The Client & The Stakes

Apartment Finder was a household name in the multifamily rental space since 1981. But in April 2015, the stakes skyrocketed: CoStar Group, Inc. acquired the platform for $170 million in cash.

The mission?

Integrate Apartment Finder’s massive digital inventory into CoStar’s expanding residential network while sharply differentiating it from its new flagship sister brand (and chief competitor), Apartments.com.

The C-Suite Challenge: Outnumbered & Outpaced

If you’ve ever managed a major post-merger integration, you know the vibe. It’s fast, loud, and usually chaotic.

The task was to rebrand and redesign the entire Apartment Finder ecosystem from scratch—including Responsive Web, Native iOS, and Native Android apps, alongside all Sales and Marketing Design Communications.

The catch?

• The Resource Drought: We were down to just two designers (including Cleo Henderson) after losing our front-end developer due to post-merger structural shifts. Cleo personally stepped in to fill the vacant front-end developer role in addition to leading design and project management, ensuring no lapse in execution.
• The Scale: We had to support seven decentralized development teams and two distinct marketing departments [14].
• The Matrix: Teams were spread across three US timezones.
• The Deadline: A hard, non-negotiable 7-month launch window.

C-Suite leaders know that development sprints stall without approved UI/UX deliverables. To prevent engineering idle-time, keep morale high, and orchestrate across multi-channel agencies and internal stakeholders, we needed to build a repeatable, highly structured system.

Our Approach: The 5 D’s of Creation

To turn this potential operational trainwreck into a masterclass in capital efficiency, Cleo (of AndThereWas) deployed his signature 5 D’s of Creation framework:

• 01. Discover (Unearthing the Truth)
  Most rental portals obsess over the sheer volume of listings. By digging into user mental models, we discovered a glaring market gap: renters weren’t just looking for more apartments; they were looking for transparency and value.
• 02. Define (Shaping the Vision with Intent)
  We carved out a distinct competitive territory. While sister brand Apartments.com expanded to houses and townhouses, we positioned Apartment Finder as the hyper-focused, value-driven specialist. This clarity birthed our strategic north star and new tagline: “Great Apartments. Great Deals.”
• 03. Delight (Fortifying with Core Innovation)
  We brought the “Deals” narrative to life with high-impact, user-centric features. We designed an automated “Deals” CTA that explicitly flagged which apartments were priced below the regional average (e.g., “Rent is 15% below area average for a 2-bedroom”), and created an industry-first “Cost Calculator” that computed total moving fees alongside recurring monthly costs. Renters finally had true cost transparency.
• 04. Design (Building for Scale)
  Faced with supporting seven development teams simultaneously, we worked 12-to-15 hour days to draft, test, and lock down a highly accessible, cross-platform design system. We meticulously standardized UI patterns, visual assets, and typography across iOS, Android, and Web to prevent engineering friction and eliminate “visual debt”.
• 05. Deploy (Wielding the “Unicorn” Strategy)
  With designs approved, we needed to make sure they actually looked right in production. To solve our development bottleneck, our design team stepped up as hybrid UI Developers. Since Cleo was already dual-hatting the vacant front-end developer role, he and his designer pioneered a new role: Visual Quality Assurance (VQA). By contributing two hands-on UI developer resources, taking on frontend coding tasks, and visually signing off on stories before they hit traditional QA, we accelerated sprint cycles and allowed engineers to focus purely on functional logic.

Responsive Website

Finder Web

iOS & Android Mobile Apps

Welcome Screen

Finder Mobile Web Device

Initialize Map

Map Search Results

Menu

Pricing Tools

Finder Mobile App 08

Search Filters

Active Map Pin

Property Details

Video

3D Tours

3D Virtual Tour

3D Virtual Tour

3D Virtual Tour

3D Virtual Tour

3D Virtual Tour

3D Virtual Tour

Finder Mobile App 20

Cost Calculator

Cost Calculator

Cost Calculator

The Outcomes

• Launched Beautifully, On-Time: The entire ecosystem went live on December 16th.
• Executive & Equity Recognition: For steering this high-friction merger integration so smoothly despite massive operational hurdles, Cleo was honored by executive leadership as one of the very few team members to be gifted corporate shares—a rare, direct recognition of his cross-functional impact and strategic value to the organization.
• Boardroom Acclaim: CoStar Group’s Executive Leadership, Senior Management, and Board of Directors declared that the launch set the stage for the “smooth launch in company history” and far exceeded expectations.
• Critical Acclaim: The redesigned platform secured a Webby Award (Honoree), a Gold Davey Award, and a Silver w3 Award.
• Massive Overhead Savings: Introducing highly efficient cross-platform framework strategies across the multi-family ecosystem ultimately saved $360,000 in developer overhead.
• Platform Rigor Established: By aligning the SDLC with robust design systems, we proved that fractional leadership can step in, neutralize visual risk, and steer multi-million dollar product ecosystems to the finish line on time and under budget.