Supporting buyers
in making confident home-buying decisions
Impact
Buyer readiness ↑ ~60%
Advisor clarification time ↓ ~20%
Deliverables
UX Design
Timeline
2 months
Team
Design manager
2 UX designers
UX research agency
Context
TD is Canada’s second-largest bank, helping millions of Canadians move from renting to owning each year. Yet many applications slow down early, leading to delayed approvals, frustrated clients, and increased workload for advisors.
This impacts conversion, operational efficiency, and customer trust at the most critical stage of the journey.
The Challenge
Misaligned expectations that slow conversions
We began by working with customer-facing staff to understand what buyers struggle with most commonly. Through a cross-functional workshop with 40+ domain experts, we learned:
Buyers often enter the mortgage process with a fragmented understanding of their options. This gap turns advisor meetings into basic clarification sessions, increasing the time-to-close and the risk of deal failure.
The workshop highlighted 3 key problem areas
Existing tools didn’t answer buyers
earliest questions
Misalignment formed weeks before
buyers reached TD
Motivation peaks when buyers start
browsing homes
Solution
We designed for the moment when buyers are most engaged, before confusion slows decisions and conversations
This early-stage experience helps first-time buyers understand whether a specific home fits their budget. It aligns buyers and advisors before their first meeting. Here's how it works.
Through open banking, users connect their accounts or enter their financial details, and immediately see how the home fits within their current income, spending, and financial patterns.
When buyers find a home they’re interested in, they paste the listing link and instantly see the full costs they would need to plan for.
Validting
Testing confirmed the experience improved buyer readiness and advisor efficiency
We built and refined the tool through iterative testing with 40 first-time buyers.
The results showed a clear shift in behavior. Buyers arrived better prepared, and advisors spent less time correcting assumptions and more time discussing concrete next steps.
Testing showed that 60% of buyers felt confident and ready to meet with an advisor, while advisors reported shorter, more focused conversations.
Explored solutions
Exploration 1:
Review of existing TD tools
Existing TD calculators provided accurate calculations but did not support early affordability understanding or expectation-setting.
Exploration 2:
Advisor-generated affordability summary
We explored giving advisors a one-page affordability report that combined a buyer’s income, expenses, and estimated price range, and reviewing it together during meetings. While this made conversations more consistent, buyers still arrived without understanding what they could afford.
Exploration 3:
Pre-advisor affordability self-check
We explored a self-guided affordability check to help buyers assess readiness to speak with a bank. However, from our workshops, we knew buyers frequently relied on approximate financial inputs, leading to inconsistent understanding and continued misalignment during advisor conversations.
Reflection
Context and timing of when it is given are key to making an experience feel natural and empowering.
The key here was to step in at the right time before buyers get advice from people around them and search online.
