Market Equities Groupwebsite redesign:before & after

Market Equities Group is a real estate investment company in New Haven, Connecticut. Its own page describes it as "the bridge to starting in Real Estate" and its menu has a Fix & Flip page.

The three quotes on the page come from people who invested with it in single-family flips and a multi-family fund, and two of them mention 2023. The people it wants to reach are newer investors, with money sitting in the bank, who have never bought into real estate before.

That visitor is not in a hurry, but is cautious. The homepage has one job: make a first-time investor feel this is a real company with a real office, and give them an easy way to start a conversation.

This is not an agency rebuild. I gave the concept about 2 hours and spent them on the fixes that do the most for customers: the 20% of the work that gets 80% of the improvement.

To show how much that improves, I score every original homepage and every concept on the same 100-point checklist. Most checks are yes or no, and a script runs the technical ones (speed, mobile, accessibility). When in doubt, the point goes to the original site.

The original does real things right. Its footer has a phone number, an email and an office town. The form is short, four fields. The three quotes are the kind of proof a new investor wants: they mention 2023 and say what the person invested in. The pages themselves were fine in my capture, and the live site shows the same text. The trouble is in the first screen, where a visitor has to decide whether this is the right kind of company.

The first screen and the mobile view, original on the left and concept on the right. The slider at the top of the post compares the first screen up close.

First screen

01Say what it is, and where

A "New Haven, CT, Commercial Real Estate" tag sits above the headline, and the line under it says the company is a commercial real estate investment company for everyday investors. The original names neither on its first screen.

02One filled button

"Explore Opportunities" is the filled gold button, "Talk to Our Team" is an outline beside it, and the header button reads "Get Started". It is still three phrases, but a clearer main one.

03Name the three ways to invest

The next screen is "Three Ways to Build Wealth": Fix and Flip, Single-Family and the Multi-Family Fund, each with a short line. On the original a visitor has to find them in the menu and the quotes.

Mobile

01A call bar that stays put

"Call 203-260-1048" and "Invest Now" stay at the bottom of the screen the whole way down, and both are 48px tall. The original mobile first screen has "Join Now" and "Connect With Us", but no number.

02City on the first screen

The New Haven, CT tag wraps to three lines but still sits right above the headline, so the town shows without scrolling. My paragraph text is smaller than the original's, 14px against 18px, which I list below.

1. 01Say what the company does in the first line, not only the feeling. "Start your real estate journey" could be an agent, a course or a fund. "A commercial real estate investment company" leaves no doubt.
2. 02Name your town on the first screen. A cautious investor wants to know there is a real office nearby. "New Haven, CT" beside the headline does more than a skyline photo.
3. 03Give one action one name. If the button, the menu link and the header all say something different, the visitor wonders whether they lead to different places.
4. 04Put the phone number where a person can press it. In the header on a desktop and in a bar on a phone, not only in the footer.
5. 05Show the investor quotes early and keep the original wording. The three quotes are the best proof this site has. Add the platform or the last name and ask before you change a word.
6. 06Show the people. Someone about to put savings into a fund wants to see who runs it. A photo and a name of the owner beats any skyline.

The concept does not score 100. About 2 hours doesn't fix everything, and the checklist applies to my work too:

• The investor quotes are not real proof yet. The three quotes in the concept keep the original's first names (Gabe, James, Ed), but I reworded every one, and added labels such as "Fix and Flip Investor". None of that comes from the original site. They need to go back to the original text, with the years it mentions and ideally a last name or a source.
• Some claims are mine. "7-14 day deal cycles", "Transparent Returns: no hidden fees ... regular updates on every investment", "consistent returns" and the Franklin D. Roosevelt banner are not on the original site. Market Equities has to confirm each one or drop it. Investment wording may also have legal rules that I cannot judge.
• "Invest like the ultra wealthy. No limits." is a promise. It reads well, but a real estate investment company may not be able to make it. The original's "Low Risk and High Returns" tile has the same problem.
• The photos are not the company. The sailboat, the white house and the lodge are stock. I would use real photos of a property Market Equities has done, and the owner.
• No owner, no team and no numbers. Nobody is named or shown on either version, and neither page has a year founded, a deal count or a fund size. Layout cannot fix that.
• The form still has seven fields. Both buttons lead to a form with names, email, phone, two menus and a message. Two fields and a call is enough to start.
• The mobile stat strip is cut off at the right edge, and mobile text is 14px. Mobile speed is 74 on Lighthouse (the original scored 64), and I would get it above 90.

If I were talking to Market Equities, I would say this: your best material is already on the page. Real quotes from people who invested with you, an office in New Haven, a phone number. The old first screen just did not use any of it, and asked a visitor to press "Connect With Us" without saying what you do.

The part I am least sure about is the tone. "Invest Like the Ultra Wealthy. No Limits." is bold and it fits the original's "No Limits" title, but it is a promise about money, and I do not know what Market Equities is allowed or wants to say. A plainer line might serve a cautious first-time investor better. I also went dark and gold, which feels more like a private bank than the original's purple and white. That is a taste call for the business.

What the concept does not solve is trust. I reworded the quotes, which I should not have done. The photos are stock, no one is named, and there is still a seven-field form. Two hours got the first screen to say what the company is and how to call it. It did not make Market Equities look more established than its own page shows; that needs the owner's photo, real numbers and the original quotes.