This NYC Resi Brokerage Uses AI to Make the Most of Every Lead
AI is here to stay, and finding ways to make the tech work for you will be the difference between your business growing and plateauing.
That’s why leading brokerage Platinum Properties added LocalizeOS to their team. The AI-powered platform has revolutionized the brokerage’s capacity to scale lead nurture among its agents while making everyone’s job easier in the process. For the latest installment of The Real Deal’s series about LocalizeOS, we sat down with Platinum Properties NYC Co-Founder/COO Dezireh Eyn and Sales Manager Alon Solé to learn how LocalizeOS has helped their team thrive.
The Challenges of Scaling Up
The Platinum team sought out LocalizeOS to help address an issue they were seeing as their company lead volume increased. “We were noticing that clients require a lot of nurturing to convert, especially in the current market,” explained Eyn. “Given the monetary investment that we’re making on lead generation, we didn’t want to lose any potential opportunities. If someone is buying, they should be buying with us.”
Solé called these missed opportunities the firm’s “biggest pain point.” In his role as Sales Manager, Solé oversees the work of 30 agents. Before integrating LocalizeOS into their workflow, his team ran the risk of losing track of leads as the months wore on and new ones came in. No matter how invested an agent is in their work, the sheer volume of new leads meant that some older ones inevitably slipped through the cracks.
“Even for our agents who are very on top of their follow-up with clients, establishing credibility and converting leads can’t be as immediate as AI,” says Eyn, “so we decided to bring on LocalizeOS to help supplement the efforts that our team is already making.”
The Personal Assistant, Perfected
As we learned when we first spoke with the LocalizeOS team, the firm’s AI, Hunter, takes over lead cultivation at scale, functioning as a personal assistant that stays in contact with a lead on an agent’s behalf before handing them back to the agent when the lead is ready to tour a specific property.
“It takes over all the work you don’t want to do,” says Eyn. “As an agent, you don’t want to spend day after day following up and feeling like a pest, you just want to sell.”
Though some of his agents were initially apprehensive about handing their leads off to AI, Solé says that his team quickly embraced Hunter. “It’s been very encouraging for them to know that listings are being sent out every day on their behalf,” he says. “It helps them establish credibility when they can end a conversation with a lead by saying, ‘By the way, my assistant will also be sending you more options.’”
One of the main concerns that many agents have about enlisting an AI teammate like Hunter is that their leads will feel like they aren’t getting the same level of service as they would from a human assistant. However, with Hunter, this hasn’t been an issue. “We’ve found that a lot of times people don’t necessarily realize they’re interacting with AI,” says Eyn. “Reading the text conversations, I’ve seen a few where people apologize for their delay in responding.”
Solé, who also reads the transcripts of conversations between Platinum’s leads and Hunter, has been impressed with the AI’s ability to refine what listings it recommends based on the buyer’s feedback. He also values the volume of reports generated by LocalizeOS, which gives him unparalleled visibility on his team’s performance and lead funnel.
Converting Old Leads and Capturing New Ones
In the seven months since Platinum integrated LocalizeOS into their workflow, the firm has benefitted from a measurable uptick in older leads converting. “We’ve seen a lot of success with leads that came in before 2023,” says Solé, who explains how LocalizeOS helps increase his agents’ capacity. “If they’re taking on appointments and new leads, their bandwidth can only stretch back in time so far.” With LocalizeOS, those old leads never go cold. “We recently got an accepted offer from a lead that went back to 2020,” he says, noting that the brokerage has had three LocalizeOS-assisted closings so far, with eight more currently in the works. “It’s been huge.”
“It helps solve a problem that we helped create,” says Eyn with a laugh. “If we were being super penny smart, you would literally give agents a certain amount of leads and then stop. But because we’re such big believers in lead generation, we always give our agents the opportunity to work with current leads.” Localize increases bandwidth because it sends listings and handles any feedback/correspondence with leads old and new. For old leads, they basically nurture until that person is ready to view again. For new leads, they act in more of a support role. The agent maintains contact with new leads, but Hunter sends out listings and gathers feedback at the same time, in the same way that a human assistant would.
The Human Side of Hunter
But LocalizeOS is more than just Hunter. Last time we spoke with LocalizeOS users, they highlighted the value of the platform’s Advisors, a team of NYC-based homebuying professionals who are on call to pick up lead communication at a moment’s notice. “They’re on the line the second the buyer wants to schedule a tour or speak to someone,” explains Eyn, “and they’re very professional about passing them along to the agent who initially connected with them.”
Solé says his agents have been particularly impressed with how the Advisors stay in touch with them throughout the handoff process. “If it’s a lead that the agent is no longer regularly in contact with, the agent receives a text message that reconnects them to the lead before they meet with them in person,” he explains. “It’s a huge layup for them to just have an appointment set up by AI.”
Platinum’s dedicated Advisor Mimi Sillings is on a team of many who was featured in our last piece about LocalizeOS. “Adding that human element is what makes their product so strong,” says Eyn. “It’s not just the tech or the people, it’s the combination of the two.”
Investing in an Expert
Platinum’s choice of LocalizeOS is part of the firm’s business philosophy. “We’re always looking for the best tech out there,” explains Eyn. “We learned in the past, through trial and error, that you’re always better off investing in someone who is the expert than trying to build your own.”
If you’re ready to grow your real estate business, reach out to LocalizeOS and get the experts on your team.