Doorsteps, an up-and-coming online resource, has a purpose that sounds simple, but isn’t always so -- making home buying easier.

For inexperienced buyers, the task can be daunting. But the online tool seeks to improve the way people buy, finance and own a home by guiding them through each step of the process.
“It was surprising to think that the single biggest purchase of my life was so badly designed,” Doorsteps founder Michele Serro said. She said she had tried to purchase a house and found the process “confusing, stressful and opaque.” The company’s goal is to humanize the process and turn curious buyers into confident ones.

The Web site gives buyers help in such areas as what discounts they qualify for, where to find the best advisers and how to avoid overpaying for their big purchase. It takes potential buyers on a step-by-step journey from deciding whether to buy to assessing how much to spend all the way to preparing to close the deal.

Doorsteps puts together all the potential buyer’s pertinent information, such as the desired home size, neighborhood and credit score, into a personal buying profile that does the heavy lifting. Before launching its tool for buyers, Doorsteps was designed for and marketed to agents to help them guide their clients through the home-buying journey. Even agents who don’t use a lot of technology should know the site embodies characteristics that are attractive to customers – clarity, openness and transparency.

It also tends to deliver a more focused buyer – one more likely to say “I’m pre-approved, I know my budget and I know where I want to live” than “I saw a listing online that looked interesting, shall we meet?”

Doorsteps also has big plans to help buyers link up with lenders, insurance companies, movers and other service providers.

Check it out at doorsteps.com