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A leader in online real estate was interested in better understanding the growing population of “independent homebuyers” who manage all or part of their homebuying processes on their own. They wanted to size and understand the behaviors and attitudes of this population, as this foundational knowledge would be used to target them, develop relevant product/service offerings, and meet their needs moving forward.
We conducted a two-part engagement, starting with three 90-minute mini-focus groups among 3-4 homebuyers and finishing with an 18-minute survey among 800 homebuyers who have completed at least some parts of the homebuying process on their own.
We determined that there are few homebuyers currently managing the process entirely on their own without any assistance, but there is a growing group who is open and interested in services that could allow them to be more independent at key points. Our analyses uncovered the steps where agents are wanted, needed, and provide value and the steps where people are confident in doing things on their own. Through this work, we were ablet o provide the client with a prioritized list of new tools they could offer to support these more independent-minded homebuyers, either as a complement to or as a replacement for traditional agents.
