Nowadays in real estate, the idea of an end-to-end solution is a metaphorical Holy Grail. Companies enter the market, promising to shake up everything the industry knows about a real estate transaction. And when this happens, these companies are labeled as disruptors.
That’s a word we hear so much in the real estate industry that it’s starting to lose its meaning. It sometimes is associated with a be-all, end-all solution—but a disruptor is really just something that changes how we work. It stops a system or process from carrying on as it usually would, or as we might expect it to.
Which brings up an important question.
How much can a real estate transaction—usually surrounded by unflinchingly rigid legislative oversight and influence—really be disrupted?
Where disruption happens in real estate
If you look at today’s disruptors, the vast majority of them operate at a consumer level. For example, iBuyers are one of the most widely recognized disruptions in real estate. They’re shaking up the entire real estate transaction process by promising homeowners a way to circumvent the traditional idea of hiring an agent.
As more and more of these types of companies enter the ring, they start to introduce slight variations on the same business model for people to sell their homes quickly.
But they all have the same core function; as this article points out, they rely on “glossy marketing” and “aggressive PR campaigns” to sell what recognized real estate consultant Victor Lund points out is the equivalent of a mortgage brokerage, just marketed differently.
So how much disruption is really happening?
Disruption isn’t the answer for real estate.
Over the years, we’ve seen disruptors come and go. They create something new and exciting and flashy, something that will solve a pain point for their consumers.
Something to become the brokerage equivalent of those ultimate, end-to-end solutions.
Their intentions are right, because solving pain points is exactly what a business should be all about. But disruption only goes so far.
Real estate doesn’t need industry changers. It needs game changers.
In all our time in the industry, we’ve learned that the key to that solution everyone talks about isn’t a disruption.
Why not?
Because back office isn’t flashy. Transaction management isn’t flashy. They’re not a super trendy high-rise condo; they’re a sturdy, practical suburban. Sure, they could use an update once in a while, but they don’t need someone to come along and bulldoze them.
They don’t need gimmicks. Or glossy marketing. Or anything like that. They are what they are—core components of running a business. They need solutions that recognize that, and work the same way.
That’s why we do what we do. At Lone Wolf, our software isn’t disruptive.
We don’t build software that drastically changes how people have to work in the real estate industry. We build it to work the way a real estate brokerage already does—to make real estate transactions simpler with an ecosystem of integrated tech solutions that work together.
We don’t need to disrupt the way you operate. We just help you do what you do faster and more efficiently.
Because an end-to-end solution doesn’t have to disrupt the industry to lead it.
