Loan programs to assist with home affordability
Connecting consumers to resources and lenders who offer USDA and FHA loans
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
FHA loan, and USDA loan is now shown for eligible properties and tools like the mortgage calculator
Impact
Click through rate of the USDA loan placement increased to 152%
CSMA leads up by 42% which lead to 2X increase in revenue
35% of the population lives in a USDA loan eligible area
placement shows 48% of the time.
Listing detail page - Monthly payment section - Web
USDA loan - Quick view of a homes monthly payment
USDA loan - Mortgage calculator
USDA and FHA loan providers
Iterating on the current “Get pre-approved” flow where consumers can connect with mortgage professionals, our team worked with Mortgage Research Center to integrate both USDA and FHA knowledgable lenders.
Integrating web features on the realtor.com native app
Down payment assistance programs is now available to consumers based on their financial situation.
Overview
Product experimentation and launches
Our team took an iterative approach that included running experiments within production to prove 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
Background
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.
Content conversation exercise: From the consumers perspective, the experience on the listing detail page lacked the conversation or content to help consumers who are in need of affordability programs and special loans.
HMW statements
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.
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
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.
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
