Artificial intelligence has transformed the real estate industry, forever changing the day-to-day work of appraisers, mortgage lenders, developers and homeowners.
AI in real estate can take many forms, encompassing AI tools that power property risk analytics and valuations for appraisers, property recommendations and customer experience automations for buyers, construction site selections for home builders and more. AI platforms have even made realtors more efficient (a shift that, some argue, has thinned their job prospects).
To help you understand the landscape of this burgeoning industry, we’ve rounded up several AI in real estate examples where companies use the technology to shake things up.
AI in Real Estate Companies to Know
At Zillow, AI factors digital photos into free property value estimates, or “Zestimates.” The technology relies specifically on a neural network, trained on millions of photos and home values to “read” photos in new listings for relevant information. According to Zillow, the resulting estimates — also informed by metrics like square footage — predict property value with a national median error rate of 2.4 percent.
Realtor.com is a real estate tech app that runs sales, rentals, purchases, pre-approvals and other standard real estate processes through a digital app. The company uses AI to comb listings and generate leads, which it sells to partner agents. Those agents then work directly with homeowners. The app also sells advertising space to real estate agents.
On Trulia’s online real estate marketplace, AI customizes the user experience. The platform “learns” user’s tastes and favored search terms, grasping them in more granular detail the more the user browses the site. This informs the site’s recommendations, based on pages that were often visited by past users with similar taste profiles.
At Redfin, AI essentially augments human agents, handling some labor-intensive elements of their role. Redfin has automated the property recommendation process, for instance with an AI matchmaking tool. Data suggests it knows users’ tastes better than they do; they click on the matchmaker's suggestions more often than on properties that fit their own search criteria.
Opendoor is a real estate firm that works with both buyers and sellers during property transactions. The company provides customers with offers for their homes based on data powered by both human expertise and artificial intelligence. The most recent information available about home prices, time-to-sell and macroeconomic trends informs the company’s pricing model.
Homebot uses AI as part of its client engagement platform. The artificial intelligence integration helps loan officers and real estate agents identify homeowners and buyers who are likely to make a transaction soon, allowing officers and agents to stay in touch with customers and help them make more informed decisions about major financial transactions.
Findigs offers an all-in-one rental platform that helps property managers grow communities safely and simplify the path for renters. Its AI service, Decision Assist, allows property managers to approve renters fast with its full-service screening to ensure approval requirements, review applications and provide approve/deny guidance. The company aims to allow property managers and landlords more time to support their renters in person.
Buildout offers an AI assistant called AL to augment its commercial real estate software offerings and make things more efficient for brokers. AL works in Buildout’s Showcase offering to help users create detailed and engaging property descriptions. In its Connect product, AL enables hands-free interactions with the company’s research map data.
Digital title and settlement company Endpoint uses automated workflows with machine learning to streamline the complex processes of closing on a home. The platform provides a single place to sign documents, transfer funds and ask questions. Dedicated to integrating people, process and technology, the company serves real estate professionals as well as proptech companies and investors working to scale their closing operations.
CityBldr employs AI to discover the undervalued properties and multi-property parcels that developers love. Informed by professional expertise from engineers, architects, appraisers and other real estate professionals, Citybldr has carved out a niche in the multi-billion-dollar property research and analytics industry.
HouseCanary is providing unprecedented clarity with advanced machine learning-powered technology and products for homeseekers. The company offers a vast collection of resources, data and updates to help customers make informed decisions on properties of interest. With access to accurate home info and tailored searches, people can master the residential real estate market and select the right property for them.
Crexi offers advanced, integrative technology and data analytics for the commercial real estate industry. Millions of monthly users closed $540 billion in deals and marketed over $5 trillion in property value through the platform, and the company’s AI-powered CRE solutions help agents generate detailed and aesthetically pleasing property listing descriptions.
TestFit integrates parcel data and topography to make site plans and solutions based on interior and exterior requirements. The company’s real-time AI rapidly creates multiple comparable schemes of 2D and 3D plans to optimize costs and increase efficiency using features for developers, architects and contractors to simulate design solutions. Its AI aims to eliminate human error on building-site math and counting parcel units on blueprints.
CoreLogic’s OneHome platform uses artificial intelligence to help real estate agents match prospective buyers with the right homes. Its mortgage origination solutions also employ AI to automate the process of alerting users about missing documents and identifying potential sources of new income. The company says it works with more than 1.2 million agents throughout the United States and Canada.
Ylopo is an AI-based digital marketing platform that uses property advertising to target and convert leads for real estate professionals. Ylopo offers events, training and products, including Ylopo AI Text and Ylopo AI Voice. According to the company, Ylopo AI Text has had over 25 million conversations with a 48 percent response rate from real estate clients and Ylopo AI Voice is available 24/7.
EliseAI’s platform is equipped with an AI assistant that property managers use to engage both prospective renters and current residents. It can interact with people via email, text, web-based chat and even phone calls to handle tasks like answering questions, scheduling tours and coordinating maintenance.
Built on scalable cloud infrastructure, Quantarium’s AVM features deep learning algorithms that have processed data on more than 153 million property parcels in the United States. Mortgage lenders, construction companies and other real estate professionals rely on its valuations of commercial and residential properties.
Entera brings its customers a residential real estate investing platform that uses AI to enable automations and intelligent analytics for finding, buying and operating single-family homes. The company services more than two dozen U.S. markets, with its platform seeing upwards of 1,000 transactions each month.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is AI being used for real estate?
AI is used in the real estate industry to automate property valuations, calculate property risk analytics, evaluate data to inform investment decisions and facilitate home recommendations and customer service, among other applications. AI aims to improve the efficiency of real estate tasks for realtors, appraisers and home builders, and make the home buying process easier to navigate for customers.
Can AI replace realtors?
While technologies like automated valuation models, AI assistants and home recommender systems can fulfill some of the tasks done by realtors, employing human realtors is still a necessity throughout the real estate industry.
Does Zillow use AI?
Yes, Zillow uses AI to power features like its Zestimate valuations, interactive Showcase listings and personalized home recommendations for buyers.
