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Building Real Estate Tech: The Domain Matters More Than the Stack
Real EstateProductDomainStartups
# Building Real Estate Tech: The Domain Matters More Than the Stack
A lot of engineers want to disrupt real estate. It's a fragmented, outdated market. Perfect startup conditions, right?
The problem is: if you don't understand real estate, you'll build something nobody wants.
## What I Got Wrong Initially
I thought BetterCapital needed the most elegant data model. Real estate investors have complex financials: multiple properties, varying expense categories, depreciation schedules, 1031 exchanges, cost segregation.
I built a beautiful, flexible system that could handle all of it. It was unused. Because investors don't need a perfect data model. They need to import their bank statements and see if their rental properties are actually profitable.
The 80/20 insight: investors want three things:
1. Total cash flow (easy)
2. Actual ROI on invested capital (harder than you'd think)
3. Tax picture for their CPA
Everything else is distraction.
## What Domain Knowledge Actually Means
When I started talking to real estate agents for OfferPro, I realized I didn't understand their workflow at all. I thought they worked from their desk. They work from their car, at properties, in client meetings. They switch context 10 times a day.
This changed everything. No-login submission. Works with email. Mobile-friendly forms. None of this seems innovative, but it's the difference between a tool agents use and a tool they ignore.
## How to Learn Enough Domain Knowledge
- Talk to 20+ users before building
- Use their software for a day
- Understand their unit economics and incentives
- Learn their biggest pain points AND their favorite workarounds
- Build something boring that solves a real problem, not something clever
The teams that win in real estate tech aren't the ones with the smartest algorithms. They're the ones that understand agents and investors deeply, and build software that fits into their actual workflows.
## The Real Competitive Advantage
If you're building real estate tech, your edge isn't your stack. It's domain knowledge. Real estate professionals won't switch tools for marginal gains. They'll switch if you deeply understand their world and built something that saves them real time or money.
Invest in that understanding. It's more valuable than any technology choice.