A Web App for Finding Houses and Making Offers to Owners

Serious Offer, an Australian real estate company, reached out to us for help in creating a web application that would make it easy for people to find apartments and make an offer to buy them.

TIMELINE: 3 MONTHS
COUNTRY: AUSTRALIA

About

The main aim of the client was to make the whole process easier for people.

Instead of having to go around searching for apartments in person, Serious Offer wanted people to be able to sit in the comfort of their own homes, browse apartments on a map, and send offers to the owners directly.

Did you know?

Serious Offer also offers direct support and assistance to those struggling in finding their dream apartment.

Our Role and Involvement

We needed to build a responsive web app that would work well on all devices and allow users to search for flats by using maps. Then, users should be able to create an offer and send it to the owner – without navigating through various websites and visiting sellers in person to present it. They wanted to facilitate communication between sellers and buyers, allowing them to make deals through the app.

They chose us based on the recommendation of a company we had previously worked with.

Results

Currently, with “Serious Offer,” users log in to a platform integrated with Google Maps. They explore regions of interest, identify apartments, and assess them visually through Google images. If they are interested, they can click the “Send Offer” button. Users can construct their offers using credits within the app (rechargeable), and submit them electronically. Subsequently, in the MVP version, the Serious Offer administrators print out these offers and send them to the apartment owners.

Upon receiving an offer, the apartment owner gains the opportunity to evaluate it. If interested, they log into Serious Offer using a provided code from the letter or by scanning a QR code. This initiates a chat within the platform, fostering direct communication between the interested parties. Here, they can engage in discussions about the feasibility and details of the potential transaction.

The Process

Discovery & Design

Serious Offer came to us with an idea and provided designs. Then, our team reviewed and refined them. We also made some adjustments, necessary to fit the three-month timeline.

Development

We needed to build a user-friendly interface both to search for apartments and to submit offers in the form of letters. Also, the essential feature was to allow communication between users and sellers, using a chat within the app.

The app also required us to build an admin panel where admins can see all the users and offers sent. Even though it’s free to send offers right now, Serious Offer is considering implementing slight charges to recharge credits.

Starting on March 1st, 2023, the development phase ended with the release of the product on May 31st. The team executed tasks from the backlog, transforming ideas into a functional MVP application.

We’ve used React on the front-end, Google Maps for interactive mapping, AWS for the backend, and Stripe for secure payments.

Maintenance & Further Development

The team plans to collaborate with us to refine their MVP, followed by a 2-3 month period to attract investors and further improve the app.