Five Things Real Estate Should Learn from Other Industries

Some tech entrepreneurs and investors approach the real estate industry with the view that real estate is sluggish and backwards, that returns would be enhanced and user experience improved if only Luddite owners were willing to embrace modern technology and best practices.

In most cases, this simply isn’t true. Plenty of new technology isn’t well-suited to the time horizons and specific needs of the real estate industry, and real estate operators (generally) aren’t stupid people.

But that doesn’t mean real estate owners and operators shouldn’t pick up best practices and learnings from other industries. We’ve picked a handful of things that other industries do well—and we believe would adapt well to the world of real estate.

Today’s letter will cover:

• Specific lessons and best practices from other industries that can be applied to real estate operations, from marketing and sales best practices to training and career pathing;
• Real estate companies—incumbents or startups—that are attempting to bring these lessons over;
• A few things other industries do that probably shouldn’t be applied to real estate and why.

And just for fun: the biggest misconception smart people outside of real estate have of the industry.