Beyond the Surface

Real estate runs the world. It’s where we live, work, and build wealth. Yet, for an industry worth trillions, the way we figure out what a property is worth—“price discovery”—is embarrassingly outdated.

Today, you’d think we’d be swimming in data, and accurate home valuations should be easy. It’s quite the opposite. Homeowners get wildly different price opinions depending on who they talk to. This confusion leaves many scared to sell, especially publicly. Why? Because the clock starts ticking the moment you list, and buyers know it. If your property sits on the market too long, it screams, something’s wrong.

So, what do homeowners do? They go underground. Instead of listing, they tell their agent, find me a buyer directly. And this strategy works—sometimes too well. Some of the best deals in real estate happen off-market, long before the property hits the MLS.

The problem? The off-market world is a mess. It’s all backchannels and whisper networks—agents hoarding opportunities, word-of-mouth deals, and random cold outreach. It’s inefficient, outdated, and ripe for disruption.

Real Estate Needs a Reality Check

Traditional brokerages are stuck. They’ve been doing things the same way for decades, and they’re not built for a world driven by data and speed. But here’s the truth: real estate can—and should—work differently.

Imagine if homeowners could test their property’s market potential without jumping into the public eye. No “days on market” pressure. No guessing games. Just clear offers, directly from buyers who are ready to act. Throw in smarter home valuation tools and faster, more efficient service, and suddenly, you’ve got a process that works for you—not against you.

This isn’t a pipe dream. It’s the future, and it’s happening now.

The Industry is Cracking

The real estate world is already shifting. Take the recent lawsuits challenging the way agents get paid. For years, sellers covered the cost of both their agent and the buyer’s agent. That’s changing. Now, sellers can refuse to pay the buyer’s agent, forcing buyers to foot the bill.

What happens next? Buyers ditch their agents to save cash. Agents leave the industry in droves. We’re talking about up to 250,000 agents disappearing over the next few years? It’s survival of the fittest, and traditional brokerages aren’t built to survive.

Here’s the Play

For all its size and importance, real estate has seen shockingly little innovation. This is an opening. Pending is here to clean up the chaos.

We want to make it more simple for homeowners to:

• Get accurate valuations without the fluff.

• Receive offers without the public scrutiny.

• Take control of how and when they sell.

We’re cutting through the inefficiency and putting the power back where it belongs—in your hands. Real estate is broken, but we’re not here to tweak the system. We’re here to build a better one.

Noel Roberts is the Co-Founder & CEO of Pending, Inc— a tech-enabled real estate brokerage & holding company. Pending focuses on a consumer platform to help homebuyers discover properties before they’re listed, as well as acquiring profitable boutique brokerages.