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The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

nytimes.com

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Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#21

Post by imglorp »

brightball wrote: post #3

It will be interesting to see if any of this goes anywhere. Real Estate is one of the tougher markets to really disrupt because of the amount of licensing, regulation and the fact that the local MLS is usually controlled by the local real estate group. You have to pay a fee to join each one. I've heard a lot of tech people clamoring for a central MLS service but the local groups are well aware that controlling the li…

I just sold a house by myself and the line of people with their hand out is infuriating. Even more frustrating, for providing their automated gesture or nod of a service, they want a PERCENTAGE.

For example, to just do all the paperwork, a realtor might offer a "transaction only" service for "only" 1%. Regardless of property value, it's the same paperwork and usually done by a clerk. I instead went to an honest (!) attorney, flat rate for his time, it was around $1500 to do the same task. He reviewed contracts, attended closing, gave advice. Easy, done.

I think there's so much monetary friction from these parasites that any automation and fair pricing will erase whole professions.

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#22

Post by ghaff »

baybal2 wrote: post #18
tim333 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I googled Ziroom and see they long lease apartments and then sublet, and their doing so has raised the cost of long leases in places. How is this burning anything to the ground? I'm confused.

Just take a look on a very impressive list of RE companies they took over. Besides of them doing all kinds of leasing models, they put a very thick slab of butter on top with add on services, something nobody else can match. With a single click you can: get a handyman to fix anything, order renovations, moving, breakfast delivery, daycare, cleaning, maids, buy furniture, order a restyling, get new appliances, remote…

I suspect a lot has to do with labor costs. I could theoretically hire a full-time assistant who could take care of lots of tasks for me either directly or by contracting it out. But, for most individuals in the US or Western Europe, doing so would be cost prohibitive.

Aggregating and streamlining these services do help. In dense enough areas, some people who couldn't have afforded a personal driver use Uber. But relatively few people have the luxury of contracting out all their day-to-day routines.

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#23

Post by ghaff »

lr4444lr wrote: post #15
qubax wrote: post #8

Hard to tell whether this is a news article or an ad for the featured company. Also, tech has been in real estate for a very long time. Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, etc were supposedly "disrupting and revolutionizing" real estate before smartphones got popular. I remember reading about this more than a decade ago. My god time flies. From 2007. Redfin On 60 Minutes Tonight – Real Estate Market Disruption. https://techcrunc…

Don't sell short what those companies did for buyers: they freed them from the gatekeeper of a broker. No disrespect to brokers - they're great for sellers and I happily used one - but the analytics and search and sheer awareness of what was on the market they offered to the home buyer was revolutionary IMHO.

Buyers have a lot more information. When I bought my house 25 years or so ago, I can't tell you how many hours I wasted driving to some listing and discovering it wasn't for me for some reason before stepping foot out my car. On the other hand, I'm not sure to what degree real estate sales have truly been disrupted at the end of the day.

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#24

Post by alexgmcm »

r_smart wrote: post #11
ianai wrote: post #4

Caveat: I can’t read the article. I’m just riffing based on my knowledge of RE and personal experiences with tech. As someone who’s researched real estate, I have a hard time seeing how tech can help the RE industry. For starters, RE bubbles have led to the worst economic downturns. If people can buy homes so easily that they can profit on making superficial changes, then prices will go up far above efficient. That p…

>Rent shouldn’t be anywhere near comparable to mortgages. How am I supposed to rent you a house if the rent you pay is less than the mortgage I have on the house? How do I build a pool of money to use for repairing the things that inevitably break?

Traditionally those letting houses owned the houses outright - the mortgage was paid off.

"Buy-to-let" has changed this but perhaps that is not a good model.

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#25

Post by saiya-jin »

newacctjhro wrote: post #17
r_smart wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Rent shouldn’t be anywhere near comparable to mortgages. How am I supposed to rent you a house if the rent you pay is less than the mortgage I have on the house? How do I build a pool of money to use for repairing the things that inevitably break?

You're building equity with the difference between rent (plus repairs etc) and the mortgage. The renter isn't.

Yes, and you are exposed to myriads of risks that tenant isn't either - property market crash, tons of possible environmental disasters, issues with plumbings, fires, damage done to property, gradual degradation of, well everything.

Another thing is the amount of time and energy invested into acquiring, renovation, maintenance and improvement of the property.

Financially any of those, especially market crash can ruin you for life - how do you want to price this massive risk in rental price?

Ever tried to buy a property? For mortals getting mortgage, its such a stressful experience even for simplest type - obtaining already existing and equipped flat, that it easily breaks relationships and marriages.

I understand the tenant point of view to try to pay as little as possible and have as big choice as possible, I am also in that camp, but there is other side (and I don't mean some super rich or people inheriting big properties by being lucky with birth).

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#26

Post by alistairSH »

lr4444lr wrote: post #15
qubax wrote: post #8

Hard to tell whether this is a news article or an ad for the featured company. Also, tech has been in real estate for a very long time. Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, etc were supposedly "disrupting and revolutionizing" real estate before smartphones got popular. I remember reading about this more than a decade ago. My god time flies. From 2007. Redfin On 60 Minutes Tonight – Real Estate Market Disruption. https://techcrunc…

Don't sell short what those companies did for buyers: they freed them from the gatekeeper of a broker. No disrespect to brokers - they're great for sellers and I happily used one - but the analytics and search and sheer awareness of what was on the market they offered to the home buyer was revolutionary IMHO.

Agreed. While Redfin, Realtor.com, etc didn't cut a realtor out of my RE transactions (1 purchase a decade ago, then 1 sale + 1 purchase last year), they did do a good job showing me what was on the market. And not just at a single point in time (when I was actively shopping), but over years, so I could see neighborhoods that were smaller or had less turnover. While actively searching, the often gave me a heads up as to what was coming on the market in the upcoming week - I wasn't at the mercy of the RE agent calling me with new listings.

Unfortunately, agents in my area still take a pretty standard % of any transaction, so those tech sites haven't made a dent in the cost of the transaction.

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#27

Post by arkades »

ianai wrote: post #4

Caveat: I can’t read the article. I’m just riffing based on my knowledge of RE and personal experiences with tech. As someone who’s researched real estate, I have a hard time seeing how tech can help the RE industry. For starters, RE bubbles have led to the worst economic downturns. If people can buy homes so easily that they can profit on making superficial changes, then prices will go up far above efficient. That p…

> Alerting people of a home being in a flood plain, hurricane path, etc would help.

I would pay for a service that gives me a reasonable 10-50 year estimate of climate change impacts on a given real estate area. I haven't been able to find this so far. Presumably very large RE investors have access to such information, but for the average consumer...?

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#28

Post by sharemywin »

So, they are using housing data without taking the bubble into account. They will make money for a while until the market turns then they will lose money when their holdings are 20-40% underwater then it will take 5-10 years before their investment is above water. And the rental market will tank at the same time so, good luck with cashflow. Now let's add maintenance, upkeep etc.

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#29

Post by arkades »

imglorp wrote: post #21
brightball wrote: post #3

It will be interesting to see if any of this goes anywhere. Real Estate is one of the tougher markets to really disrupt because of the amount of licensing, regulation and the fact that the local MLS is usually controlled by the local real estate group. You have to pay a fee to join each one. I've heard a lot of tech people clamoring for a central MLS service but the local groups are well aware that controlling the li…

I just sold a house by myself and the line of people with their hand out is infuriating. Even more frustrating, for providing their automated gesture or nod of a service, they want a PERCENTAGE. For example, to just do all the paperwork, a realtor might offer a "transaction only" service for "only" 1%. Regardless of property value, it's the same paperwork and usually done by a clerk. I instead went to an honest (!) a…

You don't need an "honest" attorney to get that number. It's normal for RE attorneys to get a flat-ish fee, and RE agents to pull a percentage.

And RE attorneys usually make And all paperwork and contracts are ultimately done by the lawyer. I have honest to goodness no idea why you involved a realtor at all if you were selling it by yourself. Their only job is to attract prospective buyers (read as: list your house on the MLS).

Re: The Hot Property That’s Next on Tech’s Agenda: Real Estate

#30

Post by lotsofpulp »

arkades wrote: post #27
ianai wrote: post #4

Caveat: I can’t read the article. I’m just riffing based on my knowledge of RE and personal experiences with tech. As someone who’s researched real estate, I have a hard time seeing how tech can help the RE industry. For starters, RE bubbles have led to the worst economic downturns. If people can buy homes so easily that they can profit on making superficial changes, then prices will go up far above efficient. That p…

> Alerting people of a home being in a flood plain, hurricane path, etc would help. I would pay for a service that gives me a reasonable 10-50 year estimate of climate change impacts on a given real estate area. I haven't been able to find this so far. Presumably very large RE investors have access to such information, but for the average consumer...?

It seems unreasonable to expect any human to be able to reasonably predict anything 10+ years into the future with the kind of accuracy needed to provide climate change impacts of a given area. Only easy one is probably water levels rising causing places next to the ocean to go underwater.

Buy at a decent altitude, higher up than surrounding areas where water can drain into, and that has access to a water and food source which seem resilient. But who knows when a fire or flood or earthquake or whatever will come ruin your plan.

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