Unrepresented buyers need options like Shay: Tech Review

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Shay is a homebuying solution for unrepresented consumers.

Platforms: Web/browser

Ideal for: Homebuyers, listing agents, new agents

Top selling points:

• Full-service buying solution
• Comprehensive, insightful guides
• AI-assisted negotiation
• Task list
• Offer generation and management

Top concern:

Only that it’ll have to overcome industry marketing pressure on the importance of being represented by an agent.

What you should know

Shay is a web-based solution to guide homebuyers through the deal without a representative. This would make an option for listing agents to recommend to an interested qualified buyers insistent on going it alone.

The task-driven experience helps the buyer create a profile that includes their ownership goals, market preference, financing wherewithal and other basics.

A series of tasks help steer the buyer, all common to what an agent would do and request from their client. It starts with mortgage pre-approval and moves into market research, identifying needs and wants, scheduling tours, submitting an offer and then on through the six sub-tasks of closing, right down to deed recording.

Focusing for a second on market research: I think there is increasingly less value to be offered by agents in assisting in home search. Artificial intelligence and the evolving capability of a growing number of savvy startups is making the process more automated and consumer-friendly. This is fundamental to Shay’s appeal, and the options for letting the buyer do it on their own will only continue to emerge.

The agent’s role should start to shift to consultant from service provider, and it’s my belief a number of new practices will come about as a result of the NAR settlement.

It lacks built-in home search, but does have a nice tool called Local Lens to learn about specific communities and a text field for its AI to address “concerns about your move.”

It can definitely benefit from integrating a couple of consumer search portals; I’d avoid any of the big names because nothing comes from that but appeal after appeal for representation, and that’s not what this buyer is after. Find a small AI-driven search partner. Or build your own.

The task experience is broken down into subtasks that become more specific as the process unravels and as the buyer absorbs the company’s growing compendium of concise research guides on topics like VA lending, navigating financing, hiring an agent (should they decide to) and negotiating, among other common components of the workflow that are typically explained by a licensee.

These guides also become accessible in their relevant task section. So, in the task negotiation, the user can dive into the “Introduction to Negotiation in Home Buying” guide and also begin to build out negotiation scripts, maybe my favorite stealth value-add of Shay.

The script builder lets the user title each scenario, like “just starting” or “responding to counteroffer” and then enter goals for each step, as well as what the seller said in response to the initial.

Now, let’s not act like negotiating is tantamount to knowing string theory. It isn’t. The best agents are very good at it, but you don’t have to be a crafty negotiator to be a good agent. It comes down to compromise. It helps to know how dates align with each party’s interest and if it’s price or time the seller prioritizes, that sort of thing. In short, AI can absolutely handle this for you if it’s given the right input. I’m very intrigued about where this feature goes.

Shay also comes with a very nice offer creator and manager, using a clean, pared-down form to input terms, clauses, EMD amounts and choose what contingencies to activate. There’s a fully fleshed-out financing section, too. It’s what every digital offer experience should be.

Throughout the experience, users are presented with a mobile-inspired, transparent interface. It’s easier than creating a new bank account or applying for a credit card, that’s for sure.

For those cynical about Shay or upset at me for writing about software that neglects the role of an agent, you can go touch grass because there are absolutely other ways you can benefit from it.

First, I see a clear avenue for buyer agents to adopt Shay as their own form of business automation software. Second, it’s a top-level training resource for new agents. It sharply reflects and supports the common workflow of a buyer agent, and it could become a revenue driver as a way to scale services.

For example, if a buyer is unable to pay their agent’s fee under the new standards (assuming the agent wants to avoid the seller concession approach for their commission), the agent could point them to Shay as a “scaled down” level of service, staying at arm’s length to step in as necessary.

The company would have to open itself up to these ideas, but I see no reason it can’t keep a foot on each side of the aisle.

The company is fully aware that agents are still necessary for a lot of consumers and that their product isn’t going to put anyone out of a job. (The market is doing a good enough job.) However, resourceful real estate consumers deserve better options, especially if you’ve been through the process a time or two already.

I hope to see more alternatives like this. It’s good for everybody.

Have a technology product you would like to discuss? Email Craig Rowe

Craig C. Rowe started in commercial real estate at the dawn of the dot-com boom, helping an array of commercial real estate companies fortify their online presence and analyze internal software decisions. He now helps agents with technology decisions and marketing through reviewing software and tech for Inman.