All Forum Posts by: Doug Elkerman

I agree all those sites that sell leads to the highest bidder provide zero value. The more competition the better in my opinion, not sure about the profit, doesn't seem to affect Uber, WeWork etc. :):)

LeBron just dropped $36m on the 90210 compound previously owned by Howard Hughes!

You'd be wrong in guessing this is my app, but thank you for the compliment! I know an agent who uses it also so I can speak on both sides. If you've ever had to rely on Zillow's 'find an agent' you'd understand the delight in finding something like this. Just because someone is trying to help you doesn't mean they have an ulterior motive! I know some agents who's lives have been literally been taken ransom by Zillow and I hope this app does something about it or at least levels the playing field. Zillow are quite frankly drunk with power, now getting into the iBuyer game trying to corner the market on both ends. They might end up in a Congressional anti-trust hearing the way they are going! 

Finding an agent quickly and easily via the traditional method is fraught with issues especially if you don't currently live in the area you want to buy in. Usually involves kissing a lot of frogs to find your prince, in the process you have given out your cell number to many and signed up to a hundred newsletters at the same time. It's more this than your confidentiality interpretation. 

I totally agree with your feelings about the value that platforms bring when its all about the agents that work for agencies with deep pockets, this doesn't always translate to the best service as that is a very relative scenario (mostly depends on your personality actually) and you usually end up missing out on having choice, and I think that is what is the best thing about this particular app, as it's actually free for agents. So finding the right agent is done on a more honest, level, value driven spectrum.

Thats a little different, self driving cars. I'm referring to local agents that know their local baristas cats birthday. 

Emotion & sentiment are two different things. People pay hundreds of thousands or even millions more for a property they love. Stocks are traded entirely differently and measured by sentiment. 

What makes you say that? Did you sign up & try it? To say its lead generation is one sided, there is a lot of value on the buyer side. Shouldn't be compared to Zillow either, their 'find an agent' is the definition of terrible. Ajentai is a lot easier, faster, more targeted, on-demand, and best of all private. 

It would be easier to make a prediction model for the Stockmarket then real estate, real estate is emotional stocks aren't. Yet JPMOrgan have yet to crack that one even with hundreds of millions in R&D into a predictive model. 

Its not so much data points, a ML model can hold a vast superior number of data than a human can but its useless unless it knows what to do with it. These models are built by python engineers not real estate agents. Yes visually humans are much more capable than a computer vision is ever going to be also. Real estate is such an emotional asset also that takes much more into account then comps, even comps aren't really comps when it comes down to someone disliking hardwood floors or loving the surrounding area. Its not really a matter of a technological glass ceiling, a local agent is always going to be better. It's just the nature of real estate. 

Apparently launched in SoCal, ‘Ajentai’ seems to be a more direct path to ‘find an agent’ that you see on most real estate search websites. Hope this helps someone. 

Show a little compassion guys, 'get them out' - they're people not rats. We're all in this together. If you're happy to swoop in on a distressed sale then be happy with the cons.