Clarifying questions:

• By house hunting, do we mean only buying and selling, or are we including leasing/subleasing? While I think there’s definitely a market for subletting, I’d prioritize buying/selling before developing functionality for renting/sublets.

• Will the product be built as a separate app or within the Facebook app? I’m assuming it’d be an internal Facebook feature given that there are some houses posted on Marketplace already. (This could even be a tab within Marketplace, under “Homes”)

Users 

When thinking about house hunting writ large, there are a few people involved:

• Buyers

• Sellers

• Renters (we will forget about these for now)

I’d like to prioritize the buyers because they are likely to face more issues in the house hunting process.

Buyer problems: 

• It’s hard to find a home meet that meets all your expectations

  • Need: ability to filter and sort results

• If you don’t know a realtor or want to seek one out, then Facebook can connect you with one

  • Need: trust in the seller

• Once you find a home, you may want to consult another party (spouse, children, parents, etc)

  • Need: ability to be able to save and share a link

• Once you find a home, you may want to discuss financing options

  • Need: ability to share information regarding potential payment options

• Scheduling time to view a home

  • Need: easy way to schedule time that is mutually convenient

• If you’re a first time buyer, you may not know what the process is like

  • Need: education, advice, recommendations

I’d prioritize creating a product that allows buyers to search, save, and share homes. While it is important to build trust with a seller, that seems like functionality that can be added on a “sellers profile/page,” and though in-person home viewing is important during sales, we can build scheduling functionality after ensuring that there’s a product market fit. While financing is important that may be a responsibility delegated to the two interested parties (limiting Facebook’s liability should something go wrong). As far as home buying education, this seems like knowledge that should be up to the buyer/seller to figure out (again, wanting to minimize legal issues). Thus, this tool would serve to connect buyers and sellers. The platform would be a starting point for the buy/sell relationship.

Features

• Search: key words/phrases/locations to begin a search

• Filters: price, size, location, particular attributes (ie has pool), time on market (maybe?)

• Postings should have pictures (maybe at least 4: front of home, back of home, 2 inside of home)

• Recommendations: “based on homes you’ve viewed”

• In your area: “homes near you”

I’d prioritize ensuring that there is a way for users to (1) see postings, (2) filter postings, and (3) search with key words.

Metrics:

• # of users who click on this product

• Average time spent on the product

• Average # of postings viewed

• Average # of posting saved

• % of postings clicked on

• % of postings saved

• Average # of messages sent as a result of interest in a posting

• % of messages sent as a result of interest in a posting

I’d probably prioritize the:

• % of postings clicked on (this tells us engagement between buyers/sellers)

• Average # of messages sent as a result of interest in a posting (indicates actual interest)

• Average time spent on the product (can be measure of helpfulness/interest)

NOTE: There are a lot of websites/apps that are dedicated to home buying and selling; Facebook needs to distinguish itself from other products, and one way would be creating the connections that are trustable (more work on the seller side).

Opportunities:

• Renting/subletting market is probably big: esp given the number of young people who cannot afford to buy a home, and number of college students who look to lease part-time places.

If Facebook is looking to create a product targeted at helping people connect during the home buying process, Facebook should consider adding this functionality within the app, allowing users to search, filter, and save homes. Success can be measured by usage and conversions. This added functionality may result in (1) users spending more time on the app, (2) sellers having another platform to build credibility and create connections, (3) Facebook developing more information on user’s demographics/interests (ie income bracket). But this move is not without its risks like, (1) verifying that sellers are sharing accurate information, (2) developing software for scheduling convenient times, and (3) discovering whether it’s a feature that will be used enough.

Clarifying questions

1. Why do they want to enter into this industry? – Is it to keep users more services to spend in the platform?
2. By House hunting do they mean renting, buying and selling or both, or vacation rentals like AirBnB?
3. Which platform will this service be hosted? Is it a part of facebook website (or) a new platform?
4. Which geos are they going to be launching this service in?

1. This service will be a part of the facebook website
2. This will be launched in the United States first
3. Assumption is that first they would be launching the buying-selling houses service
4. The goal is to provide services to facebook users to spend more time in the platform

There are multiple users of the platform.

1. The seller – The individual or people who are putting their house in the market. The motivation of the seller is to get the house sold on the best possible price and with least investment (upgrades, servicing etc.) Within that there are multiple sub segments, listing a few
   1. The seller who need a realtor or agency or already has one to help with the process of getting the house ready and putting up in the market for sale
   2. The seller who already has a license and knowledge to do all of the above services.
   3. Seller is in another location and is remotely trying to sell and doesnt want to avail the resources of a realtor as he would have to pay them.
   4. The sellers are real estate developers who build new homes to sell.
2. The Buyer – The individual or people who are looking to purchase a house. The motivation of the buyer is to buy the house at best possible price and with good condition if its not a new house and without any maintenance needed. Within that there are multiple sub segments, listing a few
   1. The buyer who need a realtor or agency or already has one to help with the process of buying the house and helping with the paper work
   2. The buyer who already has a license and knowledge to do all of the above services and doesnt want to pay the realtor fees
   3. Buyer is in another location and is remotely trying to buy and doesnt want to avail the resources of a realtor as he would have to pay them.
   4. The buyers are in the business of shorting homes, buying it at a low price, redesigning them and selling at a higher price
3. Services – Inspection agencies, insurance agencies, flooring, redesigning, remodelling services, realtor matching etc.

• Affordability
• Location – Safety, commute, school districts
• Future potential of growth
• House attributes – townhomes, condos, single family (single level, 2L etc.). # of rooms/# of Baths

The whole process of buying a house can take months to years. The whole experience is delightful as well as dreadful. Identifying the biggest pain points based on the customer journey

-P1 . Narrowing down the search based on criteria – Based on the attributes narrow down the houses. This service is currently provided by other platforms like redfin, zillow etc. Calculating the approximate down payment needed + mortgage + property taxes + insurance costs and building a financial model

-P2. Ability to visit only a few houses a weekend – This reduces the number of experiences the buyer will have and immensely slows down the buying process. If the buyers are working, they can only visit during the weekend and that too not many houses as the visiting hours are short. If the buyers are remote it is even more difficult

-P3. Visualizing how the house will look once moved in, any remodelling views and visualization

-P4. Picking a realtor if the buyer wants one. Matching process based on the profile and preferences of location, reviews & ratings, feedback etc.

-P5. Understanding the different reports and deciding if they want to bid for a house with contingencies, without conditions etc.

-P6. Coming up with a bid without the help of a realtor

-P7. Signing the papers, waiting for the possession.  But having no idea at which stage the process is in and who is waiting for what data.

– P8. Services,contractors, movers, and handyman matching if remodelling is needed

• as the headsets are available,
• but the renting model has to be worked out which will take some time as we have to identify the channels, partners
• content creators will need help and education in building the video format