There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and no technology platform can ever change that for a real estate agent. It could, however, help the agent get more done in their day.
The ultimate goal of any real estate tech solution is to empower agents to be more efficient. To use their energies on their high and best activities. To deliver service excellence.
The reality is less inspiring: Studies show agents spend up to 90% of their time on non-revenue-generating tasks. That statistic is what gets Omer Granot out of bed every morning.
As the CEO of Localize, Granot saw a troubling trend. Agents and brokers are spending thousands of dollars on leads, but they only convert 0.5% to 1% of them. What happens to the rest of them?
In fact, Granot was recently on stage in front of hundreds of agents. When he asked for a show of hands by agents with a pile of leads and no idea what to do with them, the room was filled with waving arms.
“The reality is that these leads will probably end up transacting, just not with the agent that had initially acquired them,” he told Inman. “There is a sizable amount of effort and work that goes into nurturing those leads and keeping them close on their journey. It can easily eat up an agent’s valuable time. I want the agent to do less work at winning this business.”
And that is why Localize launched Hunter.
“Hunter allows agents to expand the number of opportunities that close a deal by up to 3x,” Granot explained. “Localize’s key differentiation from most tech solutions in the field of real estate is attributed to its proactive approach. Instead of burdening the agent with follow-up reminders and figuring out how to establish complicated CRM workflows, our technology does the heavy lifting of reaching out, qualifying, and nurturing unresponsive/disengaged buyers while sending them ultra-personalized listings. This enables agents to focus on what matters most: communicating with actual buyers who are ready to transact and require an agent.”
It takes highly sophisticated tech to make such a simplified solution. Hunter leverages a combination of machine language (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), natural language understanding (NLU), and of course, big data.
“We start by getting initial information on the buyer’s preferences. Then Hunter uses ML to build a profile and match relevant listings. The platform shares one, highly-matched listing a day and sees how the leads react to it. It tracks the user interaction to see which listings are liked or clicked and how deeply they investigated it.”
The system’s ML algorithm continuously learns from the buyer interaction on what preferences are more/less important to the lead. It expands or narrows the matched listings accordingly. Hunter automates repetitive, manual CRM-related tasks, while the real estate-specific AI constantly learns and adapts to each interaction to successfully communicate and progress the lead through the transaction funnel.
“Hunter can even initiate follow-up conversation and ask questions to refine the search and increase engagement. And the user can answer via text. That’s when Hunter uses NLP and NLU to understand what the user wants and extract elements and sentiment. For example, we can tell they are looking for a home that is good for a family of 4 and has a big kitchen.”
The first blush of a new lead is an exciting time. However, it is rare when the conversion happens. Rather than push leads into manual processes, impersonal workflows, or weekly newsletters, agents and brokers can leverage AI technology to create a custom experience that deepens the relationship until the lead is ready.
“Agents deserve more,” Granot said. “It’s time to embrace proactive and deep technologies that drive the process for real estate.” Learn more about Hunter and Localize today.