Photo: Tim Durkan/Flickr
Seattle startup Everyhome has created a real estate developer’s dream come true. Its new software, CityBldr, uses artificial intelligence to track individual underused properties and potential land assemblages. CityBldr utilizes algorithms and feedback from more than 180 variables, including sales data, zoning, lot size, topography and proximity to transit.
Everyhome CEO Bryan Copley told PSBJ that real estate developers spend $54 billion a year on broker commissions and property research and analytics. Rather than relying on slow, error-prone humans to harvest all the information developers need to make informed decisions, CityBldr’s artificial intelligence can do it all with accuracy and efficiency, saving everyone time and money. Except for maybe brokers, who will probably lose commissions. Man vs. machine, the endless battle.
The product works by ranking properties on their highest and best use and estimates return on investment. Say a developer wants to know whether a competitor is getting permits to develop a certain property. If the software says they are, but it looks like the site is still available, the developer can send the property owner a purchase offer directly through CityBldr. The company claims to represent the interests of homeowners and investors equally.
Everyhome has raised just under $1 million from around 20 people in Seattle and the Bay Area. It plans to launch CityBldr first in Snohomish County and the Bay Area in four to six weeks, reports PSBJ. The company is selling CityBldr services to developers for between $800 and $8,500 a month, depending on the level of service.
Will CityBldr disrupt the commercial real estate industry the way that Zillow disrupted the residential real estate industry? Only time will tell.
