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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

#61

Post by throwup238 »

greenfish6 wrote: post #14
DGAP wrote: post #10

What's the pricing? Do you take the entire 3% commission? If so, ouch, and do you anticipate this will be affected by the recent anti trust cases? Is your use of AI just chatgpt API calls? How quickly could you scale given there's still humans in the loop? What are the blockers to getting humans out of the loop? Have you used your MVP to close any real sales?

Our pricing is negotiable. What we're seeing so far is that >95% of homes are still offering full 2.4% buyer agent concessions in the bay area. Our main service is our texting service which you would text as if it was a normal realtor and it can get you market comparisons, schedule tours by texting agents, asking about if there's offers on homes, etc. Blockers for getting humans out of the loop is primarily just user…

> MVP has completed 1 escrow via text bot, we got paid 27k, another home went into escrow yesterday, 35 clients touring homes with us. We registered with our real estate brokerage in July.

That's amazing traction! Congratulations!

How much manual intervention did these first couple of sales take? Are you using your own local/hosted model and fine tuning or otherwise incrementally improving it?

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

#62

Post by thinkmorebetter »

I think it’s a bit misguided in the pitch by too boldly trying to replace all buyer agents. A lot of what realtors offer, especially to first time buyers (~1/3), is emotional support and confidence/security for making the biggest financial decision in their lives. I don't believe an AI isn’t going to be able to do that. But if you’re a second+ time buyer, then I think it makes more sense.

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

#63

Post by Raffi_Isanians »

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…

This is one of the main reasons we started this company: transparency. With our service, you'll soon be able to see all communications and texts with the seller and listing agent.

I've been in your shoes (before I got my license). I always had doubts about what my agent was actually saying on my behalf, and what they were telling me about the seller's position. It often felt like the listing agent would magically respond only after I followed up. That's why we're committed to giving you direct insight into the negotiation process, so you're not left guessing about what's really happening behind the scenes.

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

#64

Post by Raffi_Isanians »

complianceowl wrote: post #56
bityard wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Reach out to us when you sell. Can automate some of the communications/backend work.

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

#65

Post by alfalfasprout »

thinkmorebetter wrote: post #62

I think it’s a bit misguided in the pitch by too boldly trying to replace all buyer agents. A lot of what realtors offer, especially to first time buyers (~1/3), is emotional support and confidence/security for making the biggest financial decision in their lives. I don't believe an AI isn’t going to be able to do that. But if you’re a second+ time buyer, then I think it makes more sense.

Is emotional support worth $60k on a $2mm house? No, it isn't. Lots of realtors are trying to justify their worth but the reality is a large number of transactions still involve the buyers/sellers doing their own research + due diligence.

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

#66

Post by greenfish6 »

ejstronge wrote: post #49
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 bu…

There is 0.5 mb of data per home in the US. Too much for a person to sift through, typically. We use LLMs to break that down into actionables for families via text message. The goal is to keep things digestable. People can understand if their unit is mis-zoned if you use it in this simple phrasing, but not what a "RM-3 District" is (common type of zoning in SF). The LLM + search abilities can explain a lot - this is how most people learn things about real estate, this process of googling phrases they don't know

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

#67

Post by itake »

keeptrying wrote: post #46
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.

The 6% fee was paid by the sellers, not the buyers. Buyers didn't pay anything to the agents.

But even then, the buyer's agents would "refund" the buyer ~2% of the fee as a cashback incentive to use a specific agent.

but recently, the rule changed so the sellers are only required to pay the 3% fee to the seller's agent and buyers need to negotiate their own deal with the buyer's agent.

Currently, there are many brokerages competing on buyer's fees, dropping the fee to 1% or offering a flat-rate fee.

I'm very skeptical that a 1% buyer's agent fee (matching the existing players) would move the needle much.

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

#68

Post by Closi »

keeptrying wrote: post #46
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.

Is this the rate in the USA? In the uk it’s a standard 1% for the seller.

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

#70

Post by the_gorilla »

complianceowl wrote: post #56
bityard wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I've heard people say realtors can point out issues like a leak in the ceiling, like you mentioned, but they're not inspectors and the good ones are quick to admit that they're just offering their untrained opinion. That's good, but I don't know if it's worth $10,000 when for $400 a bonded inspector will look at everything, crawl around in the spider zone, take pictures, and give me specific advice.
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