Buyers Want a House. Why Does the Real Estate Machine Make It So Hard?

The real estate industry is worried that younger Americans are losing hope of ever owning a home. But has anybody considered that the industry itself might be part of the problem? Not just the price of a house, but everything buyers have to go through to find and purchase one.
I recently watched an Industry Relations podcast with real estate industry commentators Rob Hahn and Greg Robertson. They were discussing housing affordability, the role of investors, and the growing number of younger Americans who question whether homeownership will ever be within their reach.
Rob raised an interesting question. What does the real estate industry have to say to these young people? What can Realtors offer someone who believes they’ll never be able to afford a house?
Greg talked about good agents helping buyers achieve their dreams, finding ways to get them into the market, and encouraging them to remain optimistic. And those are worthwhile things. But I think they’re missing something much bigger.
They’re looking at the problem from inside the existing real estate system. What if that system itself is part of what’s discouraging people?
Now, let’s be clear. Home prices, mortgage rates, insurance, taxes, and housing supply are significant problems. I’m not suggesting that changing how we sell houses will magically make them affordable. But affordability is only part of the experience of buying a home.
Think about someone who has grown up with technology. They use Amazon to find exactly what they’re looking for. Netflix makes it easy to find something to watch. Technology has transformed how people shop, communicate, work, and make decisions.
Now they decide to buy a house. One of the most important purchases they’ll ever make. And suddenly, they’re navigating a process that can seem unnecessarily complicated, expensive, and frustrating.
Let’s start with something as basic as finding the right house.
You search online and see photographs of a beautiful home. Everything looks perfect. Every room is bright. The windows are perfectly exposed. The colors are beautiful. Even an ordinary room can look extraordinary.
I’m a professional media producer, and I understand exactly how these images are created. There’s nothing wrong with good photography. But there’s a difference between accurately presenting a property and making it look like something it isn’t.
And I’m not just talking about artificial intelligence adding furniture, removing objects, or changing the appearance of a room. I’m talking about photography that’s so heavily processed and polished that the house simply doesn’t look that way when you walk through the front door.
The buyer isn’t looking to purchase a photograph. They’re looking to purchase a house.
The National Association of Realtors has even published articles discussing this problem. Some buyers call it housefishing. They fall in love with a property online, only to discover that the actual house doesn’t match their expectations.
And what happens next? The buyer schedules a showing. An agent makes arrangements. The seller prepares the house, possibly leaving for an hour. Everybody gets in their cars. And sometimes, within twenty seconds of walking through the front door, the buyer knows they don’t want the house.
Think about that. Twenty seconds.
All that time, preparation, coordination, and expense, only to discover something that a better online presentation might have revealed before anyone left home.
In Zillow’s 2026 consumer housing research, 52 percent of buyers reported wasting time visiting properties they would have skipped if they had understood the floor plan beforehand.
Now, why is that still happening?
Zillow also reports that buyers want more 3D tours. But I have a different question. What if buyers were offered a real walkthrough video that took them through the house the way they would experience it in person?
Not just clicking around and spinning through individual rooms. An actual walkthrough. Enter the front door, move through the living areas, see how the rooms connect, walk into the kitchen, through the bedrooms, and out to the backyard.
Let buyers experience the house before they decide whether it’s worth visiting.
That’s what we call the First Showing Online. And it’s one of the central principles behind Rethink Open House.
It won’t replace the physical showing. It shouldn’t. But it can eliminate unnecessary showings and help buyers arrive with realistic expectations. That benefits the buyer, the seller, and the professionals involved.
Now, let’s look at another frustration. The buyer finds a house they like and wants more information. What do they see? A Contact Agent button.
Sounds simple enough.
But who are they actually contacting? Is it the listing agent? Is it somebody who knows the property? Or is it an agent who paid to have that buyer’s inquiry directed to them?
On major real estate portals, those contact buttons can be part of an advertising or referral business. The buyer is looking for a house. The portal is also looking for a way to make money from that buyer’s interest.
And there’s considerable money involved.
Zillow publishes referral success fees for its Preferred program that can range from 15 to 40 percent of an agent’s commission. The rate depends on the type of connection and other factors, and not every contact results in that fee.
But think about what that means. An agent can help a buyer find a house, negotiate the purchase, coordinate the transaction, and finally receive a commission. And a substantial portion of that commission may go to the company that provided the connection.
Does the buyer understand that when they click Contact Agent? Do they know who is being paid, how much, and for what?
And if they did know, would they feel the same way about what the transaction costs?
The industry likes to tell buyers that the seller pays the commission. But where does the money to purchase the house come from? The buyer. The commissions and other transaction costs are real, regardless of how they’re allocated or which side of the closing statement they appear on.
I’m not suggesting that agents shouldn’t be paid. I’m a real estate broker myself. Good agents provide important services and deserve to be compensated.
But there’s a difference between paying someone to help you purchase a house and supporting an expanding collection of businesses making money because you want to purchase one.
That’s what I call the money in the middle.
And it doesn’t stop with referral fees.
Suppose a buyer knows how the system works. They understand the lead-generation business. They don’t want to enter another sales pipeline. They just want to ask a question about a property.
They try calling the listing agent directly. Maybe the agent answers. Maybe they don’t. Maybe the buyer is told to contact another agent to arrange a showing.
There’s nothing wrong with a buyer choosing professional representation. But why should someone who simply wants information about a house have such difficulty connecting with the people responsible for selling it?
Why should the system make the buyer feel like a sales opportunity before treating them like someone who wants to purchase a property?
And consider the agents themselves. They have to spend money attracting buyers, compete for leads, pay for advertising, and sometimes surrender a substantial percentage of their commissions just to get connected with someone who wants to buy a house.
How much of that expense is ultimately built into the economics of the real estate business?
We have developed sophisticated technology for collecting consumer information, routing leads, selling advertising, and generating referral revenue. Yet we’re still sending buyers to houses they can reject in twenty seconds.
That’s an extraordinary contrast.
The technology exists to make the process considerably more efficient. But much of the industry’s technology is also designed to make the businesses surrounding the transaction more profitable.
And I think that’s the question Rob and Greg need to be asking.
Are we using technology primarily to help people buy and sell houses? Or are we using it to create more opportunities to make money from the people who want to buy and sell houses?
Now, the MLS provides something valuable. It brings enormous amounts of property inventory together. That’s why buyers search the major portals and why agents depend on the MLS.
But having the inventory doesn’t automatically mean the business model surrounding it is the best way to serve buyers and sellers.
The inventory begins with a property owner who decides to sell. The opportunity for a transaction begins when a buyer wants to purchase that property. Everything in between should exist to make that transaction better.
That’s the premise behind Rethink Open House.
We start with the house. Present it accurately. Give buyers a meaningful First Showing Online. Let them communicate directly with the people involved in selling it. Give the owner choices about professional services. Give agents control over their branding and their relationships with clients.
And remove the unnecessary money in the middle.
This isn’t about getting rid of good real estate agents. It’s about creating a model where professionals are valued for what they actually contribute to buying and selling the house, rather than how much control they have over access to buyers and sellers.
And it’s not about pretending that buying a house can become as simple as ordering something from Amazon. A real estate transaction involves financing, inspections, title, negotiations, and important legal obligations. Those things matter.
But finding a house, accurately understanding what it looks like, and communicating with the people selling it shouldn’t be nearly as complicated as we’ve made it.
Which brings me back to the Industry Relations discussion.
Rob Hahn wants to know what the real estate industry can say to younger Americans who are losing confidence in homeownership.
I think the industry needs to stop worrying so much about what to tell them and start looking at what it’s putting them through.
A buyer who can afford a home shouldn’t have to struggle through an inefficient process simply because that’s how the industry has always done business. And someone who’s already discouraged about affordability certainly doesn’t need another reason to become discouraged about buying a house.
We don’t need another advertising campaign telling people how wonderful homeownership is. We need a better experience for the people who want to become homeowners.
Buyers want to buy houses. Sellers want to sell houses. That’s the objective.
Rethink Open House has built a better model around that objective.
The MLS has the inventory. Rethink Open House has the better model.
And it’s time to rethink how we sell houses.

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