Real estate portals and mortgage tech

Finding a home, and what happens when the mortgage goes wrong

Looking for a flat to rent or buy usually starts with a search on a property website or a call to a broker. Behind that search sits a long chain of software. It runs from the listing, through the home loan, to what happens if the borrower stops paying.

The steps of buying a home

Search: the buyer looks through listings. A listing is an advertisement for one home that is for sale or rent.

Agent: an estate agent, also called a broker, shows homes and handles the deal, for a commission. The firm an agent works for is called a brokerage.

Valuation: the buyer and the lender both need to know what the home is worth.

Loan: most buyers borrow. A home loan is called a mortgage. The home is the security for the loan, so the lender can take it if the borrower stops paying. (More on how lenders decide in Market Segment 18.3, Credit bureaus, scoring and underwriting, in Industry Vertical 18, Lending and credit.)

Repayment: the borrower pays a monthly instalment for many years. In India it is called an EMI. The company that collects the instalments and keeps the loan's records is called a mortgage servicer. In America, the servicer is often a different company from the lender.

Default: a borrower who stops paying is in default. The lender can then take the home and sell it, often at an auction. This is called foreclosure.

The chain of buying a home and who works at each step: search (Zillow, RiVirtual Inc., NoBroker.com, Nextburb), the agent (MoxiWorks, Radius, reAlpha), the valuation (Zillow's Zestimate, Cotality), the loan, repayment through a mortgage servicer, and default, where Altisource and Sagent work.

Where the market is. Most of the companies here serve the American housing market. Several run large engineering centres in India. India's own property websites are mostly not covered.

Every company named here has posted software engineering jobs in India. Famous companies that don't actively hire software engineers in India are left out.

This Market Segment has two sub-segments:

Finding and valuing a home: listings, valuations, property data and software for estate agents

Owning, paying and falling behind: mortgage default, auctions of homes and property tax

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Finding and valuing a home
Owning, paying and falling behind

Finding and valuing a home

Property listings and marketplaces, automated valuation, property data, agents' CRM (customer relationship management) and brokerage software

Listings and valuations

Zillow

with engineers in Bengaluru, runs America's largest property-listing site. It also runs the Zestimate, its automated valuation of almost every home. An automated valuation is a price worked out by software from data, such as recent sales of similar homes nearby. Nobody visits the home.

RiVirtual Inc.

with engineers in Hyderabad, sells real-estate market intelligence and runs a listing marketplace.

NoBroker.com

founded in Bengaluru, with engineers there, runs India's marketplace for renting and buying homes without a broker. Owners and tenants deal directly, so neither pays a broker's commission. NoBroker.com also runs NoBrokerHood, its app for apartment societies. (More on society apps in Market Segment 41.3, Apartment society management apps.)

Nextburb

with engineers in Pune, helps buyers choose a neighbourhood.

Property data

Cotality

formerly CoreLogic, with engineers in Delhi, sells property data and analytics. Lenders and insurers use them to work out what a home is worth, and to set their prices. (More on Cotality in Market Segment 21.3, Underwriting, pricing and claims analytics, in Industry Vertical 21, Insurtech.)

Software for estate agents. An agent's main tool is a CRM: a database of buyers, sellers and every conversation with them.

MoxiWorks

with engineers in Pune, sells CRM and marketing software to estate agents.

Radius

with engineers in Bengaluru, sells a brokerage operating system: one platform that runs a brokerage's agents, deals and payments.

reAlpha

runs a brokerage with an AI buyer's agent. The AI guides the buyer through the search and the purchase.

MagicBricks, 99acres, Housing.com, Square Yards and Redfin are not covered in this Market Segment.

Owning, paying and falling behind

Mortgage default and servicing software, property auctions, property-tax appeals

Altisource

with engineers in Bengaluru, sells the software that mortgage servicers use to manage loans in default. It also runs auctions of foreclosed homes. Much of its work is done in India. Altisource has the most job postings in this Market Segment.

Sagent

in Chennai, is another company in this area.

One company here works on property tax instead

Ownwell

with engineers in Delhi, works for home owners. In America, owners pay property tax each year on the value the local government sets for the home, called the assessment. If the assessment is too high, the owner can appeal. Ownwell files these appeals on owners' behalf. (More on Ownwell in Market Segment 11.3, Financial close, FP&A and tax software, in Industry Vertical 11, Finance and accounting software.)

Mr. Cooper, the American mortgage servicer, runs its own engineering centre in India. (More on it in the GCC collection.)

The valuation without a visit.

Automated valuations now price most homes without anyone stepping inside. AI models are adding photographs, satellite images and local data to them. Lenders and insurers rely on these valuations more each year. When a valuation method is wrong about a neighbourhood or a kind of house, the error spreads across thousands of loans.

A valuation without a visit: software combines recent sales nearby, property data, photographs, satellite images and local data into a price, which lenders and insurers then rely on. When the model is wrong about a neighbourhood, the error spreads across many loans.

That is the software of buying and owning a home: listings and valuations for the search, tools for the agent, and systems for the loan when it goes wrong. Most of it serves the American housing market, and much of it is built in India.

Who they hire

Who these companies hire, and for what, is on What proptech companies hire for.

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