Buying or renting a house can be seriously stressful. Consumers need to research properties, access neighborhood data, consult with realtors and property management companies, sign a mountain of paperwork, and complete other time-consuming administrative tasks. In the example of buy-sell real estate, PropTech makes life easier for those purchasing or leasing a home, allowing them to complete many of these tasks from the comfort of their own couches through digital tools. That frees up resources for real estate businesses and gives their customers more control.
PropTech, as a whole, seeks to make similar improvements in every branch of the real estate industry: commercial, rental, property development, investing, multifamily, and more. Streamlining and digitizing the way professionals work with a wide range of software, the startups propelling this tech revolution are quickly bringing the real estate industry into the digital age.
Related: Breaking Into Real Estate with AptAmigo
What Is PropTech?
Property technology, or PropTech for short, refers to all the digital tools used in the real estate industry. This technology includes property search platforms that help customers find a home, video calling software for touring a home, financing tools that connect consumers with lenders, and real estate closing tools that complete the homeownership journey. Not all of these technologies are customer-facing. For example, realtors and property managers might employ Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to manage data from homebuyers and renters.
What Is the Purpose of a Real Estate Startup?
A real estate startup, also known as a PropTech startup, develops property technologies to streamline home buying, renting, property management, and any other processes that occur in the industry. While PropTech might sound like a new term, it actually dates back to the 1980s. This technology originally helped real estate companies manage investments and portfolios. However, PropTech has since expanded to encompass all aspects of the real estate industry, from virtual tours to online payment processing.
Many real estate tech companies merely want to simplify home buying and renting workflows, which is a good thing. However, some people believe these companies will eventually replace traditional real estate. In reality, a lot of PropTech software aims to supplement and support, not eliminate, traditional agents.
In fact, PropTech startups allow realtors, brokers, loan officers, property managers, and other professionals in the real estate industry to incorporate technologies into their business models that improve the customer experience. For example, a real estate startup might create a technology that lets a consumer talk to a loan officer via live chat and sign closing documents over the internet rather than visiting the officer at their physical location. That can speed up the loan origination process and allow someone to close on a property in a quicker time frame.
What Are the Benefits of a Real Estate Startup for Consumers?
Although it depends on what the consumer or real estate professional wants to accomplish — buy, sell, rent, invest, etc. — here are a few examples of tasks that PropTech can streamline:
Property searches
PropTech can help someone find a home based on specific criteria, such as price, location, and number of bedrooms, rather than searching for properties manually or getting a realtor to do it for them.
Document signing
PropTech lets consumers e-sign documents, such as leases, loan applications, and closing paperwork remotely on their computers rather than wet signing them in person.
Live chat
PropTech lets customers connect with real estate professionals like loan officers and property managers via live chat rather than picking up the phone or sending an email.
Transactions
PropTech allows customers to pay their rent online, transfer a down payment to a lender, or carry out other financial real estate transactions quickly over the internet.
What Makes PropTech Attractive to Entrepreneurs in the Startup Stratosphere?
PropTech can be lucrative, especially when real estate professionals and consumers pay to use this technology. Experts predict the global PropTech market will reach $94.2 billion by the end of 2023, according to a recent report. It’s no wonder, then, that new real estate tech companies are being created every day and developing new tools that will continue to disrupt the real estate sector in innovative ways.
Working at a Real Estate Startup?
Real estate startups employ all types of people to get new technology products to market. These employees include software engineers, who develop and maintain tools, marketers and salespeople, who promote and sell these technologies, and data analysts, who analyze the data required for PropTech to function. Traditional realtors and other real estate professionals might also work for these startups in an advisory capacity, helping startups devise and evolve technologies, or as agents for consumer-facing startups like AptAmigo.
Related: Commercial Vs. Residential Real Estate Careers
AptAmigo: A Real Estate Startup for Luxury Apartment Rentals
AptAmigo, a real estate startup that specializes in rentals, began as an apartment review website before transitioning into a rental brokerage with the development of its own CRM software, reflecting its core values of collaboration, adaptability, and transparency.
Now, you can join AptAmigo’s team of local experts! We welcome applications from new and experienced real estate agents who want to leverage the selling power of our proprietary CRM software.
AptAmigo is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and does not discriminate based on race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law, in connection with any aspect of employment at AptAmigo.
Kirk P. is a freelance writer specializing in content for businesses in various verticals, including real estate, digital marketing, technology, retail, health care, and lifestyle and travel. Kirk's work has appeared on Travelocity, Ziff Davis, StubHub, and more.
