Can home buying be brought into the digital age?

At leas in the country where I live it's all about trust. People have it in their mind that it's more trustworthy to buy from a realtor, and that the realtor is in some way liable for possible problems with the property.

None of this is true in practice however, a realtor has just about no liability in any direction.

It's just a habit for people to use and "trust" realtors, it seems weird for some people if the owner is selling the property himself. That he is possibly witholding information, lying and trying to "gouge" the buyers somehow because he has a "mental bond" with the property.

It's ridiculously easy to sell your appartment or property here, it's all about the image. And you may actually even get a better price using a realtor. So who's winning? The buyer, seller, or realtor? Or is everybody "profiting"? :)

So I don't see this as a technical issue to "disrupt". But if some of these apps would become popular and "accepted", then the trust issues with selling your property yourself would go away (I don't know what the point is of having dozens of "uber" like agents running things though, like explained in the article.). Buying an appartment or house is not about maximizing to the last dollar, but about getting a fair and trustworthy deal with as few problems as possible with the property after the deal is done.

My best guess about the direction of the real estate market is that algorithmic valuation, and virtual currencies will allow homes to be bought and sold instantly by eliminating the 2 market problem of buyers and sellers. This will be done through the introduction of a third party which holds the property in an "un-owned" state.

The virtual currency is created for the previous owner when properties enter this state, and destroyed when a buyer uses the currency to buy a property. This currency essentially becomes a real estate backed currency which floats in relation to national currencies as the real estate market fluctuates.

Trust, privacy, and convenience (someone assists the touring) are the main problems much more than liability, legal or financing process.

In US, the MLS controls the majority of house listing market, Zillow a pioneer in online house listing has been in constant battle with MLS.

Rental market however could be different as most are younger and apartment.