Real Estate Marketing & Beyond
A Miami-based real estate technology startup is providing new transparency in the process of selecting an agent to help buy or sell a home with the launch of AgentStory, a platform where consumers can access formerly unavailable information about real estate agents in their market.
AgentStory’s beta has been so successful that the startup is “putting its money where its mouth is” and virtually guaranteeing the performance of the agents recommended in its MatchIndex score, offering $1,000 to users if their house doesn’t sell within six months.
Designed to allow consumers to educate themselves before making the largest transaction of their life—AgentStory uses transaction data and an unbiased AI-powered algorithm to recommend the optimal agents to any home seller or buyer. It also tracks agent performance in a sleek, user-friendly agent profile reminiscent of an “online baseball card” that shows how many homes an agent has bought and sold in a given area, their success rate in listing and getting a home sold, the average time it takes them to sell a property, and benchmarks showing how that compares to other professionals in the area representing similar homes nearby.
AgentStory differentiates itself from others because it does not hide information behind an email or phone capture form. With AgentStory, users gain access to the data from the start and can opt-in to connect with the agents they are matched with. AgentStory provides consumers data with useful information about why agents are a good fit. Other platforms on the market may make recommendations to pair agents and sellers, but they may be irrelevant—an agent that is miles away from them—or, worse, may be based on a marketing agreement the agent has with the platform.
“Too often, the process of finding the right real estate agent to sell your home—or help you find the right home to buy—is mired in mystery,” said Gil Weic, the CEO of AgentStory. “Word of mouth referrals are helpful, but what if there was a way to match consumers with the ideal agent for the specific area they are looking in? With this kind of platform, consumers know who is worth their commission fees—and who isn’t. The right agent for a given property pays for themselves.”
AgentStory is hyperlocal—down to a zip code, even a neighborhood. It is a platform that provides consumers with the data they need to make a more informed decision about the agent that’s right for them. And agents can shine via their own personal profile, showing users their track record for buying and selling, all in one place.
AgentStory presents homeowners with nearby realtors, detailing, and ranking those agents’ strong suits. AgentStory’s MatchIndex—which predicts how well an agent will do selling a particular home based on comparable historical transaction data—takes into consideration the attributes of that given home, particularly its location and value, as well as recent transactions involving that agent and/or similar homes. More importantly, it’s ability to match the seller or buyer with the agents that best know the segment of the market where they are transacting.
At no cost to the consumer, AgentStory takes the guesswork—and hype—out of selecting a real estate agent by providing transparency to real estate transactions. AgentStory is built for the modern homeowner, buyer, and realtor. With more information readily available to consumers, AgentStory doesn't hold back on valuable details which allows all parties to make their best judgment with confidence.
“The information provided to consumers during the home search and sales process is often very limited,” Weic added. “We are providing consumers with full transparency into past agent performance, serving up useful data points that will help them make a more informed decision when choosing a person who will represent them for what is often the most significant financial decision of one’s life—buying or selling a home. As I tell my friends, get ‘their story’ before you hire, meaning look them up at AgentStory.com before you sign the listing agreement. You may be pleased or shocked, but at least you will know what you’re getting into before making an agent hire.”
AgentStory covers a population of some 120 million and is constantly expanding their reach into new markets. Popular cities that AgentStory reaches include Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, Houston, Denver, and Miami, with many more markets slated to come online in the next few months.
The old method of calling agents from friend and family referrals is gone for good. The right agent for your brother-in-law or aunt is not the agent for you. The location and price of your home dictate who you should work with, because you need an agent that is an expert in your particular segment of the market. Using an agent that is licensed and has MLS access but lacks the track record of selling homes like yours successfully, can be a very costly mistake. AgentStory is free to use and paid for by the agents that close deals for its users.
To learn more about AgentStory, visit Agentstory.com.
