The current capital market structure, with its high fees, delays, and limited access, is a direct result of regulations from the 1930s. These laws created layers of intermediaries to enforce trust, baking in complexity and rent-seeking by design. This historical context explains why the system is ripe for disruption by more efficient technologies.

The REIT market transformed from four highly correlated sectors (office, industrial, retail, residential) to a diverse universe including data centers and towers. Secular risks like e-commerce mean subsectors no longer move in unison, demanding specialized analysis rather than general real estate knowledge.

Unlike scalable digital businesses, real estate has a hard ceiling on returns. You can't innovate on a property to dramatically increase revenue without massive capital expenditure. This lack of operational leverage limits its upside compared to businesses where profits can be reinvested into growth initiatives.

Conveyo’s model is to provide infrastructure that realigns incentives between disconnected parties rather than replacing them. By acting as the sole, independent party managing the process end-to-end, they introduce accountability and transparency, making the entire system more efficient.

The housing industry is resistant to startup disruption due to immense "activation energy." This includes hyper-local regulations, fragmented distribution, cyclical capital needs, and a complex web of legacy players. Overcoming this barrier requires decades of effort, creating a powerful moat for incumbents.

Instead of only showing homes actively for sale, Zillow could allow any homeowner to list a hypothetical price they'd be willing to sell for. This reduces the friction of formally listing a property and surfaces a hidden layer of market supply from passive owners, potentially driving more transactions in a frozen market.

Serving thousands of individual investors requires a huge investment in "nuts and bolts" infrastructure for administration, processing, and reporting. This operational complexity and cost, not client-facing apps, is the primary hurdle for GPs entering the retail space, moving from analog processes to complex digital systems.

Contrary to most industries that see technological gains, housing construction has become less efficient. This stagnation is a key, often overlooked driver of housing affordability issues, as the fundamental cost to build has not decreased with technology.

Despite billions in funding for startups like Katera, the concept of mass-producing homes in factories has repeatedly failed. The construction industry's inherent need for site-specific customization and its complex value chain prevent it from achieving the efficiencies of scale and standardization seen in other manufacturing sectors.