Oycose Lease Signing Flow
Oycose is a venture-backed real estate technology platform that provides tools for multi-family properties to enable lightning-fast renting from search to lease signing. Oycose automates the inefficient and tedious tenant vetting process to offer unprecedented convenience and value to renters and landlords, while also eliminating the need for costly brokerage agents.
The end-to-end Oycose renting experience is comprised of three steps: Search, Lease, and Live. To support the Search and Lease steps of the Oycose experience, I designed a web-based apartment search and lease-signing flow to allow prospective renters to search for apartments, do a 360-degree virtual tour, and complete income verification and lease signing. Using our technology, prospective tenants can lease an apartment—from start to finish—in under a minute.
Organization
Oycose
Project Duration
9 months
Team
CEO, Designer, Front-end and Back-end Engineer
My Role
UX/UI Designer
Research
Residential renting has seen shockingly little technological innovation, and it’s costing renters. Over $2 billion are spent in broker’s fees in NYC alone, along with $45 billion locked up in security deposits nationally.
Moreover, despite having to pay these enormous upfront costs, prospective renters are nonetheless subjected to a drawn-out and cumbersome leasing process that is full of uncertainty.
Research Questions
1. Could the substitution of brokers with 360-degree virtual tours and an automated lease signing process present a compelling value proposition for property developers operating in the New York City market?
2. What are the key criteria that property developers prioritize when evaluating rental management CRMs for their operations?
Recruiting Strategy
We approached real estate developers that were Harvard alumni in addition to cold-emailing New York City’s largest property developers.
After hearing back from several of them, we discussed their current leasing process, which software platforms they use, and whether they employ brokers to rent out their units.
Discoveries
Current Renting Process - Tenant’s Journey
Insights from Property Developers
🧑💼 Property developers differ in their broker choices: some prefer in-house brokers, while others opt for third-party ones.
🖥️ All property developers, except one, use the OnSite rental management CRM by RealPage.
🤨 Brokers, seen as crucial but sometimes challenging in the leasing process, evoked mixed feelings among property developers.
🏢 Luxury developers prioritize innovation showed stronger interest in elevating the customer experience.
Problem
Finding a new apartment in NYC is stress-inducing and time-consuming, burdening renters with excessive fees in return for a disappointingly inefficient process. Remarkably, the realm of residential real estate has experienced very little innovation over the past two decades, leaving us to wonder why the real estate industry has been sluggish to embrace advances in technology.
Hypothesis
Imagine a renting experience where the entire process, from the initial search to moving into your new home, is predictable and hassle-free.
You won't have to worry about the burdensome upfront costs that often accompany renting. Instead, state-of-the-art financial technology would streamline the approval process, eliminating the need for hefty security deposits or other significant upfront expenses.
The integration of modern financial technology systems would play a pivotal role in making this vision a reality, offering a level of convenience and affordability that has been largely absent from the traditional real estate landscape.
Design Principles
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Oycose will provide a transparent breakdown of all costs associated with the leasing process.
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Users will feel confident that their personal and financial information is well-protected and that Oycose apartments are what they display to be.
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Oycose will establish standardized leasing procedures that clearly outline the steps involved in the leasing process.
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Oycose will strive to provide as easy and streamlined of a renting experience as possible.
Early Iterations
Refined
Wireframes
In the initial phases of developing the Lease Signing Flow, I worked closely with the engineers on my team to devise a plan for integrating a fintech income verification tool that relied on the Plaid API to grant us access to prospective tenants’ bank and credit card data.
At the outset, our objective was to create a streamlined rental process reminiscent of Airbnb's checkout flow. It was evident that income verification and background checks presented unique challenges, but we anticipated that recent advancements in fintech could enable us to automate and expedite these processes without the need for direct intervention by leasing agents or human back-end staff. This automation promised cost savings for landlords while making the financial approval process much faster for renters.
There were three principles that guided my designs during this phase: informal and concise language; intuitive, guided navigation; and clear, limited calls to action.
I engaged in several rounds of iteration with my team to fine-tune the lease signing process for clarity and velocity. I meticulously refined the landing page with an emphasis on filtering and clearly showing apartment location. My objective was to radically streamline the rental process, distilling it into no more than three steps. This ambitious undertaking aimed to simplify the process while ensuring that landlords had the essential financial data required to make a well-informed leasing decision.
A key decision in this phase was to present users with a calendar displaying available move-in dates when they clicked on an apartment to look at it in more detail. This decision effectively primed users to make a decision on their chosen apartment and begin the checkout process.
In addition, we recognized the necessity of providing chat support throughout the information input stage to assist users who might encounter challenges or confusion with the novel rental process.
Solution
Overview
Final Design
Key Feature 1
Key Feature 2
Key Feature 3
End-to-end Renting Platform
With Oycose, tenants now have a convenient all-in-one platform for renting.
They can effortlessly browse, tour, and swiftly secure their new home within moments. What sets Oycose apart is significantly reducing the time and complexity of the rental process, providing tenants a hassle-free and streamlined leasing experience.
Search + Virtual Tour
Oycose simplifies the apartment-hunting process for tenants by partnering exclusively with premium developers.
We prioritize trust and convenience by conducting meticulous inspections of each unit before listing it on our platform. This commitment to quality and transparency is particularly crucial for our prospective tenants, many of whom rely on virtual tours to make informed leasing decisions.
Know Your Neighborhood
Oycose enhances the tenant experience by offering detailed summaries of the neighborhood and building where the unit is located. This valuable information equips prospective tenants with a comprehensive understanding of their future surroundings and ignites enthusiasm for their upcoming move.
From the very beginning of the leasing journey, it becomes evident that our process resembles booking an Airbnb more than the traditional, paperwork-intensive rental process.
Instant Income Verification + Lease Sign
As tenants navigate through the Oycose leasing process, the future of renting becomes strikingly clear. We've bid farewell to the archaic, laborious procedures that often characterize the current apartment rental landscape.
Gone are the days when tenants were mired in lengthy and uncertain approval processes, forced to sift through their files to produce copies of an array of tax documents — such as the last two years of W2s, 1040s, or K1s — and income verification materials including the last four pay stubs, employer letters, bank statements, etc.
In place of this antiquated system, Oycose introduces a quick and streamlined approach. It involves a concise three-step web form, most of which can be conveniently autofilled. Additionally, tenants securely link their bank accounts through Plaid, granting property developers access to essential financial information for approval criteria.
Our tenants have said it’s a refreshingly straightforward process that simplifies the entire rental experience and makes finding their next apartment, and neighborhood, a walk in the park.
Impact
Property Developer Partner Quotes:
“My dream is for renters from around the world to be able to lease an apartment online instantly — this is the next frontier in renting.”
“It’s eerie how closely our visions align for the future of renting. This is precisely what we have been looking for.”
Improved Leasing Metrics:
Tenant Acquisition Costs
Lower screening costs due to automation
Lower labor costs due to fewer in-peron tours
Lease Velocity
From days to minutes
Lead Conversion Rate
14% before to 22% after