EP 136: How AI Helps Agents Build Better Client Relationships

[upbeat music] Welcome to Real Estate AI Flash, a podcast that helps you understand how AI is changing real estate and the strategies you can use to win. I'm your host, Rajiv Saja. In today's episode, I sit down with Luis Poggi, co-founder and CEO of HouseWhisperer.ai, to discuss how AI is changing the way agents manage relationships, follow up with clients, and deliver a more personalized experience at scale. Drawing on his decade-leading product and engineering teams at Zillow, Luis shares why the future of AI isn't about replacing agents, it's about giving them an intelligent assistant that handles the busy work so they can focus on the conversations that matter the most. We also explore the rapid evolution of AI models, what startup founders are learning on the front lines of AI innovation, and why the companies that win will stay relentlessly focused on solving real customer problems. If you're curious about where AI-powered assistants are headed and what that means for the future of real estate, you'll enjoy this conversation. Let's get to it with Luis. Welcome to another episode of Real Estate AI Flash, and today I have Luis Poggi from co-founder and CEO of HouseWhisperer.ai. So Luis and I have been sort of meeting each other at conferences, and, like, I think, Luis, I first met you at maybe the T3 conf- uh, AI workshop-

Yes

... last year in Austin, and then we met at the, uh, T3 Leadership Summit in Orlando. Um, and I knew you were doing really good work in the industry, and we usually feature agents, but we also bring in entrepreneur startup folks that are adding value to the industry, and I, I couldn't wait to get you on. So Luis, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much for having me. Very excited-

Yeah, yeah. For sure

... to be here with you chatting.

Yeah. So I know you have a background with, um, working in Zillow, some of the people that you've started with. So g- give us your background in real estate and sort of bring us to today.

Yeah. So I, I spent a decade at Zillow managing product and engineering. I joined very early on, on this journey, which was, uh, fantastic, uh, being with very smart people at Zillow.

Yeah.

And, um, I love every minute of when I joined this industry. I came from, was in consumer products, uh, travel industry, and then joined real estate. And I love the problem, uh, that, and the, the space and how you can actually end up helping humans getting one of the most important decisions of their life, which is getting the right home for them.

Yeah.

So that has become a passion of mine. And so I spent a decade, every touch, uh, a bunch of things at Zillow. If you have a complaint, maybe I, uh, it's my fault. So [chuckles] but it has been a, a really amazing experience there. So then after a decade, I decided to start my own company. Uh, it was a dream of mine, and left Zillow. Very good relationships at Zillow. And, and I decided to start my own company, and actually, w- my co-founders are Alex Codner, who was an engineer at Zillow for a decade as well, and my chairman is Spencer Rascoff, who, who used to be the CEO of Zillow for a, for a long time. So, uh, keeping very connected with, with Zillow, but this industry