This report is available exclusively to subscribers of Inman Intel, a data and research arm of Inman offering deep insights and market intelligence on the business of residential real estate and proptech. Subscribe today.
Today, Ask Doss 2.0 is out, and it’s been enhanced with a deep integration of ChatGPT-4, the newest iteration of OpenAI’s artificial intelligence content generator, according to a press release sent to Inman.
In 2017, Houston real estate broker and technology entrepreneur Bobby Bryant released Ask Doss, one of the first instances of natural language verbal home search in the industry, leveraging, at the time, the growth and ubiquity of smart speakers.
Doss Chief Technology Officer Michael Ramirez said in a statement that his company’s approach goes beyond a mere plugin, in which people can recognize they’re using ChatGPT. It becomes something more when layered into proprietary algorithms.
“Less than 1% of users on the internet have access to GPT4 so Doss’s integration to its platform will provide access to all prospective home buyers,” he said in the release. “What we’re doing at DOSS is leaning into the AI as much as possible and evolving classical components like filtered search. Instead of clicking on several filters, many of which are lost in the large form drop downs, the user is now empowered to search in a more native manner.”
Doss, and GPT-4, use LLM, or large language modeling, a type of machine learning and the basis for training mechanisms to respond to and with longer form narratives and more realistic conversational structure. Thus, it’s used for making home search more accurate and attuned to the needs of consumers.
The technology enables Doss users to eschew traditional filter-based database searches using checkboxes and drop downs and, instead, ask normal questions, such as,
“DOSS, show me houses for sale in Austin, Texas, under $800,000 with four bedrooms, three bathrooms, with lots of natural light, on a quiet street, with white kitchen cabinets, in ZIP code 78703, and zoned to Bryker Woods Elementary School.”
A number of proptechs are working with ChatGPT to various levels of depth, most using plug-ins. The Real Brokerage, as one example, is using the popular automation software to augment reZEN, its transaction management solution. The tool, tagged “Leo,” will be leveraged as an ever-present concierge for agents and brokers.
Restb.ai, uses a form of artificial intelligence called computer vision to read still images for extraction into property listing content, recently partnering with Black Knight.
Localize, LandOnEarth and Mosaik, a client experience and business support solution, have also deeply integrated AI into home search. Addressable, a robot-backed print marketing company whose founder has a history in AI, uses a ChatGPT integration to improve output, as do Nila June (launched in 2021) and ListAssist in their property marketing tools.
Doss, however, has long pushed the use of NLP (natural language processing) in home search, well ahead of most of the market.
Back in 2017, CEO Bryant told Inman that the industry has yet to realize the extent of the data it holds.
“Do you realize the data that’s in a question? We’re able to capture all of that, track it … when you start talking about AI and machine learning, the more people that engage it, the better,” Bryant said upon his technology’s initial release.
Bryant’s company said that, in conjunction with the release of Doss 2.0, it has plans to continue “aggressively developing [our] AI-Powered platform to eventually include services such as insurance, mortgage, title, home servicing.”
Doss Pros, the brokerage arm of the brand, started in 2020, amid the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. “It combines an AI-powered real estate marketplace with the scalability of a modern-day franchise model,“ the company said.
The brokerage charges a flat fee for deals closed with a self-generated lead and a 25 percent referral fee for leads that its namesake app provides. Doss Pros also offers buyers a 1 percent rebate, capped at $5,000, and sellers a flat fee for its “LaaS,” or “listing as a service” solution.
Regarding the new software release, Bryant said in a statement that it’s aiming to build a much “stickier user experience,” and that his team has its collective sights set on goals beyond real estate.
“We want to be more than just a destination to buy, rent and sell real estate,“ he said. ”At DOSS, the mission is to create the industry’s best real estate marketplace to search, service, and transact all things home in the palm of your hands.“
