Bitprops

Background

Intro

Real estate investing has remained one of the safest and most valuable ways to add diversity and income-generating assets to one’s investment portfolio.

It’s never been easier to invest in real estate opportunities without the hassle of buying and maintaining properties or meeting tenant-landlord laws.

As the competition increases, so do the tastes and expectations of its users and investors alike.

Design the Deal Generator form from the perspective of the Sponsor
Avoid tooltip overload, and keep descriptions/explanations from overrunning the page
Design the form in a way that allows for customization of data
Include additional fields that would be important for investors to know/see

Confidentiality & Disclaimers
An Executive Summary
An Investment Summary

8 Interviews

10 individuals

30 minute sessions

Investor pain-points

What is the true rent income? Gross, net, triple net?
What is my risk tolerance for a higher cap rate?
How many investors will there be?
How quickly can they add funds?
What is their proof of funds?
How do you make me a buyer the market will take seriously?

Site Homepage

Property Details

Main Focus: Publish Deal

Bitprops is a real estate investing platform centered around property evaluation/analytics and deal flow capabilities for property syndication.

The client is seeking to democratize the real estate investing space by providing a platform for peer-to-peer investment.

The goal is simple; to make real estate investing as easy and straightforward as possible for both new and experienced investors.

Bitprops is a real estate investing platform centered around property evaluation/analytics and deal flow capabilities for property syndication.

Client is seeking to democratize the real estate investing space by providing a platform for peer-to-peer investment.

The goal is simple; to make real estate investing as easy and straightforward as possible for both new and experienced investors.

The Problem

Our team is tasked with the evaluation and redesign of the Bitprops Deal Generator form. The client would like to see more relevant information gathered on the form to submit and create the business plan/investment pitch.

Requirements:

Design Process

Exploratory Research—> Define Problem—>Develop Solutions—> Evaluative Research

Research Findings

The platform supports two primary users: syndicators (sponsor) and investors.

Sponsors use the app to find properties, set terms (operator’s fee, equity for capital, etc), generate operating agreement, verify accreditation, automate accounting and tax planning, receive and distribute funds, and view performance and projections.

Investors will have access to view how well a deal is performing, how much money they’ve earned (and how they’ve performed against projections both in terms of cash yield and equity growth/appreciation).

Secondary Research

We approached this challenge with qualitative, secondary, and competitive research.

Real estate sponsors will create offering memorandums to prospective investors interested in adding real estate syndications in their portfolios.

A typical Offering Memorandum includes the following:

User Interviews

A key aspect of the research process included speaking to professionals and investors experienced in the RE industry.

Through user interviews, I understood the responsibilities of a sponsor and the various investor pain points associated within an RE syndication.

Interview Findings

Arranging the financing.
Negotiating with the seller.
Building a business plan.
Finding investors.
Raising capital for the transaction.
Working with the property management team.
Asset management.
Handling investor relations.

Sponsor tasks

Competitive Analysis

Focus Areas:

Proposal/Deal Creator
Define Investment
Lingo & Terms
Property Summary

Current State

In order to create a deal, users must first enter the address of the property they’re looking to invest in.

Once users complete the property details page, the site will use its proprietary algorithm to calculate and evaluate relevant cashflow details associated with the property.

After details of the property & loan have been confirmed, the status of the deal will switch to “pending” indicating Sponsor is now ready to set the terms of the deal.

Deal Generator

The main area of focus for this project is to redesign the “deal generator” page visible only to prospective sponsors.

The goal of the redesign is to improve the sponsor’s experience of setting the terms of a real estate deal syndication within the Bitprops site through thoughtful UX.

User Persona

Based on in the themes and similarities of the user interviews and research, we defined our sponsor: Sponsor Steve

Empathy Map

In order to create a more user-friendly term deal interface, I needed to understand my user’s thoughts, goals, and motivations.

The persona and empathy mapping process helped distill and categorize my knowledge of the user, or sponsor, into one place.

User Journey

Deal Generator Data/Variables

Competitive analysis and secondary research revealed specific data fields that a Sponsor needs provide in order to make an investor feel informed and interested in the investment.

The new data fields are highlighted in orange for the client’s consideration.

Sketches

Lo-Fi Mockups

Bitprops’ MVP evaluation tool is live, but deal flow capabilities have not been fully implemented.

Bitprops is looking for support in designing an efficient deal flow for sponsors to identify a property deal, set the terms of the deal, and invite investors to participate in the deal.

The Design Challenge

Project Scope

Bitprops is not trying to create the next gen anything. The client is looking to distance itself from fancy buzzwords and industry jargon.

They simply want to take old school investing concepts, and put them into language and tools that make sense. Their goal is to give users (sponsors & investors) everything they need and nothing they don’t.

Now comes the most crucial piece of the deal generator process; publishing the deal to prospect investors

Usability Tests

7 individuals participated in two rounds of 30 minute test sessions.

Users included:

RE agents
RE sales & accounting associates
Individuals experienced with purchasing/investing in properties High net worth investors

Lo-Fi Mockup Iterations

Key Takeaways:

Tabs>Long Form
Removed Switches
Gallery Access
Field Groups

Progress Bar
Past Deals
Strategy Notes
Key Roles

Hi-Fi Designs v1

Hi-Fi Designs v2

Prototype Link

User Quotes

Conducting 3 rounds of testing proved to be essential in understanding the tastes & preferences of today’s investors.

Every field/element was designed and included in the Hi-Fi mockups to satisfy investor needs and concerns based on extensive research & user feedback.

“The tab form is much easier for me to follow and understand compared to the longer form”
“I don’t really get the switches. It’s a bit confusing & overwhelming seeing the green and red buttons all over the form.”
“I really like how the progress bar immediately tells me how close or far the sponsor is to raising total capital. This is makes it easier for me to decide if I want to enter the deal or not”.

Design Handoff

After 4 weeks of conducting research, usability test sessions & various design iterations, the team and I successfully completed the project and sent our final deliverables to the client.

Examples of the redesign include:

Property, Loan, & Sponsor details broken into tabs
Progress bar representing sponsor capital
Import button to allow sponsors to pull terms/fields from a previous deal
Gallery Access
Strategy notes section to share any last minute details to investors

Summary & Reflection

Weekly check-in meetings greatly attributed to the success of this project as the client confirmed and signed off on each of the deliverables expected every week.

The goal of the project was to redesign the deal generator screen to be more intuitive and user friendly in order to attract more investors onto the platform.

We translated business and product requirements into visually refined concepts and usable experiences. The effect of the re- design was certainly an improvement from the earlier version based on survey results but unfortunately we cannot confirm the end results just yet as client MVP product is still in beta/early stage testing.