The future of property data is open (and realtors can't stop it)

Alex Wilkinson

CEO of Houski

2024-02-13

The future of property data is open (and realtors can't stop it)

Remember when getting property data meant paying thousands to gatekeepers or begging a realtor for basic information? When startups needed six-figure budgets just to know what properties sold for last year? Those days are ending, and the gatekeepers are pissed.

The state of property data in 2024

The real estate data industry isn't just broken - it's a carefully crafted mess designed to keep information expensive and access limited. And let's be clear: this isn't accidental inefficiency. It's a feature, not a bug.

Here's the current bullshit:

Brokerages paying thousands monthly for glorified spreadsheet access
Developers wasting weeks scraping data that should be public
Homeowners locked out of their own property's history (seriously, wtf?)
Startups dying because basic data costs more than their seed funding
Government agencies working with data from the stone age
Researchers begging for access to public records
Everyone paying through the nose for the same data, repackaged slightly differently
Small companies priced out entirely because apparently property data is a luxury good now

When basic facts about houses cost more than enterprise software, something's deeply wrong. When public records are locked behind paywalls that would make Oracle blush, we all lose.

Why this matters (and why the gatekeepers are scared)

This isn't just about high costs - it's about who controls the real estate market:

Innovation

Try building the next great property tool when basic data costs more than your rent. The gatekeepers love this - fewer competitors, less innovation, same old profits. Want to know why real estate tech feels stuck in 2005? This is why.

Market efficiency

You know what happens when basic market data is treated like state secrets? Inefficient markets, bad decisions, and a whole lot of people getting screwed. But hey, at least someone's yacht payment cleared.

Urban planning

Cities can't plan properly because they can't afford their own property data. It's like charging firefighters to know where the hydrants are. Then we wonder why urban planning sucks.

Research

Try studying housing affordability when the data costs more than the housing. Researchers and analysts are stuck working with incomplete data while the full picture sits behind paywalls. Great for maintaining the status quo, terrible for actually solving problems.

A better approach

We're building something radically different. No bullshit, no artificial barriers, no repackaging public data at premium prices. Just:

Open access to basic property data
Fair pricing that doesn't require VC funding
Daily updates (not quarterly if you're lucky)
Actual data validation (novel concept, we know)
APIs that don't make you want to quit programming
Community-driven improvements because more eyes = better data

Just clean, accurate data that helps people build better tools and make smarter decisions. Shocking, right?

The technical side

For the developers who've suffered through enough legacy real estate APIs, here's what makes our approach different:

Architecture

Data collection and cleaning that is actually legitimate instead of just whatever a bunch of people incorrectly enter into the MLS
Validation that catches more than just null values
Modern, easy to use REST API (no weird crazy graph/vector retreival stuff that is confusing to the point of being unusable)
Documentation written for humans
Daily updates

Data quality

We maintain high data quality through:

Cross-validation across multiple sources (not just trusting what realtors type)
ML for anomaly detection (because humans lie, numbers don't)
Community-driven corrections (crazy idea: users spotting errors)
Transparent data sourcing (revolutionary, we know)
Regular audits (more than just spell-checking)
Confidence scores that mean something
Change tracking that doesn't require a PhD to understand

Why now?

Several factors make this the perfect time to burn down the old system:

Technical factors

Storage costs nothing (looking at you, companies charging by the search)
Processing is cheap (yet somehow basic property searches cost dollars)
ML can validate data better than bored data entry clerks
Modern infrastructure makes this easy (if you actually try)
Web scraping is better than ever (not that we'd know anything about that)

Market factors

Proptech is exploding
Startups are tired of being extorted
Public pressure for transparency is growing
Traditional providers are still partying like it's 1999
Government agencies and researchers want better data access since the census doesn't come out enough