Ask anyone under forty what they think about buying a home right now and you usually get some version of the same answer: I’d love to, but the whole thing feels impossible. Prices are high, sure, but that’s only the surface-level explanation.

Once you peel it back, you start to notice something else: The system itself is expensive. Not because of one big fee, but because the whole process has grown into this long, confusing chain where everyone adds a small cost, and by the time you reach the closing table, you’re staring at a number you never mentally prepared for.

It’s wild that the biggest purchase of someone’s life still plays out this way. People sign stacks of documents they’ve never seen before. They rely on an agent to explain comps or valuation ranges because the raw data lives behind gatekeepers. And if you’re young or buying for the first time, you walk into the process already feeling like you’re at a disadvantage. That emotional fog, where you don’t totally understand what’s happening, but you go along with it because you don’t want to mess anything up, is a huge part of what keeps affordability out of reach.

Why earlier ‘proptech innovation’ didn’t move the needle

A funny thing about real estate is that the industry has gotten very good at talking about innovation without really changing the parts that matter. Search got prettier. Scheduling got automated. Listing photos started looking like editorial spreads. But the structure underneath? The way money moves? The way people are guided through the process? It’s basically the same thing wrapped in nicer packaging.

The new generation of proptech feels different because it’s finally taking aim at the actual mechanics. Affordability isn’t going to get solved by more filters on a listing site. It’s going to get solved by helping people understand the “why” behind the numbers and giving them direct access to the tools that have been locked up for years. The real gains (financial and emotional) come from transparency and simplicity, not flash.

Hidden information is half the affordability crisis

A lot of people overlook how fragmented real estate information really is. County records in one place, MLS data in another, price histories behind login walls, repair estimates floating somewhere else entirely. When you spread information across that many systems, it naturally creates confusion and dependency. The people with access end up holding all the leverage, and the average buyer or seller ends up relying on someone else’s interpretation of what the numbers “mean.”

This is exactly where a new generation of platforms is starting to push back. Ownli is one of the clearest examples I’ve seen. Instead of nudging people toward an agent or hiding the full picture until the last step, it pulls the data together and lays it out in a way a normal person can make sense of. But the bigger shift is what that clarity actually unlocks.

When someone sees real comps, real market conditions and real savings opportunities up front, they suddenly realize they don’t have to accept the traditional 5% or 6% commission model as an unchangeable law of nature. For some sellers, the platform makes it practical to skip the commission-heavy structure entirely. That alone, just removing unnecessary middle steps, means tens of thousands saved. And when enough people start seeing those numbers plainly, the larger affordability conversation looks very different.

And then you have companies like LandOnEarth, which take a different angle: matching people to homes based on how they actually live. It doesn’t sound like a big leap, but avoiding the endless cycle of “close-but-not-quite” listings makes a huge difference when people are stretched thin. Less wasted time means fewer emotional swings and fewer rushed decisions, which is exactly where many first-time buyers lose money without realizing it.

What’s interesting is that none of these companies are trying to reinvent every piece of real estate. They’re simply fixing the parts that create the most friction. A surprising amount of the affordability crisis is tied to the psychological weight of not knowing whether you’re making a good decision. People overpay because they panic. They accept bad terms because everything feels urgent. They stick with outdated fee structures because nobody has ever shown them another path.

Why simplicity itself saves buyers and sellers real money

If you give people clean, verified information early enough in the process, those behaviors start to fade. A seller who knows the real market value doesn’t chase a fantasy price for six months. A buyer who sees clear comps doesn’t throw in an extra twenty grand “just to be safe.” A seller who understands how commissions really work starts questioning whether the standard model is truly necessary for their situation. Simplicity reduces the chaos, and reduced chaos often means reduced cost.

Of course, none of this fixes the deeper supply problems, the zoning issues, or the basic math of too many people chasing too few homes. But it does fix something that’s been ignored for a long time: the transaction itself has become unnecessarily bloated. Even in a world where prices stay high, trimming the inefficiencies and giving people actual visibility into the process can close the gap for a lot of buyers who are right on the edge.

The next era of real estate belongs to whoever makes the process feel fair

In a way, real estate is having the same moment banking did a decade ago. For years, financial data was scattered across different portals, different institutions and different statements. Then open banking made everything visible in one place, and suddenly people made smarter decisions with less stress. You didn’t need to be an expert anymore. You just needed a clear picture.

That’s the direction housing is moving in now. Not loud disruption. Not another glossy “platform” that does the same thing as the last 10. What’s coming is a quieter shift, built on clarity and trust. The affordability conversation changes when people don’t feel lost.

If the last wave of proptech made things look modern, the next wave is going to make things feel fair. And for a lot of would-be buyers, that’s the breakthrough they’ve been waiting for.

Sign up for the Money Makers newsletter to get weekly, expert-backed tips to help you earn more money — from real people who founded and scaled successful businesses. Get it in your inbox.