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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

#51

Post by bbor »

DrillShopper wrote: post #48
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

A) this is a buyer’s agent, not a seller’s agent.

B) I don’t think you tell the agent your race, and traditional bias protections (namely doing the whole process without meeting in person) would still be in place AFAIU.

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

#52

Post by greenfish6 »

bbor wrote: post #42

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 Realt…

There will likely be large regulatory movement in the space in the upcoming future. There are more pending suits beyond the August 17th DoJ one.

Legally, we are still agents.

Eventually the plan is to support sell side as well. We are tackling buyers first. The reasons: Because realtors are paid for on commission, the incentive is to transact immediately and high. This has bad alignment for the buyer, but good alignment for the seller. Sellers also require a lot more in person logistics like staging and photography.

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

#53

Post by xkcd-sucks »

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…

    > you get hired to work with mostly irrational actors (sellers and buyers).
AI-scale personalization could help here, assuming macro scale irrationality is mostly rational in consideration of individual values (e.g. character of neighborhood, character of permitting-related town departments, etc)

which could maybe turn out better in the short term as tools for human agents, but still

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

#54

Post by greenfish6 »

bbor wrote: post #50
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 hel…

I think there's a balance of some crowd who will love an automated solution and some who will never get there.

Some people still don't want to even shop online! Those people probably won't be convinced to use an AI based service

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

#55

Post by Raffi_Isanians »

runako wrote: post #44
greenfish6 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 contrib…

An agent will still look at the property and provide a check/advice, so you wouldn't miss out on that benefit if you use our service. Regarding point b), while we send a licensed agent to the property, we understand that different buyers have different preferences. Some may want to fully leverage the agent's expertise, while others might prefer a more hands-off approach. We believe in giving clients the flexibility to choose their level of engagement.

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

#56

Post by complianceowl »

bityard wrote: post #41
complianceowl wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Definitely. I am going to hire an attorney ($650), property inspector ($500), and title company ($1,200), and that is about it.

I've purchased two homes and I'm confident I can handle the paper work involved. I mean, most of the paper work is the attorney's and title company's anyway. The realtor is basically inserting himself in between those companies and then relaying that information to the client. In my case, my realtor was copied on all communications, but that is it. I was the one producing all the documentation, signing agreements, reading reports, following up on inspections, etc.

And I had one of the top Keller Williams agents in my state. The guy is known by everyone.

I can't make sense of paying someone $20,000 to say, "Let me know if you have any questions about the inspection report"; or to tell me, "I wouldn't buy this. There's moisture in the basement. There's a leak in the ceiling. The patio is not level." etc. I'm knowledgeable enough to see things like this, and if not, my inspector will educate me on it and identify issues.

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

#58

Post by DowagerDave »

Sellers, sure but I don't understand why a buyer would NOT want to use an agent? You mention better prices, but I don't believe I'm in a unique environment where the seller covers all costs and agents work on commission.

>> The founders of Modern Realty realized that since buyer agents are paid for by commission, they will encourage you to buy immediately and high. Modern Realty allows you to transparently control your transaction.

I believe this could be a flawed premise. It's no secret agents are after the quick sale, but it is far easier to convince the seller to accept an offer 20 under than talk up the buyer.

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

#59

Post by Raffi_Isanians »

xkcd-sucks wrote: post #53
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…

> you get hired to work with mostly irrational actors (sellers and buyers). AI-scale personalization could help here, assuming macro scale irrationality is mostly rational in consideration of individual values (e.g. character of neighborhood, character of permitting-related town departments, etc) which could maybe turn out better in the short term as tools for human agents, but still

I wouldn't say our clients are irrational, but I agree that buying a house can be stressful. The goal is to anticipate and address all of our clients' questions, including those they might not even know to ask. From our experience, this significantly reduces the frustration that typical homebuyers often feel during their purchase journey.

TLDR: Oftentimes the agent not being proactive is the cause of the buyer's behavior.

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

#60

Post by DowagerDave »

greenfish6 wrote: post #8
themanmaran wrote: post #5

Who is your target market? I've certainly always wanted a product that lets me cut the realtor out of the loop. When I bought my house, it seemed if anything the realtor just got in the way. I had picked out the house on Zillow, and really just needed to see it once and put in an offer. Then of course the realtor wants you to look at houses they represent (as a comp), and also introduce you to their inspector/mortgag…

The target market is the personality of buyer who wants to do self service. Someone who finds houses on Zillow and just gets a realtor at the end. Realtors are paid on commission which means that they want to transact high and immediately. Poor alignment with intent for buyers. We have an offer drafting service on our website where all you need to provide is your email, phone, property, and price and we can go from t…

>> Realtors are paid on commission which means that they want to transact high and immediately

This is either naive or disingenuous. Do the math; realtors want to close fast but don't really care about the price the way the buyers and sellers do. The commission difference on a significant gap is not worth losing the deal.

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