Market Inefficiencies Are Costing the Real Estate Industry Billions Each Year

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Date:

29 Aug 2025

Real estate technology executive Jackson Reiter argues that systemic inefficiencies in property markets are creating a costly domino effect that impacts everyone from renters to major investors, and he believes artificial intelligence could be the solution.

“The inefficiency is making it worse for everyone. And those costs get passed between consumers and the commercial side of it as well,” says Reiter, Co-Founder and COO of Relm AI, describing what he sees as a fundamental problem plaguing real estate transactions.

The Hidden Cost Multiplier

According to Reiter, the real estate industry’s fragmented nature and reliance on manual processes creates friction at every step, from property search to investment analysis. These inefficiencies compound as they move through the system, he argues.

“When you look at the traditional workflow for property analysis and investment, there’s an enormous amount of manual work and disconnected data sources,” Reiter notes. He points to investment analysts spending hours gathering basic property information from multiple websites and databases, time that ultimately gets factored into deal costs.

The Technology Gap

While other industries have undergone digital transformation, Reiter suggests real estate has lagged behind in adopting automated solutions that could reduce costs. He points to the contrast between consumer-facing property search sites and the tools available to commercial players.

“On the commercial side, even major investment firms are often working with fragmented data and manual processes,” Reiter says. This technology gap, he argues, creates unnecessary complexity that drives up costs across the ecosystem.

Emerging Solutions

Reiter’s company is one of several working to address these inefficiencies through artificial intelligence. Their approach combines consumer search data with property analytics to create what he describes as “the AI brain in the middle of real estate.”

“We’re not Zillow. We’re not stealing people’s data and selling it for evil profit,” Reiter emphasizes. “These are all aggregate trends, like Google does.” This aggregated data, he argues, can help both consumers and investors make better-informed decisions while reducing friction in the market.

The platform has attracted attention from middle-market investment firms and REITs, suggesting growing recognition of the need for more efficient property analysis tools. While it’s too early to measure the exact cost savings, Reiter believes technology solutions like these could significantly reduce transaction costs across the industry.

Looking ahead, Reiter predicts continued evolution in how property markets operate. “As the consumer platform scales up, the level of information we get about the market increases. So this is the worst the platform will ever be, it only gets better from here,” he says.

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