Just last year, investors poured an estimated $1.5B into real estate tech startups in hopes of funding the newest platforms that will turn the industry on its ear. Automatizing firms like VTS and Hightower have been major successes, and Digsy, a tech startup that hit the scene last year, may be the next big thing.
Co-founded by Andrew Bermudez, a former 12-year Lee & Associates broker and SVP, Digsy is an online marketplace that connects tenants with agents. The firm is in works to expand its services to top CRE brokerages, providing automated assistance using predictive analytics to help agents and brokers close more deals.
“Digsy.AI is technology that we license out to brokerages and people in the real estate industry, which is really where the magic happens,” Andrew tells Bisnow. “Basically it’s an automated assistant that uses predictive intelligence to help sales teams close more deals.”
The platform functions in the background, studying the activities and patterns of the user. When it identifies patterns that will likely yield success, such as higher customer acquisition or close rates, it will alert the broker and make suggestions.
“It helps them crunch data in real time and it does it all in the background. It’s kind of like constantly identifying best practices, something we wish we were doing more of,” Andrew (center) tells us.
To date, Digsy’s artificial intelligence platform has found the following:
Agents who meet with potential customers face-to-face within the first three days are four times more likely to convert those customers into closed deals.
Agents who take prospects to see properties within 14 days are eight times more likely to close a deal.
Agents who submit a proposal or some sort of offer within 45 days from when they first start working with the client are 16 times more likely to close a deal.
“We’re seeing these patterns on timing. You can go meet a client face-to-face to make sure they’re comfortable, but if you go 15 days without showing property, now you’re back at square one where you’re most likely going to lose a client and not close a deal," Andrew says.
Digsy’s still in the beginning stages of leasing its Digsy.AI platform to top brokerages in the industry, but the firm has already piqued the interests of several well-known investors, including former Apple CEO Gil Amelio and Zillow board member Gordon Stephenson.
“Being able to be more effective through data science—whether it’s acquiring customers or selling or marketing more effectively—is going to fundamentally change the way the industry does business,” Andrew says. “For example, being able to know what properties are most likely to sell in a pocket of buildings is what predictive analytics can do; it can also tell you what your next action should be. Being able to predict those things to increase output and increase sales is kind of the next wave of what we’re currently seeing today.”
