Why Prop Tech Has Been Building for the Wrong Real Estate User

Written by:

Rudi Davis

Date:

04 May 2026

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Most real estate technology has been designed to serve buyers who are ready to transact. But according to Benjamin Quinn, Director of Real Estate Operations at Roomvo, that buyer may represent a small minority of the people actually using listing portals.

Quinn argues that the prop tech industry has overlooked the dominant user segment on real estate search sites, and that this gap between product design and actual user behavior is one of the industry’s most significant strategic blind spots today.

Who Is Browsing Listing Portals

Quinn’s view of listing-portal traffic challenges a core assumption that has shaped prop-tech product development for years. By his estimate, more than 80 percent of users who visit a search portal are not there to purchase a home. They are browsing out of curiosity, snooping on their neighbors, looking for design inspiration, or simply enjoying the experience of scrolling through interiors. “That is a very large percentage of the general search traffic on a site,” Quinn says.

If that estimate is directionally accurate, it means the overwhelming majority of listing portal visitors are browsing for reasons that have little to do with an imminent purchase. Yet the tools built into most listing experiences are oriented almost entirely toward transaction-stage users: mortgage calculators, agent contact forms, saved-search alerts, and showing schedulers.

This mismatch, Quinn argues, is not just a missed opportunity for user experience — it represents a failure to extract value from the traffic that platforms are already generating.

A Segment With No Product

Listing portals invest heavily in search engine optimization, content, and data infrastructure to generate traffic. If the majority of that traffic comes from users who are not in a buying cycle, then the platforms are acquiring an audience they have no product for. The traffic exists, the engagement exists, but the value exchange is incomplete.

Quinn suggests that this non-transactional user remains commercially relevant, particularly as a consumer of home decor and interior design products. Even when someone is not planning to buy a home, they may be browsing listed spaces for inspiration — and that intent can align closely with purchasing decisions around furniture, flooring, paint, and fixtures. “They are on that search portal for a reason,” Quinn says. “They are looking at homes, possibly for inspiration, possibly to learn more about what’s out there.”

Why AI Is Accelerating This Opportunity

The emergence of AI-driven visualization tools may enable serving this underserved segment. Tools that let users instantly redesign a listed space with real products — swapping flooring, changing wall colors, rearranging furniture — create an experience that is genuinely useful to someone browsing for inspiration, not just someone evaluating a property for purchase.

Quinn sees a clear opening. “I think there’s an opportunity amongst those 80 percent,” he says. AI-powered interactivity can turn passive browsing into active product discovery, creating a value exchange that does not depend on the user ever submitting an offer on a home.

This framing positions listing portals less as pure real estate tools and more as home lifestyle platforms — a meaningful reorientation in how these sites might think about their audience, their advertisers, and their product roadmaps. Roomvo is one company pursuing this approach, though the broader concept — designing for non-transactional users — could take many forms across the industry.

How Roomvo Is Approaching the Opportunity

Roomvo’s product is an interactive visualization layer that allows listing portal users to redesign spaces in real time using actual products from home decor manufacturers and retailers. The tool is available at no cost to portals or MLSs. Revenue comes from product partners — flooring companies, furniture brands, and other home decor manufacturers – who pay to have their products featured within the experience.

The alignment is straightforward: product partners gain direct access to an audience that is actively engaged with home interiors, at the moment of engagement. “They’re able to bring their products directly to the market that’s interested in their products and wants to see them in spaces that they’re thinking about buying,” Quinn says.

Roomvo entered the real estate space roughly two years ago, beginning with a partnership with Redfin, and has since expanded its network of MLS data partners and portal integrations. Quinn acknowledges that user adoption requires an education period — getting people to click a new button on a listing page is not automatic — but says that once users engage with the tool, return rates are strong. The company has not disclosed specific engagement figures.

What Comes Next

Whether the broader prop tech industry follows this logic and begins designing more deliberately for non-transactional users remains to be seen. The concept is straightforward, but execution depends on the ‘sportal’s willingness to rethink what their platforms are for — and on product partners seeing sufficient return to sustain new revenue models.

Still, if Quinn’s traffic estimates hold, the platforms that figure out how to serve the majority segment first may find themselves unlocking an audience that has been generating visits for years without anyone building a product to match. The question is no longer whether those users exist, but whether the industry is willing to build for them.

About the Expert: Benjamin Quinn is the Director of Real Estate Operations at Roomvo, where he leads the company’s expansion into listing portal and MLS partnerships, focused on bringing AI-powered visualization tools to the real estate market.

This article is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or investment advice. The views and opinions expressed herein reflect those of the individuals quoted and do not represent an endorsement of any company, product, or service mentioned. Readers should conduct their own due diligence and consult qualified professionals before making any investment decisions.