Improving Decision Making

For this project, use the following hypothetical situation:
You have found a new job in Denver, Colorado and would like to purchase a home in that area. Ideally, you would like to find a single-family house with at least three bedrooms and one bathroom that costs between $150,000 and $225,000 and finance it with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. You can afford a down payment that is 20 percent of the value of the house. Before you purchase a house, you would like to find out what homes are available in your price range, find a mortgage, and determine the amount of your monthly payment. You would also like to see how much of your mortgage payment represents principal and how much represents interest. Use the Yahoo! real estate site (http://homes.yahoo.com/) to help you with the following tasks:

Locate homes in your price range in Denver, Colorado. Find out as much information as you can about the houses, including the real estate listing agent, condition of the house, number of rooms, and the school district.
Find a mortgage for 80 percent of the list price of the home.
After selecting a mortgage, calculate your closing costs.
Calculate the monthly payment for the mortgage you select.
Calculate how much of your monthly mortgage payment represents principal and how much represents interest, assuming you do not plan to make any extra payments on the mortgage.

Next, complete these same steps using a different online source, such a Zillow.
When you are finished, evaluate the whole process for each website. Each evaluation should cover the following items:
Ease of use of the site and your ability to find information about houses and mortgages
Accuracy of the information you found
Breadth of choice of homes and mortgages
How helpful the whole process would be if you were actually in the situation described in this project
Now compare the Yahoo site with the other site you chose. For each of the areas you discussed in your evaluation, which website has the advantage and why? Be specific and provide examples.
Finally, what improvements or enhancements would you recommend for each site?
Compose a four-page (minimum) essay, not including a cover page, a reference page, or any charts or visual items. You should include a chart to illustrate and compare the data you found from the two separate sites. You must use APA format and cite at least two outside sources.

ANSWER

Improving Decision Making

Objective decision making is a rational process that heavily relies on multiple decision factors that influence outcomes. Similarly, making decisions based on different web search results is not easy. The use of an internet-based search engine is meant to support decision making and simplify meeting consumers needs. However, according to Moat, Olivola, Chater, & Preis (2016), the complexity of search engines and information space makes it more difficult. The accuracy of search results not only depends on search terms but also sites used by the consumer. The quality of results and relevance in meeting consumer needs, however, is relative depending on the specific algorithm features, website architecture, and pool of data available. This study gives a detailed understanding of the challenges and opportunities for making housing and mortgage decisions based on yahoo and Zillow search engines.

Yahoo Search

Housing option

The best option is a house in 2016 Tulane Street Denver, Colorado, valued at $225,000. The property is under Trulia real estate company. It has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and has a floor space of 1287 square feet.  The house is spacious and in perfect condition with an exterior made of metal. Other details include Linoleum Vinyl floors, a fireplace, has a carport, refrigerators, and a cooker. The school district is Denver county 1.

 Best mortgage option at rocket mortgage

Down Payment: $19,800

Mortgage loan: 180,000

Mortgage rate:  3.50%

Estimated monthly payment: $ 921

Principal: $ 1221.82

Interest: $ 126,311

Ease of Use of The Website

The website is easy to use, as it is readily available and accessible.  It does not have errors, broken links, and is highly responsive. The site also has an intuitive interface that does not require complex instruction to navigate through. However, there is no clarity, and the website is full of popping ads that destroy the search process.

It was not easy to find the correct information on the best house with the yahoo search engine, even after filtering the search. Most homes were not on a budget, and the search engine prioritized housing units from neighboring locations and not necessarily from Denver.  Search ranking was basically on click popularity rather than specific information. As a result, most of the top results included realtor companies like Zillow, Trulia, and advertisement that do not have a particular description of the housing units. It was tasked to navigate through all the search results to settle for the best house finally. The search for an appropriate mortgage plan was not easy either. The search listing comprised of companies from multiple locations offering different mortgage solutions. Going through all the companies before finally settling for the most affordable option took time.

 Accuracy of The Information Found

 It is not easy to substantiate the information found because the search results comprise of information posted by multiple companies and individuals. It is, therefore, a risky platform to search for a house or mortgage.  Second, yahoo search engines have limited regulation since anyone can post information on housing and mortgage. It is not licensed by the association of Realtors and lenders either, and therefore, there is a possibility that one may find a house from a seller or a property agent not licensed.  However, the advantage is that yahoo site is a free platform and thus increases the possibility of meeting most direct sellers with affordable pricing ranges, who, in most cases, avoid extra charges from real estate companies.

 The Breadth of Choice

Yahoo is accessible by most companies that offer multiple products to choose from.  Although the search process was long, it led to a suitable house choice and the cheapest financing plan.  This is in line with findings by Stucke & Ezrachi (2017), who confirm that a bigger breadth of choice increases chances for customer satisfaction.

 The Relevance of The Process

            Using yahoo would not be very helpful in any home search journey, mainly when my interest is in specific affordable payment terms within a specific time frame. This is because the search engine’s algorithm cannot resonate with a consumer’s needs., even after providing accurate keyword details of an ideal home. As a result, one has to participate in other subsequent activities to validate the quality of the product. Second, it is one of the slowest platforms to locate a perfect house. For instance, the situation described in the case is urgent and requires immediate relocation. Sometimes navigating through the search result, validating the content, and hooking up with the seller may take more time than expected.

Zillow

Search result

House

There was no accurate search result for a 3-bedroom single-family house with one bathroom within the budget.  The only house close to the price range was valued at $252,032 in 1551 W Alaska PI, Denver. It is a single-family unit in 6250 square feet. Other features include hardwood flooring and appliances. The school district is Denver 1. The house agent is not disclosed.

Mortgage Plan (Elite Financing Team)

Mortgage rate 3.16%

Down Payment: $ 50, 400

Mortgage loan: $201625.6

Estimated monthly payment= $ 1099

Principal= $1580.09

Interest= $481.09

 Ease of use of the website

 Searching for the ideal housing option with Zillow websites was quite easy. The database has specific housing properties to select from, and therefore, it was convenient to find the best house within a budget.  Besides, Zillow has an easy and fast search process. However, it has a limited result to choose from.  It also has a lot of valuable information on each result, including price, number of bedrooms, and location.  The search engine provided the most relevant answers that meet specific housing needs.  Another limitation was that the listing is not as accurate as it should be. It has many errors on essential items like parking, other amenities, and agents’ names. According to Zgodka (2011), this could mean they are either unavailable or intentionally omitted.  This may require making calls to the company for clarification.

 Accuracy of The Information Found

The information on Zillow is more accurate because it is purely real estate content.  The company has a listing policy that protects consumers from false advertising.  All listings have to be advertised by a real estate agent. Zillow is also a licensed lender whose authenticity can easily be verified on the NMLS consumer access website. There are also multiple lender reviews on the site from former and current clients, which would give confidence to any consumer looking for a mortgage.

 Breadth of Choice

The product mix in house and mortgage listing is only made up of a limited number from companies registered with Zillow. It is difficult for a customer to find a more suitable home with limited results from Zillow. Most of the houses were not within budgets, and further filtering mostly gave zero results. The only viable option available was a pricey house whose furnishings and amenities were not of the best quality.

The Relevance of The Process

            Finding an appropriate mortgage plan at Zillow is more convenient because the site pools all lenders together.  It is also easy to make an informed decision because it is easy to compare multiple lenders on the platform. However, when it comes to housing, it wasn’t easy to find an ideal choice.

Mortgage Closing costs

Zillow mortgage has a lower closing cost than Rocket Mortgage from a yahoo search.  It is easier to compare loan terms and mortgage closing costs from a pool of lenders in Zillow than navigating through a lot of irrelevant information on yahoo looking for an appropriate lender and mortgage.

   Comparative Assessment of The Two Sites

It was easier to identify a house in Zillow than in yahoo. However, the best home and mortgage plans were from Yahoo.  The two platforms, therefore, present different risks, opportunities, strength a weakness depending on the needs. Priority was on affordability, which renders the Zillow database an inappropriate platform for a house ownership journey.

Improvements for Each Site

Yahoo

Yahoo has a variety of information hidden within irrelevant content and advertisements.  Therefore, the main challenge is the search listing of relevant content.  It is also difficult to verify the validity of the information. According to Segev & Ahituv (2010), Yahoo should consider two main decisions to create a better experience for consumers. They should first improve their brand image to increase their participant trust. This will increase the availability of valid and meaningful content. Second, yahoo should invest in design to enhance the ease of use, speed, and relevance of search results.

 Zillow

Zillow is an agile platform for searching for loans and houses. However, it has a limited variety that would make it challenging to meet consumer needs. According to Pavel (2013), one-way Zillow would deal with this challenge is by increasing their search listing. The company should also introduce an evaluation metric to improve the quality of search results. This is where visitors and consumer rate results based on their order to appearance, relevance score, and send a recommendation. The website should also provide query categorization for the search engine to different consumer needs. Most importantly, the company should make its terms more friendly to have a lot of companies in the database. This will provide a lot of information for customers to choose from.

 Conclusion

All searches are not equal. The goal, however, for any home ownership journey is to have an easy access process and have maximum information on the housing and mortgage options. This search was primarily based on specific information influenced by the individual presence, time, and particular needs.  Therefore, based on this research, it is clear that search engines enriched with a variety of information and enhanced algorithm features like machine learning are the only ways to improve the quality of search results. Consumers, on the other hand, should leverage on multiple search engines for quality decisions.

References

Moat, H. S., Olivola, C. Y., Chater, N., & Preis, T. (2016). Searching Choices: Quantifying Decision-Making Processes Using Search Engine Data. Behavioural Science,. doi:10.1111/tops.1220

Pavel, S. (2013). On Search Engine Evaluation Metrics.

Segev, E., & Ahituv, N. (2010). Popular searches searches in googlee and Yahoo: A digital divide in information uses? Information Sociaology, 26, 17 – 37. doi:10.1080/01972240903423477

Stucke, M. E., & Ezrachi, A. (2017). When competition fails to optimize quality: a look at search engines,. Yale Journal of law and technology , 18(1). doi:https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/yjolt/vol18/iss1/3

Zgodka, M. (2011). Influence of search enigines on customer descisions. Proceedings of Federated conferance on science and information systems, 341 – 344.

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