenue up by 2X
Average 250 USDA submissions per day, post 100% launch
Lost 43 submissions per day, post 100% launch
No impact to agent leads
35% of the population lives in a USDA loan eligible are
Placement shows 48% of the time
