The Real Brokerage has not been shy when it comes to its technological ambitions. From launching its agent-focused Fintech product Real Wallet to Tamir Poleg’s AI likeness delivering his Q1 2025 earnings prepared remarks, the company is pushing the envelope when it comes to tech in the real estate space.
Last week, The Real Brokerage took another step toward its goal of providing agents an AI concierge service available to consumers via text message with its acquisition of Flyhomes’ AI-powered home search portal.
HousingWire sat down with Real’s chief technology officer Pritesh Damani to discuss the acquisition and Real’s overall technology vision. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Brooklee Han: Can you tell me a bit about what prompted this acquisition?
Pritesh Damani: Our vision for the future hasn’t changed — we are still focused on launching an AI-based concierge service for the end customer. We ideally want to launch a phone number for every agent at The Real Brokerage that is an AI number and as soon as the consumer texts that number, the AI assumes the role of a concierge for that agent and helps the customer find homes and answer basic questions.
We were looking for a jump start on our vision and integrations with MLSs and data feeds can take time. Flyhomes [has] done all of that work, so it made sense for us to kind of talk [to them] about it. Then, it just worked out where they were looking to sell, and we were looking to find something that accelerates our road map.
BH: Where do you see this technology from Flyhomes fitting into Real’s overall vision?
Damani: It will certainly surface in some way, shape or form, but it might not look the same as it currently does. Flyhomes has done a great job at exposing AI features on a search portal, but [The Real Brokerage is] not here trying to replace Zillow. We don’t expect people to come to our portal and start searching for properties — we just don’t think that is how the business works. We are here to work for the agents and build something for the agents. Of course, [it] will be AI and agent first.
A large portion of the technology assets that we purchase will be repurposed in different ways. There will still be a portal and a site that exposes listings, but it might not look exactly like what Flyhomes has right now.
BH: As you said, you don’t expect consumers to bypass sites like Zillow and come to Real’s portal to look for properties, so how do you see this portal fitting in with what the company is building?
Damani: Imagine a conversation with the concierge service that asks what type of property you are looking for and in what neighborhoods and price range, it will eventually start sending you properties that fit your specifications, and to do that it will send links. When you click on the link it needs to go somewhere and that is where [Flyhomes fits in. Flyhomes does have a beautiful portal that they built, so we’ll use that and have these beautiful pages that support our listings. However, the goal isn’t that people go to these pages directly.
BH: As the conversation around how AI fits into a real estate transaction has evolved, there seems to be an increased focus on how the technology can enable agents to provide a better human experience for clients. How do you see this playing out at Real?
Damani: This is exactly why we think of our tool as a concierge and not an agent. It warms up the lead and then it hands it over to the agent for further conversation. If there is a question it can’t answer or if it detects that this is something that needs serious attention, it tells the agent to pick up the phone and talk to this person. The idea is that it is not there to replace the agent.
BH: How do you see these AI tools helping agents to improve their productivity?
Damani: Agents are having hundreds of conversations at a time and very few actually materialize into transactions, and they have to answer the same questions over and over with cold leads. Agents have to entertain all leads if they hope to get the lead, and good agents are the ones out there taking every call or conversation. The goal with this is to give them back some of that time and let the concierge do all the precursor conversations. But, at some point the lead will be ready to actually buy, and it [the AI concierge] will hand it over.
BH: Looking ahead, how close do you think Real is to reaching this AI agent concierge goal?
Damani: We want to launch something relatively quickly, but with this acquisition from Flyhomes we need to reevaluate everything we have purchased and figure out how to integrate things with what we have already built. There is going to be at least a quarter of work just doing that. Right now, it looks like we are a couple of quarters away from deploying something meaningful, but we will be making some announcements along the way.
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