4. Primary research

To know the key stakeholders of this real estate ecosystem, the journey of real estate consumer (buyer), real estate broker whose interviews are tabulated as user journey map.

1. User journey map of real estate consumer. 2. User journey map of real estate broker.

Here, the need of consumer (buyer-seller) are predominant and routine tasks of brokers are framed over it to offer timely service to them. The journey map of both the stakeholders are taken from the different scenario and the insights got from their journey are listed out which tells about the importance of tool for customer service than merely facilitating the real estate brokers.

4.1 User journey map of real estate consumer:

Consumer journey map includes how their normal journey of buying the property will occur. It includes: touchpoints, user goals & expectations, challenges & opportunities.

Fig 4b

Fig 4d

Fig 4e

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Fig 4g

4.2 Problems of real estate consumers: problem map.

Fig 4.2a

4.3 Artifacts:

In the existing online property listing services, the easement information are missing.

Fig 4.3a Fig 4.3b Fig 4.3c

The olden days’ hand written title deeds and other legal documents are difficult to read even for legal advisor.

Fig 4.3d

4.4 Key findings from customers’ journey:

• People don’t wish to spend more time on searching and educating themselves about real estate properties. • They need someone to assist till closing the sales deed. • They have less trust over online assistance on real estate property dealing. • They don’t want to have dispute over easements and minor measurement with nearby plot/land in future. • It is just once or twice in their lifetime to buy/sell property for normal family person. So they need credible real person to assist the transactions. •

“Around 30% out of three lakh secondary market listings are by individuals,” says Jayakumar of 99acres.com. • Pai of Magicbricks.com says,”1.8 lakh listings out of the total eight lakh on our website are by individuals.” • Time constraints are reflected in real estate decisions.

Surabhi Arora, Associate Director, Research at Colliers India, says,“Property transactions take time. Do not equate real estate with the stock market in terms of exiting.” • Reference Groups: They have strong influence over a consumer’s intention to purchase.Reference group includes: neighbours, friends and previous owners/buyers etc. • Word of mouth is so far considered having strongest credibility in buying property. • The deals are closed offline: While these sites can do a good job on listing homes, they do not have the infrastructure to successfully close the deal. There are no end-to-end online sales yet.

4.5 User journey map of real estate broker:

Next, from the user journey map of real estate broker, whole day routine tasks were documented & categorised as generic tasks, specific tasks, challenges and opportunities.

Fig 4.5a

Fig 4.5b

Fig 4.5c

Fig 4.5d

Fig 4.5e

Fig 4.5f

4.6 Artifacts:

Real estate brokers save the contacts with prefix or suffix as ‘site’ which helps for quick search. Real estate brokers share the property related files to their own whatsapp number or to their family members’

Real estate brokers browse the survey map, layout map in the digital document format.

Fig 4.6c Real estate brokers read the government orders’ (market value guidelines) pdf copy shared by his fellow broker.

Fig 4.6d

Real estate brokers save the contacts with prefix or suffix as related keywords of their need. (spelling mistakes are usual)

Fig 4.6e Notice displayed in stamp vendor office tells about the list of documents to bring while online registration is introduced from november 01, 2017.

Fig 4.6f

Fig 4.6g Fig 4.6h

Fig 4.6i

Real estate brokers have the site map of the area they manage and other legal documents in the file. They carry this file along with them always while going out.

Pocket note book of the real estate broker. They write mostly the contact numbers and names.

Fig 4.6j

4.7 Key findings from brokers’ journey:

• Most of the individual land brokers have secondary profession. • Most of them use pocket notebook for taking quick notes and contacts. • People need to rewrite important contacts everytime they change new pocket notebook or carry all the old notebooks with them. • Another set of brokers use whatsapp as all-in-one tool to save and share details about real estate transactions. • They miss the important points to note down and they call back customers again and again. • Many time they forget appointment dates except registration date. • Brokers remember that because, they will get payment after registration. • Brokers need to travel a lot to share the photo copies of legal documents to customers. • They also acts as a mediator between document writer and customers. • They have the past registration copies to show to new customers as portfolio for marketing. • They have handy area map of land/plot that they manage to buy & sell.

4.8 Insights from journey of broker and buyer:

After analyzing the current scenario of the real estate industry, key findings from the journey of customers and brokers, following insights came to light which helps to map the relation among them.

There is a need to regulate the tasks of individual brokers whose Majority population work in an unorganised manner. But, in their experience They sculpted their own network and structure among them.

Since brokers have it as a secondary profession, they need all-time handy tool to organise their tasks and reduce their cognitive load. They also need to manage their routine profession along with this real estate broker job.

Time management is the key factor for making successful property transactions. So, it is necessary to create an elements in service which helps them to offer timely support to their customers. Also to keep in mind is that, mere smart work without better human experience will not add value to the service.

There is a need to strengthen the community of land brokers, So that they can get the trust of property buyers-sellers and they can serve in need. Also it is a symbiotic relation which helps brokers from different regions to share the details of buyers and sellers. The usage of pocket note for scheduling and task management whose elements can be used to create a new service tool along with utility features which enables better access to property brokers.

Since it is an once or twice in a lifetime act of buying/selling property for property buyers-sellers, there is no need to create a separate tool for them. But for brokers, it is their profession and they need to use better tool for providing better service to their customers.