Zuhda
Creating a real estate platform for Latin America: from concept to acquisition.
Industry
Real Estate
Project scope
Build a multi-role real estate platform for buyers, owners, and agents
Country
Timeline
About the client
Zuhda was founded by David Sherbow, an experienced attorney, broker, and real estate professional with deep hands-on expertise in the US real estate market, together with entrepreneur Brandon Johns. Their goal was to launch a comprehensive online real estate platform for Latin America, adapting proven models from US real estate marketplaces to a fast-growing but underdeveloped LATAM market.
Challenge
The client aimed to launch a full-featured real estate marketplace tailored to the Latin American market, starting with Brazil. The platform needed to replicate the functionality and user experience of leading US real estate services while addressing local market specifics.
In addition to standard marketplace features for buyers, renters, owners, and agents, the solution was expected to aggregate property listings from multiple external online sources and convert them into a unified, searchable format.
Project goals & challenges:
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Build a multi-role real estate platform serving buyers, renters, property owners, and real estate agents.
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Adapt proven US real estate marketplace models to the Latin American market.
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Aggregate and normalize property listings from external online sources.
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Launch an initial market-ready version for Brazil with a scalable foundation for future regional expansion.
Solution
Our team designed and built the Zuhda platform from the ground up, focusing on rapid time-to-market while creating a solid technology foundation for long-term growth and regional expansion. The solution combined a robust backend for managing property data and external listings with a modern interface optimized for property discovery and user interaction. The platform also included built-in tools to support listing promotion and payments.
Key deliverables:
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End-to-end platform development. Designed and built the web platform from scratch, covering all required user roles and workflows, including property discovery, listing management, and user interactions.
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Aggregated property data pipeline. Implemented a system to find, evaluate, and standardize real estate listings from external online sources, converting them into a unified format for platform-wide use.
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Search and discovery functionality. Delivered advanced filtering, keyword search, location-based discovery, saved searches, and multilingual support to help users find properties to buy or rent.
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Listing management and promotion tools. Built functionality for managing property listings, communicating with potential buyers, running advertising campaigns, and accessing premium features, with integrated payment processing.
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Knowledge center. Developed a resource hub including a blog with insights for home seekers and practical guides to help property owners and real estate agents manage and promote listings on the platform.
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Technology foundation. Delivered a scalable architecture based on Ruby on Rails, React, PostgreSQL, and Elasticsearch, designed to handle increasing traffic, growing data volumes, and future market expansion.
The first production-ready version of the platform was released within three months. Krononsoft then continued to extend and support the solution for a year, ensuring platform stability and a smooth handover when the project changed ownership.
Results
The platform was successfully launched in Brazil and adopted by local real estate professionals, resulting in a stable and growing user base. Over the following year, the product demonstrated clear market demand, continued to evolve, and remained operationally stable. Ultimately, the startup was acquired by a major US real estate company.
Key outcomes:
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Released the first production-ready version in three months.
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Achieved adoption by real estate professionals and built a solid user base.
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Acquired by a major US real estate company.
Project Snapshot
Client
PropTech startup, Brazil (US founders)
Project
Real estate marketplace development
Team
4 specialists
Timeline
3-month MVP, 1-year support
Platform
Ruby on Rails, React, PostgreSQL
Key outcomes
Adoption by local agents, acquisition by a US real estate company