Evolution of buying and selling property Buying and selling real estate was an essential need long before digital channels and the internet. Agents used billboards, newspapers and other channels to advertise the property. The information that a buyer could get was really location-dependent, and the info agents were willing to provide depending on their interest. With digitalization, changes started to happen. The real estate market became more accessible, and now a wider set of information is available, and more and more portals are offering comprehensive supply. Buyers and sellers can research the market themselves regarding prices and locations. Early portals, starting from the 90s did a lot to make markets easier to navigate. In the last 5 years, market players got more focused on offering comprehensive service around the buyer and seller journey, so they can serve them better, and be more competitive. Buyer and seller experience: where can PropTech help? The journeys of the buyer and seller meet when they start to talk to each other. Before that, the buyer is all about dreaming, exploring and comparing, and the seller is advertising and either receiving the phone calls or hiring an agent. Difficulties on the non-exclusive markets On non-exclusive markets this journey is tricky in the discovery phase for the buyer and the advertising phase for the seller. Since there are no clear regulations, and the players on the market are doing every process in their own way, the buyer faces a lot of difficulties. It is the same for the seller when choosing an agent and/or starting to advertise. There are no (or limited) regulations in these markets, and properties are usually advertised by multiple agents at the same time. This results in particularities like duplicated listings, listings missing location information, strong For Sale By Owner (FSBO) presence, lack of transaction history, Peer2Peer (P2P) property sales, grey areas in listing mandates, fraudulent listings, lead-bait listings and more. These challenges are unique to non-exclusive markets and best practices coming from exclusive markets won’t provide the right solutions to them. Below we will look at seven of these challenges, and show some examples on how portals are approaching them to better serve their buyers. Difficulty = Opportunity Successful portals on non-exclusive markets already invest a lot in transparency, and deliver great value to buyers and sellers. Proptech can take transparency to the next level, which is an opportunity for portals, and proptechs either partnering with portals, or solving a buyer/seller need on their own.