Hacker News Reader

Comment by rpearl | Hacker News Reader

Agents are there for the edge cases. We had a contract dispute that required negotiations and even a brief discussion with a lawyer. At one point, our agent was calling title companies in the area to find the _other_ escrow account.

How are you planning on handling cases that abruptly require complexity? At first glance, it looks like using a service like what you are describing would have been an unmitigated disaster and would have cost us a ton of money, and we wouldn't have known that at the start of the process either.

View on HN

Raffi, my cofounder, is an attorney himself along with having a Realtor license.

Most Realtors are not attorneys. You said you needed to talk to an attorney but what if your realtor.... was an attorney?

So we have more ability to handle edge cases, not less!

Raffi doesn't scale. Are you going to hire more Raffis?

There is only one Raffi.

-Raffi

Edit: AI is currently being coded up to mimic my behavior/tone/advice/etc.

> AI is currently being coded up

Said every failed half baked AI startup the past year. Show the results when done. Saying that you are working on AI is barely a step beyond saying you have a concept of a plan.

> Edit: AI is currently being coded up to mimic my behavior/tone/advice/etc.

You, as a licensed attorney, are training an LLM to give your clients legal advice?

An AI with your behavior/tone/advice/etc isn't going to call title companies.

So like AI Gilfoyle

I mean the premise of your product appears to be that I'd be interacting with an AI. If I were to use it, I would not be hiring Raffi---would I?

I was in a situation where the seller of the house, after signing our contract, halfway through closing, decided to try to accept another offer that would close faster. The seller attempted to get out of our contract when we wanted to enforce it and close.

An AI wouldn't be calling escrow companies for us. An AI may have a recommendation about whether lis pendens is necessary but it wouldn't be personally taking it to the courthouse before close of day on a Friday. An AI would not be able to watch the property in case the other buyers showed up.

Obviously with a smooth transaction none of this is necessary. Most transactions are smooth, and that's great. But ALL the value of a real estate agent is in the edge cases. I'm asking what would happen to me if I would've used a tool like this instead? When abruptly this sort of work becomes necessary but I've never spoken to a person. In such a time, I don't just want advice, I want an actual agent to help me make a real decision, quickly, and then act on my behalf.

Is that Raffi? How many people is Raffi helping? Is this just Raffi's fancy tech driven real estate office that will be slightly larger than the usual due to leveraging tech?

The vast majority of agents communication is over text and email. It is quite rare that it is required that a realtor must make an in person appearance somewhere, usually that's just for first meetings.

But yes, when stuff like this happens, we'll have a person do the required representation.

Put it like this: if 90% of realtor time is spent on communication that is done over text an email, then each realtor will be able to serve 10x the clients. But that still leaves time for them to show up at a courthouse on a Friday, as you mention

How many residential houses have you personally bought or served as a realtor for? In my experience everything other than rote paperwork and sending over information is done via chat or in person. No realtor is going to walk a first-time buyer through an inspection report via text message or email.

When I bought my house as a first time buyer in sf, my agent walked me through my disclosures over email..

So you bought one house with a bottom-tier agent who wasn’t worth the money and now you’re trying to recreate that experience at the same cost? You don’t even understand what your competition is. A good buyers agent- one who actually does this full-time and makes a hefty profit- is worlds away from what you experienced.

> It is quite rare that it is required that a realtor must make an in person appearance somewhere

This might be true in urban markets - I have seen agents with a good book of business who are able to work remotely - but it isn't at all true in rural markets where the culture is entirely hands-on. I still do far too many deals with ink and paper in someone's living room or on the back fender of a pickup truck.

>Most Realtors are not attorneys. You said you needed to talk to an attorney but what if your realtor.... was an attorney?

You are kinda leaning into an observation I've made as a Realtor... whether I should go get a law degree. In many states, the real estate agent really is just a marketing person, and once it's time for a contract the lawyer gets involved. In those cases, the challenge I see is that lawyers are not real estate people - it has been my experience that they know nothing of zoning, land use, water rights, fencing, schools, soils, construction, and the myriad of things I'm expected to know about or find resources for my clients about.

on the other hand, when I look at the risks to my business and the ever-increasing regulatory environment, it sure looks to me like the future belongs to lawyers. Better to get a law degree and then become an expert in real estate than be a real estate expert beholden to whatever the lawyers are making us do now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com