How to solve listing duplication in a property portal. It describes the problem and offers some hypotheses for its cause, as well as some methods for testing those hypotheses. Also contains metrics to measure progress on this issue.
2. EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
Problem: The duplicate listing in the property portal
causing user frustration, impacting SEO ranking and poses a
risk of becoming a scammer hotbed.
Who: Wasalt portal, Property buyer, Property Sellers
Why: Current revenue model and no reward for good
behavior of sellers and buyers' pain point.
How: By rewarding good behavior of sellers, changing the
revenue model and adhere to rule of land.
Solution:An algorithm that promotes the best content
over others , charge for actual leads and enforcing laws and
preventing duplicate posting.
3. Mission
To your ideal property hassle-free.
Purpose
To ensure every property listed is verified, of
premium quality and transparent in pricing
Offers
Searching for properties, to buying, renting, real
estate marketing and even listing for both the
commercial and residential sector
4. 93% of users of Wasalt use mobile apps because they are
fast, safe, secure, user friendly, and convenient.
MonthlyVisit ~275K (Approx.)
UniqueVisit stands at ~149K
Average spend ~3:38 min, But traffic from Social media spend
almost Avg.~10min (Mostly from Good Content)
Average page visit ~5
Bounce rate 46% (Only One page)
83% of Saudi Arabian users and 43% of users between the
ages of 25 and 34 and mostly active on social media
50% of traffic comes from paid search, so its brand is not
established.
Data Collected from similarweb
SOME MEASURE
5. PROBLEM
Example of duplicate properties with different agents
are listed in the same sequence.
As consumer attention spans continue to shorten,
customers browsing your listings will get annoyed if
they see the duplicate property repeatedly.
Duplicate listings only add to the challenge to SEO.
A site with duplicate listings signals a lack of quality
control.This situation is ideal for scammers who
want to take advantage of you and your users.
6. HOW BIG THE PROBLEM
CurrentAgent Commission market is $2Billion.
The Anti-Economic Crime Department of Dubai Police
registered 499 cases related to fraud in 2018, leading to the
arrest of 471 suspects.
The UAE’s online real estate market loses at least $272
million (AED 1 billion) each year due to duplicate listings.
In the long run, these costs will affect your business's
bottom line.
Recently Dubai Land Department (DLD) allows sellers to
list their properties with a maximum of three brokers.
7. WHY DUPLICATE LISTING IS HAPPENING
The more customers see the same ad, the more likely
they are to like it.
Each time you post the ad it will appear at the top of the
page, increasing its visibility to potential buyers or renters.
It is irrespective of the content or irrespective of buyer
choice.
More the ads, more the revenue for property portal. So,
property portal algorithms can be changed by
agents.
The policy does not provide equal opportunity for
sellers to compete regardless of the content or service
they offer.
**In the long run, advertising will make it more difficult for businesses to survive
as people look for new avenue to find information.
8. BUYER PERSONA
Daily Life: Abdula comes from a middle-class family. He is
married,with two children (ages 6 and 3). He is tech-savvy and
cares about aesthetics and looks. He does extensive research and
comparison before buying; he uses online media as a shopping tool.
He has less disposable income, so he looks for the best deal.
Goal: Sustainable personal growth with high achievements at work.
Owning assets and upgrading lifestyle to go a class above others.
Frustration:
He expects to get a good list of properties online before visiting
the site.While trying to contact the agent, he hears that the
property has been sold.
After spending considerable time and effort, he keeps seeing the
same property which he visited only a few days ago.
Sometimes he shares his number with duplicating agents, for which
he keeps getting unwanted calls.
9. BUYER BELIEF & PROMISELAND
Customer Use Case Accepted Customer
Belief
Desired
Customer Belief
I visit the property
portal
As I wanted to buy a
home for me
So that I can save time
and find a best home
for me.
The current property
portal takes
considerable time to
show a best home
suitable and it keep
showing duplicate
property. I am
frustrated going to
property portal.
A Change in
Application
algorithm and
change in portal to
allow will allow user
to find best property
in quick time.
10. SELLER BELIEF & PROMISELAND
Customer Use Case Accepted Customer
Belief
Desired
Customer Belief
I am publishing the
property in property
portal
As I wanted to provide
good home to buyer
So that I earn money
in the process.
Current property
portals do not have a
method to control
duplicate postings of
properties, as I result, I
see duplicate agents
posting the same
property, which they
do not have rights to.
A change in
property
onboarding
processes and the
removal of
duplicate postings
will allow sellers to
focus on providing the
best customer service
without worrying
about duplicate
listings.
11. HYPOTHESIS FOR SELLER
By allowing agents to provide FORM A from Sellers,
while creating a property upload will minimize duplicated
postings from property portals.(New Process)
By creating an image matching algorithm, we can
more easily identify duplicate listings from agents.(On
Existing property)
An algorithm can be created to find duplicate listings
within a single address.(On Existing property)
Blacklisting/punishing the repeated offender
seller/Agent, will enable us to make our portal free from
scammer. (Repetitive offender)
12. Upload Digital signed FORMA
Post property
Validate Digital FORM A
Run Image Matching Algorithm
Run Address check Algorithm
Depend upon result take appropriate
action (Rule Engine)
New Listing Existing Listing Content
****Other process remain same as is****
13. Before creating algorithm, validate
manually few listing and check if
these are duplicate. (Take few pages
form specific communities)
Test it out
Test for these result in specific
communities. (By not showing those)
Check the Property Click through
rate/ Bounce rate/Time spent on
app/ Number of page reviewed/
CSAT/ Contact Rate (Connecting
Agent/ contact)
14. HYPOTHESIS FOR BUYER
By create a quality backed algorithm, will show desired
content to buyer and ultimately push the duplicate content to
later page. (Algorithm)
If properties are represented by different agents, then the
portal will show the one with the highest quality
ranking.The other properties will be shown in a similar
property section in the portal, so it will help buyers not to
see duplicate content. (Same property different agents)
Adding one optional filter for "Show only properties I
haven't seen“, will enable buyers to remove properties they
have previously seen. (Duplicate property removal)
Making the property name different by adding address
information will remove the bias from buyer who think
they're viewing a duplicate property.
15. ALGORITHM (QUALITY)
Exclusive and First to put in any site
The content and all elements of this property are filled.
Picture andVideo Quality
3D Image/StreetView
Responsiveness of Agent
Weekly check if property is still available
People engagement rate
16. Before creating algorithm, list the top 10
properties manually for a community.
Test it out
A/B Test for these result in specific
communities.
Check the Property Click through
rate/Actual leads to Agents/ Bounce rate/
Time spent on app/ Number of page
reviewed/ CSAT
18. Test it out
Add a pop-up before existing
to see if this option will help
buyer.
Add a filter (fake icon) and see
how many applying that filter.
(Before building it)
Assuming 30% people will
respond yes or showed intent.
19. LakeViewVilla, Street 2, PO 12345 ParksideVilla, Street 10, PO 90345 HighwayView, Street 23, PO 90235
FROM
TO
20. NorthStar Metric: Contact Rate
Leading Metrics:
Buyer
UniqueVisit/Avg. time spent /Pages per session
No of property viewed per session/Bounce rate/CSAT
Feature usage/First week engagement
Seller
Agent response rate/ Agent Listing rate
New Agent onboarded
Duplicate post removed
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC