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plumBid Real Estate Auction Platform
An algorithm-based auction platform for transparent real estate buying and selling in the US
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14
SPECIALISTS
24
MONTHS
6
UNIQUE SOLUTIONS
21
KEY FEATURES
About the client
plumBid’s founders are professional economists and residential real estate experts with a combined experience of more than ten thousand home sales. Their knowledge of the challenges and intricacies of real estate auctions in the US led them to the idea of a platform that would bring more transparency to the process.
plumBid’s founders needed a skilled team of programmers to bring their product concept to life. They reached out to Demigos as a perfect match for the skills they required for this real estate property development platform.
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When reaching out to us, the client had the following key requirements:
- Product: A sophisticated web-based auction bidding platform based on a proprietary algorithm
- Collaboration type: A dedicated software development team
- UX/UI design: An intuitive and easy-to-use ınterface for their demanding target users: sellers, buyers, and ever-busy real estate agents
- Infrastructure: A scalable platform that can run several auctions in different locations simultaneously
- Specific functionality: A system for accurate PDF document parsing and text recognition that learns from experience
Project overview
Demigos’ dedicated team created a complex, comprehensive solution that brings more transparency, speed, and efficiency to real estate auctions. Based on a proprietary algorithm, the plumBid platform caters to the needs of all auction participants: sellers, buyers, and listing agents. The solution is powered by OCR technology, which made this real estate property portal development project more challenging but also more interesting for us.
Project challenges
The product vision of the plumBid platform was unique and complex from both technical and design perspectives. Here are the challenges we had to resolve when building this real estate property portal:
User adoption
Real estate agents are traditionally resistant to technology adoption since many of them find it hard to learn how to use new systems.
Complicated bid calculation
The plumBid’s team had a patented formula developed by professor Galen Loram. According to this formula, complicated calculations have to be made to enable.
Changing industry regulations
The platform has to consider the rules of the multiple listing service (MLS) since it provides information about the property for sale.
Recognizing text in PDF documents
The accuracy of text recognition from PDF files had to be at least 60% to bring noticeable value to users and save their time on entering information from documents into the system.
Complicated auction setup
The auction setup is a rather time-consuming and complex process. The client wanted to simplify it for users as much as possible.
Anti-fraud mechanisms
The client wanted to solve the issue of last-second bidders (so-called “sniping”) to avoid any speculations during the real estate auctions held via the platform.
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Team composition
The client had an ambitious goal: making real estate auctions — one of the most confusing business processes in the US — easier and more transparent. We responded by putting together a dedicated team for real estate property portal development with perfectly balanced roles and structure:
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Software architect
1
Full-stack developer
1
Product manager
3
Python developers
3
React developers
4
QA engineers
1
UX/UI designer
Technologies
Pytest
AWS
WebSocket
Apollo GraphQL
Django
Python
Redis
React
PostgreSQL
Docker
Pytest
AWS
WebSocket
Apollo GraphQL
Django
Python
Redis
React
PostgreSQL
Docker
Our process
01 - Discovery and Analytics Stage
3 Sprints
We analyzed the client’s request, requirements, and product vision and put together a dedicated team for this real estate property portal development project.
02 - Design and User Experience
4 Sprints
Our UX/UI designer searched the best solutions accounting top trends and best user experience practices. Created wireframes and user interface showing the best look of the product and brand on screen flow of mobile and web apps. Worked hard to create an intuitive and attractive interface for each type of user.
03 - Research and development
36 Sprints
Our dedicated developers used OCR technology to create a highly accurate PDF parsing engine. We also developed the frontend and backend of the plumBid platform.
04 - Release & deployment
2 Sprints
We released the plumBid platform and deployed it to the AWS cloud infrastructure.
05 - Testing
ONGOING
We performed load and user acceptance testing to ensure that the platform performs impeccably even with a high user load. Our team also involved end-users to get feedback on platform usability in real-life scenarios.
06 - Launch
1 Sprints
Our dedicated team supported the client during the product launch. We assisted with the client’s marketing efforts to ensure better platform adoption, as well as set up customer support funnels and system monitoring.
WHat we did
Assembled a dedicated team
We put together a dedicated team of 14 team members to build this real estate property portal that meets all client’s requirements.
Used the OCR technology
Our team applied the OCR technology to parse PDF files with different structures and recognize information from them with nearly 90% accuracy.
Enabled real-time updates
We implemented WebSocket technology to enable real-time updates of auction information without system reloading. This allowed for more users and saved the server power costs.
Built a robust infrastructure
Our engineers created a reliable, zero downtime infrastructure that scales automatically as the number of users grows.
Prevented auctions from sniping
We solved the issue of auction snipers by adding an advanced buffer algorithm to the system’s timer and refreshing it after each new bid
Created a trial environment
Our dedicated team created a trial auction environment where users can test the process and platform features absolutely risk-free.
plumBid platform’s key features
The plumBid platform is a state-of-the-art solution that provides all real estate auction participants with the tools and information they need to reach a win-win deal. Buyers benefit from complete transparency so they can make a competitive offer, sellers can outline important terms and clearly communicate their preferences, and listing agents can get higher sales prices for their clients. Here’s what plumBid offers to each category of users:
Buyers can:
- Try out an auction without paying or registering
- Join an auction easily and intuitively
- Get help and notifications from listing agents and buyer agents
- Send automatic loan requests to plumBid’s trusted partners
- Bring co-buyers to the platform and buy property jointly
- Take advantage of plumBid’s advanced automatic optimizer to control deal parameters without manual calculation
- Safely bid on a property without worrying that someone will outbid them at the last moment
- Get a clear and transparent view of competitor bids and their parameters
Sellers can:
- Onboard easily and control parameters and preferences to find the best deals
- Bring co-sellers to an auction and allow them to set up auction parameters
- Monitor the bidding process to see if the deal that they got is the best option
- Get a clear and transparent view of the competitor bids and their parameters
Listing agents can:
- Turn any real-estate MLS listing into a controlled and transparent auction
- Have their platform account verified instantly by the Department of Real Estate (DRE ID)
- Start an auction with an intuitive and streamlined 5-step process
- Upload PDF buyer offers so the system automatically parses them and provides only the details they need for an auction
ADMINS can:
- Get a global view of an auction’s setup to provide help with system features
- Communicate with auction participants via a custom internal chat
- Manage system users and auctions
- Get an overview of activity from an admin dashboard
