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Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

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Re: Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

#21

Post by mattw2121 »

greenfish6 wrote: post #9
rpearl wrote: post #7

Agents are there for the edge cases. We had a contract dispute that required negotiations and even a brief discussion with a lawyer. At one point, our agent was calling title companies in the area to find the _other_ escrow account. How are you planning on handling cases that abruptly require complexity? At first glance, it looks like using a service like what you are describing would have been an unmitigated disaste…

Raffi, my cofounder, is an attorney himself along with having a Realtor license. Most Realtors are not attorneys. You said you needed to talk to an attorney but what if your realtor.... was an attorney? So we have more ability to handle edge cases, not less!

Raffi doesn't scale. Are you going to hire more Raffis?

Re: Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

#22

Post by ned_at_codomain »

rootsudo wrote: post #16

I had this idea, it’s cool someone ran with it. I can see how “AI” can work the deal. Really should review submitting to ycombinator in the future :) always feel my ideas aren’t good to pursue.

Speaking as a YC-backed startup founder myself, you should have more confidence in your ideas! But not for the reasons you might think.

It's not that your ideas are good or bad. Most of us have mostly bad ideas. Some of us sometimes have good ideas. But there's really no way to tell if your idea is good or bad until you try. No amount of intellectualizing will give you a trustworthy answer.

We started our business with what seemed (to me and my smart friends) like a great idea. It made tons of sense. I had this whole 48-phase plan for how we'd conquer the world. And then ... it turned out that people didn't really want the thing. The idea was actually bad.

By contrast, the business we're working on now has started to work pretty well. I have to admit, the business didn't make much sense to me at first. I could conjure a million reasons we'd struggle to compete. And then ... when we went to market, the thing started to work. Still early days, but there are lots of positive indications.

My biggest lesson in the last year-and-a-half has been that I just don't know that much :)

Re: Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

#23

Post by greenfish6 »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #18
the_gorilla wrote: post #13

I'll try anything to get rid of realtors. They're the worst form of rent seekers, and it requires no real skill or training other than a certificate that I could purchase with a highschool diploma, taking one class, and passing a multiple choice exam.

My realtor was invaluable when I bought a house. He had a lot of valuable guidance on what to look for and what to avoid, as well as advice on how to make our offer stand out in a seller's market. I'm not saying that there aren't realtors who are just parasites, but some do earn their pay. Mine was one such.

Prior to the Aug 17 settlement, Keller Williams said ~65% of home buyers in the US used the first buyer agent that they met.

The quality bar is very low to become a realtor (3 months of online coursework).

Realtor reviews are cooked and completely fake online.

So it is not a big jump to say that the average realtor experience is poor as they are usually driven by a single advertisement or a single Zillow link for most people.

We try to mimic the behavior of the best performing top 1% of realtors and give that experience to all.

Re: Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

#24

Post by Raffi_Isanians »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #18
the_gorilla wrote: post #13

I'll try anything to get rid of realtors. They're the worst form of rent seekers, and it requires no real skill or training other than a certificate that I could purchase with a highschool diploma, taking one class, and passing a multiple choice exam.

My realtor was invaluable when I bought a house. He had a lot of valuable guidance on what to look for and what to avoid, as well as advice on how to make our offer stand out in a seller's market. I'm not saying that there aren't realtors who are just parasites, but some do earn their pay. Mine was one such.

Some are valuable, some do a good job at making themselves seem valuable to you. Our goal is to take what the valuable agents do and make it even better. There are so many places where an agent can add value (search, credits, getting you the best interest rate, doing all the research for you, etc.).

Re: Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

#26

Post by Raffi_Isanians »

mattw2121 wrote: post #21
greenfish6 wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Raffi, my cofounder, is an attorney himself along with having a Realtor license. Most Realtors are not attorneys. You said you needed to talk to an attorney but what if your realtor.... was an attorney? So we have more ability to handle edge cases, not less!

Raffi doesn't scale. Are you going to hire more Raffis?

There is only one Raffi.

-Raffi

Edit: AI is currently being coded up to mimic my behavior/tone/advice/etc.

Re: Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

#28

Post by noleary »

Guys, this is so cool! I am strongly in favor of anything that cuts out rent-seeking middlemen.

Every time someone mentions real estate to me, I immediately think back with intense resentment to the thousands upon thousands of dollars I paid brokers just to unlock crappy studio apartments for me in Boston. I was just out of school and barely had any money, but I was still paying a huge premium over the cost of rent for ~nothing. So annoying.

Re: Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

#29

Post by eagleinparadise »

Best of luck. I’m a commercial real estate professional who has spent time as a broker, lender, and private equity investor.

Residential definitely is a lot More of a ridiculous market. But ultimately as an agent, you get hired to work with mostly irrational actors (sellers and buyers).

As someone who is very interested in AI and taught myself how to code (I don’t know any other real estate people who know anything about code), I think it’s going to be incredible hard to uproot the brokerage industry.

It’s challenging to get buy in from many different types of old school, fragmented actors in the space. I’d love to see someone prove this can be done, but I think it’s a challenge, so best of luck. Curious to follow along.

I think proptech needs real professionals who have been in the trenches to be involved because there’s just too much nuance in the industry outsiders have no idea about.

Re: Launch HN: Modern Realty (YC S24) – AI Real Estate Agent for Home Buyers

#30

Post by greenfish6 »

pj_mukh wrote: post #17

So amazing! Strongly considering using this for my next purchase. Two quick questions: a) How do offer + contingencies work (contingent on financing, home inspection etc.), will a human immediately have to get involved when any contingencies are involved? b) Your service will text the sellers agent, and get me the lockbox number so I can tour a property myself without having to schedule with a buyers agent? Just that…

a) When you draft an offer, the contingencies are fairly standard w/r/t mortgage, inspection, title, insurance, etc. Realtors use standard language here to cover these on the offer form, we use the California Association of Realtors Residential Purchase Agreement form, which is the standard offer form.

b) Yes. Technically, a licensed agent has to open the door, but ours will stand outside.

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