I hate that most real estate agents have no specialized knowledge about houses, or the neighborhoods they are selling in, or anything really, even contractual stuff.

I'm sure that there are agent gems somewhere! But most are complete frauds. I wish one could do without them altogether.

So you want an anonymous buyer to talk to an anonymous seller?

Anonymous wrote:OP. why the emphasis on privacy.

I think that real estate will generally always require assistance/guidance from professionals. But from what I've experienced and what I've read here, us buyers and sellers want greater transparency and honesty. I think the best chance of getting that comes from buyers and sellers talking to one another. But that's when things could get weird. Like online dating weird. So to increase our chance for success, I want to keep privacy high to make people more comfortable about talking with strangers. Plus I really hate how companies turn everyone into a dollar sign. I want people to feel comfortable knowing that their personal info is their own to keep/manage/remove. The privacy/anonymity factor seems to have been great for DCUM.

OP. why the emphasis on privacy.

Steve wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a seller: I hated the decluttering process.

I hear you. I was lucky enough to have a neighbor that let me use his home to store a lot of things at his home while I staged/showed.

Anonymous wrote:OP is trying to develop a FSBO website, and you are playing into this by giving him all the help he needs I hope he gives all of you a cut o the money he makes.

I'm not trying to get rich. I just want to set thing right. Two of my guiding principles in doing this are:
1. Do not charge normal people (home owners and buyers) anything.
2. Privacy is key.

Anonymous wrote:OK, I'll bite.

Thanks for responding passionately. I've got the same kind of passion driving me to fix these kinds of things.

Gawe...coders as change agents and disrupters of industry.

Steve, you aren't going to disintermediate real estate agents from the process. There isn't 'an app for that,' and there won't be for some time. The residential industry is so over regulated and has multiple industries connecting with government and each other that an app or tech solution that streamlines isn't possible. Real estate can't be uberized because it isn't comodified. Each piece of land is a special unique snowflake. And each mortgage needs a special unique appraisal for that snowflake, and each mortgage has to conform to respa. And each deed and title must be drafted and reviewed and filed at the court house. And market discovery takes time, knowledge and judgement - which Bob buyer and Suzy seller just don't do often enough to have established and you can't crowd source it because every snowflake is different, it's a weird industry - only one like it.