Bulgarian real estate platforms haven't changed in a decade — the same cluttered interface forced on buyers, sellers, agents, and investors, not optimised for their specific needs and use cases.
This is the story of how I rebuilt it around one question: how do we earn people's trust back and give them confidence at every stage of the journey?
The dominant platforms were built for agencies — not for the buyers, private sellers, or investors who use them daily.
There is no visibility on listing status, agent reputation, or property history — leaving every user to navigate blind.
Determine the context in which each user type accesses real estate platforms — and identify the friction points that damage trust, increase churn, and prevent conversion.
Determine how buyers, sellers, agents, and investors navigate the property search journey today.
Learn what trust signals users look for — and where existing platforms fail to provide them.
Understand why users abandon listings, platforms, or agents mid-journey.
Identify unmet needs that no Bulgarian real estate platform has addressed.
Before a single screen, I sat with twelve buyers and recorded what the search actually felt like. The feature list wrote itself afterwards. These are the moments people remembered when I asked them to describe the worst day they had on the existing platforms.
"Twenty calls in a row, and every listing is already taken."
The exhaustion of chasing ghosts"The apartment looked nothing like the photos."
The betrayal of wasted hope"They said the price was 'just an estimate' — the real one was 20% higher."
The feeling of being baited"Six weeks in, we found the apartment had undisclosed debt."
The panic of nearly making the biggest mistake of your life"I felt like I had to hide that I have a dog, or that I needed address registration."
The shame of being treated as a problem"The agent stopped replying the moment they sensed I wasn't ready to sign."
The loneliness of being disposable"I never knew if the agent was on my side or the seller's."
The paranoia of not knowing whose side anyone is on"No price on the listing — I have to call just to be qualified."
The humiliation of having to prove you're worth talking toExisting platforms design for the agency, then rent the experience out to everyone else. I separated the journeys and ran user interviews and empathy mapping per persona, then mapped the points where their needs collide.
Searching for a home, often for the first time. Needs verification, real-time status, and answers without picking up the phone.
Manages dozens of listings and clients daily. Needs scale and a reputation that can't be quietly torched by a competitor.
Listing their home without an agency. Wants a simple flow, a verified badge, and protection from time-wasters.
Designers, architects, renovators, legal, mortgage. Discoverable on the platform exactly where the need appears.
Each design decision reacted to the failure of the one before it. A simple rating system invited anonymous attacks; verifying identity demanded a phone gate; a phone gate created friction, which had to be earned back through visible signals at every stage. The chain ended up looking like this:
Every mechanism below was reverse-engineered from a specific user pain. None of them existed anywhere on the Bulgarian market when I started. Together they produce a single property: at every stage of the journey, the truth is visible without a phone call.
Email and phone required at registration. One number, one account. Anonymity is removed at the door, so agencies can't game the system with fake profiles.
Earned, not given. Awarded when a profile is complete — full information and a photo. Displayed on every listing the account owns.
Activated when a serious buyer leaves a deposit. Status visible in one second. No phone calls, no wasted time, and the listing stays alive while interested buyers can save and follow.
Buyers like a property in progress and are automatically notified if it becomes available again. The buyer stays in flow. The seller loses nothing.
Google Calendar integration. Available slots are visible on the listing. Both sides receive a confirmation with the address and full details one hour before the meeting.
Public profile with star ratings, written and video testimonials from past clients. Reputation builds over time and directly affects visibility — agencies that perform better appear higher.
Every call from a listing page is tied to that listing. The broker sees the caller, the property, and the time of the missed call. No lost context, no cold callbacks.
Why a verification gate instead of just public ratings?
A public rating system alone would be gamed by agencies creating anonymous profiles to attack competitors. One phone number, one account removes that attack surface entirely.
Why a progress bar instead of removing the listing?
Removing listings too early loses buyer engagement. The progress bar keeps the listing visible, communicates the truth in one second, and lets interested buyers save and get notified — nobody loses.
Why pet-friendly and address-registration filters?
No competitor has them. Buyers with pets, or who need address registration, currently call every single listing and face repeated rejection. The filter removes the call, removes the rejection, removes the shame.
Why tracked calls?
Brokers miss calls during viewings. When they call back they have no idea who called or for which property. The tracked call ties the call to the listing, so the follow-up is informed before the conversation even starts.
Why low-credit reminders?
Every competitor silently cuts off listings when credits run out. Brokers only find out when their clients stop calling. A reminder and fast recharge keeps listings live and brokers operating without interruption.
The structure was a Double Diamond, but in practice the work compressed into four named tracks run mostly in parallel. The most important shift happened between Discover and Define — the moment I stopped asking what features? and started asking whose needs collide here?
Every colour earns its place. Trust blue is the primary because it is the only colour the buyer sees on a verified listing. Action blue moves them forward. Verified green is reserved for identity. Amber is reserved for status, never for marketing. Red is the last resort.
Is this listing real? Is this person trustworthy? Is it still available? Can I see it today? What do other buyers say about this agent? Can I reach them without starting from zero every time? Who can help me make it home? — every one of those questions is now answered on the page itself.
The most valuable insights came from the tensions between users, not the answers any one of them gave.
Designing for multiple personas at once forces you to think in systems, not screens.
Trust is not a feature. It is an architecture — visible at every stage, or invisible everywhere.
The most impactful features were the ones nobody had built yet. They just required talking to users and taking what they said seriously.