Real Estate Listing Services

Industry: HiTech

Real Estate Listing Services

Posted by Encora on Aug 14, 2023 4:44:48 PM

Encora’s approach drove significant improvements across the client’s eCommerce KPI dashboard.

Topics: HiTech, Cloud Services, AWS, DevSecOps

Industry Context

The US Real Estate industry has long relied on home listings provided through multiple listing services (MLS). Over the last 10+ years, a competitive digital MLS market has evolved, with providers introducing enhanced data services designed to improve buyer and broker experiences. Competition among MLS providers has led to the augmentation of home listing information, including property history, public school rankings, points of interest, neighborhood profiles, market statistics, and future home value projections. These data services, combined with digital experience, elevate consumer expectations and heighten competition within the Real Estate market. 

Problem Statement

Movoto, an online real estate agency, aimed to simplify real estate dealings for its users. However, with their growth, the accumulation of property-related data skyrocketed. This burgeoning data included detailed attributes like property history, neighborhood profiles, and crucial market statistics. The existing infrastructure became strained under the weight, leading to challenges in efficiently extracting prompt and relevant insights for the management team. More critically, home-buyers and brokers started experiencing a decline in their digital experience. Lag times in data retrieval were observed, which not only hampered real-time insights but also noticeably slowed down the website's response times, creating an unpredictable and often frustrating user journey.

Proposed Solution & Architecture:

Addressing Movoto's data challenges required a strategic DevOps approach with AWS:

Dynamic Scaling: AWS tools like Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, Amazon EC2 Spot Instances, and Amazon CloudWatch were integrated and configured with a dynamic scaling policy. This setup ensured that the application would adapt rapidly to any spikes in traffic, guaranteeing that users would experience minimal delays even during peak user periods.
Automated Deployments: AWS CodePipeline and AWS CloudFormation were put into action for seamless and automated deployments. While CodePipeline took charge of automatic application deployments, CloudFormation ensured that the infrastructure was consistently and correctly set up, every time.

Metrics for Success

The adoption of DevOps methodologies resulted in:
- Adaptive Performance: The introduction of dynamic scaling, leveraging tools like AWS Auto Scaling, Spot Instances, and CloudWatch, ensured the website was always responsive, even during periods of high user traffic.
- Streamlined Deployments: The synergy between CodePipeline and CloudFormation meant deployments were faster, more reliable, leading to quicker feature releases and an always updated platform.
- Enhanced User Experience: Faster data retrieval and a dependable infrastructure ensured that users consistently had a positive experience on the website.
- Traffic Surge: Thanks to the improved user experience and the platform's enhanced stability, the website saw a commendable 50% increase in traffic.

Lessons Learned

The significance of automation in establishing a platform that's robust and efficient can't be understated.
Active and continuous monitoring, coupled with periodic optimization, are pillars for sustaining top-notch performance while keeping costs in check.
Picking from AWS's vast suite of tools requires discernment; it's imperative to choose based on the business's unique challenges and needs.

Results

Superior customer experience
Steady stream of real-time data
Management of decision-making capabilities using real-time data +50 % increase in website traffic
Reduced vulnerability to attacks
Improved time-to-market due to less overhead related to build and deployment

Real Estate Listing Services

Real Estate Listing Services

Industry Context

Problem Statement

Proposed Solution & Architecture:

Metrics for Success

Lessons Learned

Results

Conversion Rate

Site Traffic

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