D.R. HORTON REALTOR
APP
Engaging and educating Realtors nationwide of the D.R. Horton sales process
THE PROBLEM
D.R. Horton currently has over 6,000 homes on the ground ready to be sold. Realtors are sometimes misinformed of how D.R. Horton operates. The goal of this app is to sell homes and educate our Realtor allies.
D.R. Horton is the nation's number one new construction homebuilder by volume. Having sitting inventory is both a great thing a terrible thing. It's great because there are so many homes available and ready to be sold. It's bad because each sitting home is costing DRH money with each day it sits waiting to be sold.
Our research found that Realtors accounted for over 80% of sales across the country, meaning they brought in a client that bought a house. While interviewing Realtors, we found a major lack of knowledge and overall awareness of the ins and outs of DRH. And the D.R. Horton app concept was born
HIGH LEVEL TIMELINE
Ongoing project I spent 6 months working on.
MAKE OF THE TEAM
I lead all research and design efforts assisted by graphic and web designers
KEY GOAL
Sell more houses with more Realtors. Educate them on processes.
MY ROLE
As the sole UX designer, I played the role of lead researcher and designer. I say lead because I made sure to rope in as many team members as possible to expose them to the research and findings.
The beginnings of this project had no end goal in mind. I started by simply getting on calls with our sales and marketing managers from across the country. We needed to understand what their day to day life was like and how we can make it better. Biggest concern across the board: Selling more houses.
Following our internal research, we moved to external research. We spoke with vendors and Realtors. What we heard from the Realtors was a bit concerning. Most did not work with us because they didn't understand or know how to. There was a problem.
With the research, I was able to design and test a full app designed specifically for Realtors.
UNDERSTANDING THE USER
D.R. Horton had done little to no research around how we interact with Realtors. The goal was to understand what they needed from us and how we could best deliver.
Starting out, we had phone interviews with as many Realtors as we could find across the country. We wanted to know the good, the bad, and the ugly. They were more than happy to tell us how they really felt.
We also attended our local model home Realtor events, sales meetings and got to know many agents within Keller Williams. What we found was Realtors really care about getting paid, so displaying and making commission rates per house visible were very important. D.R. Horton is known for the highest commission rates, and older homes will sometimes get a few points added to them. We learned if they were fully aware of the higher commission rates, they would be more motivated to bring their people in.
Realtors also spend a lot of time in the car. The app needed to be extremely easy to navigate and find available homes fast while on the go.
One of the most common occurrences across every interaction with Realtors was some form of misunderstanding in the process of selling a new home.
Making DRH more accessible on the go
A lot of times, a Realtor's office is wherever they are at the moment. The goal of the app was to enable an easy and efficient way to see what D.R. Horton homes are available near them. The app also sends notification of commission increases, further motivating them to send clients our way.
BREAKING DOWN THE PROCESS
Research to understand Realtors, ideate to solve real problems and design backed by real feedback and data from Realtors.
Our research initially had no end game but unearthed problems we could tackle on a national level. Realtors need some love and attention and need to know that D.R. Horton values them. On the flip side, Realtors need a platform catered directly to them. They sell so many of our homes yet so many many have never interacted with us at all. That needed to change.
Phone interviews, in-person interviews, networking events, Facebook groups, surveys and more. Wherever we could learn more about Realtors, we were there. Each interaction helped us decide on what needed to be included in the app and what did not.
With a prototype in hand, we visited a group of our friends at Keller Williams and ran through some tests. They loved the app, but let us know we had missed on a few minor opportunities to better help them do their jobs. Surprisingly, they wanted to see floorplans available in communities.
We went through a few rounds of iterations, testing with real Realtors to get the most reliable feedback possible.
THESE WERE SOME MAJOR LEARNINGS OR POINTS WE WANTED TO CALL OUT
Text, calls and emails can get lost
Realtors are busy, very busy. Catching them at a good time can be tough. Their texts get buried, email inboxes are flooded and calls go unnoticed sometimes. This was one of the main reasons we decided developing an app was the best way to go.
Realtors spend a lot of time out of the office
Most of a Realtors time is spent on the road. The app was designed to facilitate a busy professional always on the go. From homes to breakdowns on the DRH new home selling process, everything they might need can be accessed easily on the app.
Too much misinformation and lack of knowledge
Not everyone is familiar with the new home process, including Realtors. The goal here was to improve a Realtor's understanding of how we work and how they can work with us. That way, they can look like the expert to their clients and can confidently show and speak to the DRH process.
Money, money, money.
Knowing the commission rates was of upmost importance to Realtors. It is a huge motivating factor for real estate agents. A high commission home, when seen by enough agents, does not sit unsold very long. This app includes commission increase notifications.
Accessibility and the ability to cobrand
One thing we were not able to deliver on with our MVP Realtor app was the ability for Realtors to cobrand marketing materials or access homes on their schedule. Realtors have tight schedules and being able to come and go as they please was important. Hopefully a V2 feature.
TITLE OF THE CALLOUT BLOCK
LESSONS LEARNED
Realtors want accessibilty. Realtors want to learn. Realtors care about how and when they will be paid. As a company, D.R. Horton is ready to provide all of that and more and is moving in that direction with this app.
Home sales have a lot to do with relationships. When there is no way to personally build that relationship, there should be a backup plan. I believe a Realtor app can be that and more.
Realtors also build their business on the fact that they know more than the average person about the home buying and selling process. Education is key. Making that available to them will not only help them attain more clients but will also help us sell more homes. Everybody wins.
