Buying a home is the only major purchase in modern life that still feels like stepping into a maze designed to keep you lost. We can buy a car online, invest with a few taps or file taxes on an app, but in real estate, you’re still funneled through layers of middlemen, jargon and rules you don’t even know exist—until they cost you money. That’s not an accident. Complexity isn’t a bug in the system; it is the system. And for decades, the industry has normalized this as “just the way it works.”
This culture of confusion plays out every single day. Buyers and sellers are handed a process that’s outdated, fragmented and opaque, and then told to trust it blindly. Property data is locked behind gatekept multiple listing service (MLS) systems. Costs are buried in ways that even experienced buyers don’t fully grasp. And instead of simplifying the experience, the industry has spent decades adding more layers on top of old ones, like stacking fragile scaffolding on a crumbling foundation.
Opacity as a business model
Real estate’s lack of transparency isn’t accidental. It’s structural. Historically, MLS data, the lifeblood of the housing market, has been tightly controlled by brokerages and associations. To access basic information, you’ve had to go through agents, who in turn pay dues to local associations, which feed national organizations. Consumers have never had true, unfiltered access.
This structure has been incredibly lucratiive. When only a select few control information, they also control the pace, the pricing and the terms of every transaction. The less the average person understands about the process, the more reliant they become on insiders—and the harder it becomes to question what they’re being charged for.
This model may have made sense decades ago, when data was literally stored in filing cabinets, but in 2025 it’s indefensible. We live in a world where consumers can track their packages in real time, invest in startups from their phones and get instant transparency into almost any service they use. Yet when it comes to buying a home, one of the biggest financial decisions of their lives, people are still operating in the dark.
Other industries have already changed
Look at almost any other major sector and you’ll see how technology has transformed information asymmetry. Retail embraced e-commerce, allowing anyone compare prices, read reviews and make informed decisions. Finance was democratized by fintech: companies like Stripe, Robinhood and Wise made transactions, trading and payments simple and visible to everyone. Travel went from depending on opaque travel agents to platforms where consumers can book flights, hotels and experiences directly and easily.
These shifts didn’t just happen because technology appeared; they happened because the industries realized that consumer trust is good for business. Once transparency became table stakes, those who resisted it lost relevance fast.
Real estate has been the outlier. It has adopted technology superficially, like sleek websites, digital listings and A.I. buzzwords, but the business model has barely budged. Underneath the shiny surface, the same closed MLS systems, commission structures and gatekeeping practices remain intact. Transparency hasn’t disrupted the core; it’s just been layered on top like paint over cracked plaster.
Complexity costs real money
This lack of transparency isn’t just annoying, it’s expensive. In many markets, buyers and sellers are still on the hook for large commissions baked into transactions, often without fully understanding why or how those fees are structured. Hidden costs and unclear responsibilities routinely push first-time buyers to their limits. Sellers often discover too late that they’ve overpaid for services that should be standardized or automated.
Even basic property searches are shaped by these dynamics. Consumers don’t see the entire inventory of homes because listings can be held back, delayed or marketed selectively. Exclusive listings, pocket deals and other opaque practices are used to maintain control. Buyers think they’re getting a full picture, when in reality they’re looking through a keyhole.
Proptech hasn’t gone far enough
Platforms like Zillow were supposed to blow the doors open. Instead, they’ve made an already complicated industry even more confusing. Zillow and similar platforms gave consumers a glossy interface and more data than before, but they didn’t truly democratize access, they monetized it. These platforms sit between consumers and MLS data, prioritizing lead generation for agents over clarity for buyers and sellers.
Rather than simplifying the journey, they’ve added another middle layer. For many buyers, the experience of scrolling through Zillow isn’t fundamentally different from working with an agent, it just feels modern. The same structural opacity remains underneath.
The next generation of proptech has a chance to fix that, but only if it goes beyond aesthetics. Real transparency means opening MLS data, standardizing costs and giving buyers and sellers the ability to navigate transactions without gatekeepers. It means putting consumers at the center of the experience, not as leads to be sold, but as participants in a clear, navigable system.
The industry has a choice
Real estate is standing at the same crossroads that travel, retail and finance once faced. It can continue to defend a system built on gatekeeping and opacity, or it can modernize and rebuild trust through transparency. The industry’s cultural resistance to change has lasted longer than most, but cultural tides don’t stop forever.
Consumers are no longer passive. They expect real-time updates, honest pricing and the ability to understand the systems they’re navigating. As regulatory scrutiny increases and tech entrepreneurs push for open systems, the industry can either lead the shift or get dragged into it.
If real estate wants to stay relevant, and not end up like the travel agents who refused to adapt, it needs to treat transparency not as a threat, but as the foundation for the next era of growth.