On its mission to humanize real estate, this top brokerage uses new AI solution

From running errands to running an operation

Jaren Antin was a full-time college student when he entered the world of NYC real estate, and he hasn’t looked back since. Back then, he worked with renters as an assistant for two high-powered agents. Today, he is managing director of Elegran | Forbes Global Properties in New York City, running day-to-day operations alongside department heads in Sales, Marketing, Finance, Tech, and Operations.

And as much as the industry has changed in that time, so much of what Antin fell in love with has stayed the same.

“Every day is an adventure and different,” he said. “You never know who you’ll meet or what type of property you’ll get to see. And it’s incredibly satisfying to help clients fulfill and realize their goals and dreams of buying real estate to create a pathway to long-term wealth.”

From international representation to local expert advisors

That satisfaction is especially palpable at Elegran.

“Elegran pioneered a buy-side agency at scale in New York City,” Antin shared. “We began representing buyers from overseas and helping them navigate and invest in the market here. Today, our business is more balanced between buyers and sellers. Thanks to our exclusive membership with Forbes Global Properties, we are able to offer our sellers unparalleled global exposure to get their home sold.”

“We believe that technology is an important tool to help make the advisor smarter and more available for our clients,” Antin explained. “Time is our most limited resource and therefore our most valuable asset. Technology allows us to work smarter and maximize our time, to be more available for our clients”

From skeptic to super-user

When Elegran was looking for an efficient solution to help stay in contact with their extensive database of homebuyers, they heard of an Israeli-based company called LocalizeOS, which was just expanding to the US market.

“Being a tech-enabled brokerage, we had relationships with those at the forefront of innovation, and were introduced to the founders of LocalizeOS,” Antin recalled. “When they deployed their AI solution, hunter, to support agents in managing and re-engaging their pipeline, we were intrigued.”

LocalizeOS introduced hunter as an AI tool that would engage the agents’ database of leads, nurture those relationships, learn what the buyers were looking for, and then hand over qualified buyers who were ready to transact.

This was actually a job Elegran had outsourced to a different solution provider. “Initially, we hired a company that picked up the phone and called our leads to re-engage them. Ultimately, we didn’t see success. The AI was constantly improving with hunter, so we started working exclusively with LocalizeOS.”

Antin and team approach every potential new tool with a healthy combination of curiosity and skepticism, and hunter by LocalizeOS was no different. Elegran devised a careful plan to test and validate, working with landlords and developers to scale over the course of three to four months.

“Then we identified a dozen or so agents with a large database and a penchant for automation to pilot the solution,” he said.

From setup to support to success

Happily, getting up and running with hunter was a painless process.

“We were able to download a batch of contacts from our CSV and bulk-import them to LocalizeOS. The team was incredibly helpful and accommodating in setting up our agents and adapting to our workflows. The LocalizeOS team was able to build a connection from our CRM to LocalizeOS’ system and create automations to send leads based on pre-defined triggers.”

Granted, not every agent was a fan at the start. Antin fielded some concerns from agents who either didn’t want to pay a referral fee or feared the conversation just wouldn’t sound like them.

Antin challenged those fears by asking, “What are you doing with those leads right now? Do you even have a relationship with them so they’ll know the difference? And what is the probability of that becoming a deal without touching them at all?”

Success was visible and repeatable. “We saw leads that we were unable to connect with become re-engaged with us when it was the right time for them,” he said. “hunter was a valuable solution to stay in front of these contacts, keeping them abreast of the market inventory — agents would never have been able to manage that volume or keep in touch with all of them at once.”

Antin shared that numbers continue to speak for themselves. “I love seeing the sheer amount of text messages and touch points LocalizeOS has deployed on our behalf to our pipeline. To date, hunter has sent nearly two million text messages with relevant listings and property updates to our pipeline of home buyers”.

From automation to authentic relationships

Of course, the fear of the agent being replaced by technology is still real and prevalent with other proptech companies seeking to eliminate the agent. But Antin can attest that tools like hunter AI are about amplifying agents’ efficiency, not eliminating the agent from the transaction.

“This technology helps us offload the mundane tasks and focus on our highest priorities, making the best use of our time and prioritizing our clients. LocalizeOS helps us keep our clients at the forefront of new inventory and keeps their search top of mind. It allows each of our clients to experience their real estate agent as if they were their only client — something that is not possible with human effort alone.”

Inman