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Property Report

User Test Findings

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Research Methodology

Unmoderated user test on usertesting.com.

6 users:

    • All mobile users
    • All users currently own a home

Users provided general feedback and answered several questions about content, including:

    • Their thoughts on how the data is gathered.
    • How they consider a home qualified to compare to their home.
    • Which section they found most/least useful.
    • How much they trust the accuracy of the home information.
    • Their thoughts on the ability to claim and edit their home information.
    • Their thoughts on new card callouts.

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Research Findings�By Page Section

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Map & Home Stats

  1. Users knew the green circle was the comparable area.
  2. Users knew the view was the map view of the house.
  3. A user did not like the use of the street view photo… at all.
  4. Users thought the map was too broad, and was looking for the ability to zoom and see more detail.
  5. User thought the word Detached was referring to a detached garage.

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Estimated Home Value

User would bump up their house offer because their home is in better condition so they can justify the higher price point shown in the Estimated Home Value section.

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Sale Times for Similar Homes

User liked knowing that the information was updated recently.

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Comparable Homes

  1. Users used home condition and photos more than specifications when viewing comparable homes.
  2. User wanted the ability to click on a listing and see photos of the sold home to compare against.
  3. User liked seeing how many days the home sold in.
  4. User wanted to know the sold homes original list price.

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Housing Market Conditions

  1. User did not know how the Housing Market Conditions module was generated.
  2. User commented that Housing Market Conditions was least useful to them because they’re going to sell their home when they need to sell it, not based on market conditions.

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Property History

User was not interested in the property history or tax history as a homeowner.

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Number of Homes Sold

  1. User was not interested in the homes sold graph.
  2. User felt Number of Homes Sold and Median Sold Price were the least useful because if their home is in better shape than other homes on the market it will sell faster.

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Trend Reports

  1. All users knew trend reports would show them information about the entire neighborhood, not just the area by their home.
  2. Users assumed trend reports would include information about schools, crime and parks.
  3. User assumed trend reports would be delivered as a PDF.

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Number of Similar Homes for Sale by Price

User was unsure at first how to read the graph.

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Get an Agent vs. Do it Yourself

  1. Users wanted a link with detailed instructions or tools to sell a home on their own.
  2. Users appeared to take the FSBO option as being more difficult than having an agent.
  3. User wanted a link to an agent who would quote them online before they came to the house.

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User SpecifiedMost Useful Sections

  1. Estimated Home Value
  2. Sale Times for Similar Homes
  3. Comparable Homes

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User SpecifiedLeast Useful Sections

  1. Map
  2. Property History
  3. Sold History
  4. Median Sold Price
  5. Number of Homes Sold
  6. Number of Similar Homes by Sale Price

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User SpecifiedMixed Sentiment Sections

  1. Housing Market Conditions
  2. Tax History
  3. Comparable Homes for Sale
  4. Get an Agent vs. Do it Yourself

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User SpecifiedNo Comment Sections

  1. Trend Reports
  2. How can I sell my home? Ad

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Research Findings�By Theme

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Users felt some of the information was redundant.

I feel like a lot of the comparable homes in the neighborhood seems to be over and over again, you see the median price, number of homes sold, I feel like that's pretty close to what's for sale now. So some of that’s kind of a reiteration of information over and over again which is a little annoying.”

  • Medreview11

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Users felt this information could help with their decision in selling their home.

"I feel like all the information on this page could definitely give me an idea if I was looking to sell my home and see if it would be a good time or not.”

- medreview11

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User was surprised by the amount of public information on their home.

"It seems like they're going to have a full property history. They have a lot of information. To be honest I'm kind of surprised that this much information is public. I mean I was aware that there is information like this, but I'm surprised how detailed it is.”

– jamesj

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User felt the site was informative and it was easy to compare nearby homes for sale.

"I think this is really cool. All the information that's provided here. It seems like a really thorough and awesome way ... we look at Zillow for ours and there's no where near this wealth of information or the ease of comparing it to nearby places for sale. I really like this buyers market sellers market thing. I don't know what determines this. That's a cool aspect of it.”

- MNF6309

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User wanted more information such as schools and crime.

"Information missing is crime stats,�schools, etc.”

- markneil1212

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Research Findings�By Question

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Question 1�The information on your property is based on homes within a one mile area with a similar bedroom count, bathroom count, and square footage. What are your thoughts on this?

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Users wanted the criteria for the information shown in the report to include home condition and renovations.

"To be honest a lot of the time the most important thing to me has been pictures. I'll find that our house is 3 bed 3 bath so sometimes that can pop up to compare to a home that is completely out of the range of our house because our house is an older house, it's a ranch house, and comparable homes will be popping up that are brand new, two story, completely out of the range of what our house is. I think the images is a good component. Or year built. There are other elements that come into play there, are renovations recently done, things like that.”

- MNF6309

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User wanted the ability to push the radius of sample data out to include more houses in less populated areas.

"I think maybe you could push the mileage out or give the opportunity to do that. If you lived in an area where there might not be a big change for 5 miles or something, maybe you want to see other homes to bring other things into the mix to compare.”

- MNF6309

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Question 2�How similar do other homes have to be in location, size, bedroom count, and bath count to be comparable to your home?

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User Specified�Home Similarity Requirements

The following were specified by users as being required in order to be “similar” to their home.

  1. Home location, ½ – 1 mile was good
  2. Upgrades and home condition
  3. Exact bed and bathroom count
  4. Within 0 – 200 square feet, but not more than 400+
  5. Home age
  6. Home type

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User mentioned that neighborhoods can change a lot within 1 mile.

"The location within a mile I think we're good? Although in some areas a mile can have a great neighborhood and a terrible neighborhood I don't know this place.”

- markneil1212

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Question 3�How much do you trust the accuracy of real estate websites information about your home?

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Users trust the information is as accurate as a computer can get, but don’t trust it 100%.

"I find them to be pretty insightful. I feel like they're pretty trustworthy. It's always good to have something to compare it to to make sure it's on track. But I feel like they're pretty trustworthy and accurate about the price or a home, or as accurate as a computer can be anyway.”

- medreview11

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Users mentioned that you have to take real estate sites with a “grain of salt” because they cannot consider home conditions and renovations.

"You have to take it with a grain of salt. A lot of times what you're suggesting it's only basing it on square footage and bedrooms and bathrooms. It's not taking into consideration upgrades and what's inside the house. I lived in a town home and had to sell before and that was nicer because you could compare ... most of the homes were the same. There were 4 units in the townhome, 2 were the same and 2 were different and you could compare those models int he MLS and compare. It's harder with a home and every home is different. I live in a subdivision and the models have changed over time so you can't compare one 2600 square foot home to another 2600 square foot home. They're totally different.”

- TwinMom2010

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Question 4�What are your thoughts on the ability to ‘claim’ your home?�If you were to claim your home would you want the ability to edit your home details?

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Users wanted a way to update their home information if something changed such as square footage or number of rooms to get the most accurate quote.

"Absolutely. I would definitely want to edit the details especially if I've done updates to the home like change the square footage or the bedrooms. I'd want to update my home details to get the most accurate quote.”

- medreview11

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User wanted some sort of verification process when claiming their home.

"I would hope you'd be able to claim it and have to prove you claimed it that it's yours so someone can't go around and claim all these houses because they want to know the value of them. But it is a good feature I just hope there is some kind of verification process to go through.”

- medreview11

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User wanted to be able to claim their home to remove their homes information from the website.

"I feel so a person can take everything off the page. I know people who went online to make sure you can't see pictures of their house. Or have any information about it. I feel like claiming your home I assume would be to do that. To take information off in a way to have more privacy. I think it's nice to have the ability to claim it it's positive.”

– jamesj

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User wanted to give their agent access to their home information to update it.

"If I was selling it ... maybe or I could pass it on to the realtor and make sure they put the information in there. I don't want to go online and make these changes I'd rather have the realtor do it. My house isn't on the market. I don't care what's online. I don't want to get into my own editing for my information because you usually use multiple sites.”

- markneil1212

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Question 5�What are your thoughts on calling out information such as if the home sold for more than asking or faster than normal?

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Users would use the callouts as a way to figure out what the sold home did so they can do that to their home to improve their sale speed or sold price over asking.

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