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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

#41

Post by bityard »

complianceowl wrote: post #32
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.

The biggest contribution my realtor made was good negotiation, but even that cannot be confirmed. Why? Because I never spoke to the sellers directly. For all I know, I was their only offer and they were just holding off to see if anything else would come through. When I sell my current home, the realtor commission would be around $20,000. That's $20,000 cash equity that is taken out of my hands. When I did this simpl…

What's your plan for selling? Are you going to have a lawyer handle the legal aspects instead?

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

#42

Post by bbor »

Looks great, hopefully one day I’ll be able to use your services! Has all the features I’d be looking for.

Out of curiosity, do you foresee regulatory trouble? Realtors are an extremely powerful lobby in the United States, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were one of the first to do some serious pushback against LLM-related automation under the guise of “protecting consumers”. You mention the recent National Realtors Association changes in your YC profile, which I did not know about (https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/17/business/nar-realtor-settleme..., TLDR antitrust settlement seeking to protect buyers in particular from predatory realty practices), but inspires both hope for the future and concern that the NAR is on active defense mode.

Specifically I guess I’m asking about your use of the word “traditional agent”, since on some level you two (or just the attorney partner?) seemingly would still be considered “agents” of some kind, given that you’re looking over offers by hand, and offering personalized support to users. Is there maybe a legal dance at play there already?

On a completely separate note, if you find the time/interest: will this ever scale to sellers’ realtors as well? If you unicorn-to-the-moon-super-scale as Mr. Graham is hoping for everyone in YC, what’s the endgame market look like? My laymen intuition says you’ll always need experts involved at certain points in the process to protect buyers from lemons and sellers from signing deceptive contracts - do you agree, or with the right regulations and AI could this all be as automatic as buying anything else online?

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

#44

Post by runako »

greenfish6 wrote: post #30
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.

First -- congratulations on your launch!

I'm curious about b). If you are sending a licensed agent to the property, wouldn't the typical buyer want the benefit of their knowledge?

Personally, not a huge fan of the cartel. On the other hand, I have worked with agents who have saved me tons of time & money by spotting problems before inspection. If the agent is going to be present, it seems logical to have them contribute their knowledge.

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

#45

Post by greenfish6 »

bityard wrote: post #38
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.

Are you speaking from experience in the real estate industry? I'll agree that RE agents ("Realtor" is a trademarked term) are essentially unnecessary for the happy path when a property sale goes smoothly. In that case, they are overpaid secretaries. But the reason RE agents are their own profession is because when a sale starts to wander off the happy path, there can suddenly be a LOT to know, discuss, and do. A good…

Yes, if every deal went according to plan, you could just use half an hour of attorney time.

For our value add compared to the regular realtor when things go wrong. Our thesis is that because 65% of home buyers use the first realtor they meet, most individuals are getting this "uncooperative paper-pusher who keeps dropping the ball". We can outcompete this average realtor on the quality front.

Our end-game plan is to own our own MLS.

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

#46

Post by keeptrying »

eagleinparadise wrote: post #29

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 a…

The ludicrous 6% fee is whats going to drive adoption by end users and in turn by brokers.

Move that fee to 1% for buyer agent and you have a massive market.

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

#47

Post by keeptrying »

ned_at_codomain wrote: post #22
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 wi…

Great name for your startup btw. :) Didn't even need to click on it to know what it does.

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

#48

Post by DrillShopper »

danfunk wrote: post #20

There are good realtors and bad realtors. I could imagine an AI chat bot that was better than some of the mouth breathers out there. But I wouldn't use those people anyway. But there are good people in the real estate business . if you want someone that can negotiate a good deal, and answer complex questions specific to the local laws, who knows the local neighborhood, and the local realtors, who can handle last minu…

Imagine how easy it would be to influence the AI to redline.

Slumlords, racists, and other CHUDs are salivating over this

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

#49

Post by ejstronge »

eagleinparadise wrote: post #29

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 a…

> 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.

Has learning to code generated any benefit to you? What areas do you think have space for code to help buyers?

I think there are many, and - 'AI' or not - a clever tool can generate real value for buyers. Things like mis-zoned units, unreported square footage, signs of buyer motivation, estimates of homeowner equity, etc. can be estimated by good buyers agents but could be made available to everyone for a small subscription.

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

#50

Post by bbor »

danfunk wrote: post #20

There are good realtors and bad realtors. I could imagine an AI chat bot that was better than some of the mouth breathers out there. But I wouldn't use those people anyway. But there are good people in the real estate business . if you want someone that can negotiate a good deal, and answer complex questions specific to the local laws, who knows the local neighborhood, and the local realtors, who can handle last minu…

I share your general concern, but tbf these people aren’t doing the obvious and basic “let a chatbot do it” thing, they’re more making a platform that involves a few specialized language models for making the expert-gated stuff accessible to all. Like, they’re not writing contracts or negotiating using an LLM.

I understand your wife is in the industry, but that’s honestly a huge bias in this discussion IMO, not a help. No offense intended, of course; I well understand and totally relate to the sinking feeling of changes coming to your industry! But I think it’s just objectively provable that home realtors and car dealerships are two US industries that have been allowed to fall behind the times for a while, now.

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