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Redfin Launches AI-Powered Tool to Answer Questions About For-Sale Homes
Redfin announced the beta launch of Ask Redfin, a generative AI-powered virtual assistant that quickly answers homebuyers' questions about for-sale homes. House hunters can now use Ask Redfin to learn about a listing, such as whether there's an upcoming open house, monthly homeowners association fees, what school district the home is in and much more. Anyone searching via the Redfin iPhone app in the U.S. can opt in to the Ask Redfin beta. Redfin created the feature to help homebuyers easily find the information they care about within a home's listing details, local market conditions, nearby schools, touring availability and more. Ask Redfin answers questions about home amenities (does this house have air conditioning?), market conditions (what do homes in this area typically sell for?), and zoning (can I build an ADU?), among other topics. It's integrated with Redfin's support team, so homebuyers can be quickly connected to a licensed real estate agent if their question goes beyond the details of the listing, such as how to make an offer or to get an agent's opinion on the market value of a home. "When you're house-hunting, details about all the homes you're considering start to blur together," said Dallas Redfin Premier Agent Casi Fricks. "Ask Redfin will be an asset to buyers looking for fast answers 24/7. And, if a buyer wants to take next steps, get more expert insights or discuss their options, they're quickly connected to an agent who can help." Ask Redfin uses large language models to tap nearly all of the publicly available information on a home's listing page and beyond to respond to queries. "We include an enormous amount of data on every listing you find on Redfin because homebuyers deserve as much insight into a home as possible," said Ariel Dos Santos, Redfin Senior Vice President of Product and Design. "Ask Redfin makes it easy and effortless for customers to find the information they want to know." People using the latest version of the Redfin iPhone app to search for homes in about a dozen U.S. metros—including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Washington, D.C., among others—will automatically see Ask Redfin when they view a listing. Redfin iPhone app users searching for homes outside of those areas can opt-in to the experience by logging into their account, visiting the My Redfin section of the app and selecting "Try Ask Redfin." This will turn on Ask Redfin for use on any U.S. listing, regardless of where the home is located. Redfin plans to make Ask Redfin visible by default in more markets and available on additional platforms in the future, and the company is encouraging homebuyers to share feedback as they try the beta

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Redfin Publishes Air Factor Data from First Street to Show Risk of Poor Air Quality
Redfin is now publishing Air Factor data provided by First Street for nearly every U.S. property listed on Redfin.com and the Redfin iOS app. Redfin is the only brokerage to provide air quality risk data at the property level. "Redfin wants to ensure that every single person searching for a home has the information they need to understand climate risks," said Redfin Senior Vice President of Product and Design Ariel Dos Santos. "Air pollution is an important consideration as poor air quality becomes more frequent due to climate threats such as wildfire smoke." The number of poor air quality days in the Western U.S. surged by as much as 477% between 2000 and 2021, in large part due to wildfire smoke, according to a First Street analysis of data from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A recent Redfin-commissioned survey found that 9% of recent U.S. home sellers cited concern about the impact of climate change as a reason for their move. First Street's Air Factor is a property-level risk model that estimates the likelihood of poor air-quality exposure based on the number of poor air quality days expected today and over the next 30 years. It includes two common pollutants: PM2.5, which often comes from wildfire smoke, and ozone (O3), which occurs when pollutants react with heat/sunlight. "Air Factor takes into account environmental threats to air quality such as wildfire smoke as well as man-made pollutants like emissions from cars to create a full picture of what's causing poor air quality and where," said First Street CEO Matthew Eby. "People searching for their next home on Redfin will now be able to see exactly what they're getting into with poor air quality, which is an important piece of the puzzle when considering climate risks." Redfin published a report today that shows about 1 million more people moved out of than into U.S. metros with high risk from poor air quality in 2021-2022, while low risk metros saw 1 million more people move in than out. The areas facing high risk from poor air quality are concentrated in the American West, which is grappling with intensifying wildfires, and many are in expensive states like California. Redfin found that the median home sale price in metros at high risk for poor air quality was $563,710 as of December 2023, which is 65% higher than the $341,483 median sale price in low risk metros. Transparency around climate risks has the potential to impact which homes people choose to live in. A Redfin study from 2022 found that homebuyers who have access to flood-risk information when browsing home listings online are more likely to view and make offers on homes with lower flood risk than those who don't have access. Poor air quality risk data is now available on the Redfin website and iOS app, and it will be available on Android later this year. Redfin also features First Street climate risk data at the property level for wildfire, flood, wind and extreme

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Keller Williams Deploys AI-Powered Ad Campaign Platform
Keller Williams (KW) announced additional generative AI integrations and a host of powerful feature enhancements to Command, a smart CRM-plus platform and its associated mobile app. "Our new campaign platform paired with AI capabilities will save our agents more time and money, allowing them to focus on what matters most," said Heather Pollard, head of digital and design, KW. Launched in Q3 '23, KW's new Paid Ads experience offers agents better quality leads, more available channels, easy-to-use ad creation, and new AI-powered features for listing ad types, generating more leads at a lower cost. The new Generative AI Ad Copy feature uses AI and machine learning to generate high-performing headlines and body copy primarily for single-listing, single-image ads, single-listing multi-image ads, multi-listing carousel ads, and single-listing multi-channel ads. "We're revolutionizing the approach to ad creation with this groundbreaking feature, setting a new standard for engaging, results-driven content," said Pollard. "Welcome to the future of CRM, where automation meets personalization, and the agents' brand messaging is fully maximized." Through Labs, the innovation hub of KW, the franchise continues to partner with real estate agents and teams to release software integrations and CRM features to increase productivity and eliminate pain points with lead generation, marketing, and real estate team workflow capabilities. "We continue to roll out vast updates that give our agents an unfair competitive advantage in the market," said Chris Cox, chief technology and digital officer, KW. "In partnership with our agents, we're automating more and more functional tasks, saving them time and money." The latest updates to Command include: New Contact Advanced Filtering Capability allows agents to finely dissect their database, supercharging productivity and simplifying the discovery of precise client groupings. With Automated Market Snapshots for social media, agents gain instant access to hyper-local market metrics, eliminating the need for manual data entry or design template manipulation. Transaction Summary Sheets empower all stakeholders to seamlessly access and share comprehensive deal terms in a user-friendly PDF format. Expanded Date and Data Fields within the Opportunity App empower agents to meticulously record and track more transaction-relevant dates and data points, including the loan commitment data, home inspection date, escrow due date, and more. Vendor Tracking in the Opportunity App of Command enables agents to effortlessly monitor all real estate deal-associated vendors and seamlessly export the comprehensive list as part of the transaction summary sheet. Through the Opportunities APIs, third-party vendors on a deal gain access to real-time deal tracking spanning the entire lifecycle, facilitating optimal support for all stakeholders. The newly introduced Onboarding Portal provides new KW agents with an all-in-one, streamlined onboarding experience. It efficiently gathers essential information, introduces KW models, systems, and culture, and seamlessly transitions users into Command, ensuring a smooth and comprehensive onboarding journey. "We are the home of the tech-enabled agent," said Cox. "Our agents highly influence our roadmap through Labs. And our latest innovative and forward-leaning features and benefits of Command reflect our 'By Agents, for Agents' approach to technology R&D." Command mobile app's latest updates include: The Bulk Selection and Action for Contacts empowers agents to efficiently perform multiple actions across numerous contacts simultaneously. From seamlessly transferring contacts between personal and team accounts to adding tags, assigning SmartPlans, and documenting notes and next-step activities—streamlining contact management has never been easier. The new Swipe gestures enable agents to take actions more efficiently and faster than before, such as notification reading and deletion, task editing and archiving, contacts editing, and Opportunities CGI numbers display. With the introduction of Real Estate Team Lead Features, team leaders, or rainmakers, can effortlessly manage lead routing on their teams, whether individual assignments or bulk distribution to a designated agent or the lead pool. "We remain laser-focused on building safe, reliable, and scalable solutions enabling our agents to serve their clients better," said Cox. In February 2019, KW originally released Command, hosted on the Keller Cloud platform, for general agent availability. In December 2021, KW released the first version of the Command app. Command has more than 170,000 quarterly active users as of September

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What is the BPP and why does it exist? Effective Alternative: Many real estate agents spend hundreds – even thousands – of dollars a month with online advertising companies for very little return. They believe they must feature their listings on third-party sites, even though they don’t always see a healthy return on their investments. They feel like they have no choice because there are no options available. That’s why BPP was started. Consumers and professionals deserve better than what advertising-driven media companies offer today. Broker Public Portal with Homesnap is the industry’s turn to speak and provide an agent-centric, industry-first, pro-consumer way to secure listing exposure and leads for agents as an alternative to what advertising companies offer. Broker Public Portal is a collaborative effort owned and operated by real estate brokerages and MLSs, to deliver, through Homesnap, a better home search experience, with the same comprehensive, real-time MLS data used by real professionals - the people who list and sell homes, not ads. Broker Public Portal is the industry’s largest private marketing network of MLSs, representing 800,000 agents across the country, all contributing their listings to help generate listing exposure and leads from consumers nationwide. The BPP by Homesnap is agent-centric, not advertising centric. It’s designed to help agents literally with the click of one-button invite their entire sphere to search for properties alongside them, making it much easier to create relationships long before a customer is ready to buy or sell. No competing agents on listings. Broker Public Portal with Homesnap follows industry-defined Fair Display Guidelines: there are no display ads from other agents or brokers on one’s listings, and all inquiries are sent to the listing agent or broker for free. Encourages Agent-to-Consumer and Agent-to-Agent Collaboration: BPP is designed to promote agent-to-consumer connections as early in the search process as possible, as well as consumer-to-agent collaboration. It also fosters agent-to-agent collaboration to make it easier to work side-by-side with clients to find the home of their dreams and to work more efficiently with fellow agents in setting up showings and answering client questions quickly. The Broker Public Portal is structured to encourage consumers to connect to an agent and nurture a relationship as they begin to search for homes, or evaluate the market. This program is extremely cost-effective. Agents pay no additional fees to have their listings exposed to millions of consumers every day other than their regular MLS dues. Agent’s listings are available to consumers nationwide without advertising fees. ALL Properties Included: BPP with Homesnap now features over 100 million property records and over 59 million active and sold listings. BPP is Working, and it’s the REAL DEAL! BPP offers something companies that sell ads do not: MLS and broker ownership that always puts industry stakeholders’ interests first! BPP with Homesnap Grows Over 150% in its First Year. Broker Public Portal (BPP) since its launch with Homesnap in January last year has grown from serving 45 Multiple Listing Services to more than 120 MLSs today, representing 800,000 real estate agents and brokers. Largest private marketing network of real estate professionals! The Broker Public Portal by Homesnap has already created the most extensive private real estate marketing network and is delivering a myriad of ways for agents to effectively prospect to generate significant listing exposure and leads from consumers nationwide. Agents and Consumers LOVE the BPP by Homesnap. Real estate agents have invited more than 19 million clients and contacts to access MLS listing data, and 8.5 million consumers have engaged with their agents through Homesnap. The Pace of Adoption is Unprecedented: Adoption rates far exceed that of most broker-offered technology with MLSs reporting, on average, 40-50% adoption rates, with adoption rates unusually high among top-producing agents. Agent and Consumer Satisfaction Levels are remarkably high. According to MLS member satisfaction surveys around the country, agent satisfaction of the Homesnap app offered is very high – much higher than other established mobile apps in the market that are provided by MLSs. Among consumers, Homesnap is the highest-rated mobile real estate app in the Apple App store. The BPP is Generating Business Opportunities for Real Estate Pros! In Chicago, one of the MLS leaders in the U.S., MRED, reports its member agents have already invited 1.5 million consumers in Chicagoland, and 750,000 consumers downloaded the app to connect with their agent. Homesnap is generating some 4,000 leads per month -- at no cost to MRED members. Thousands of Business Opportunities are being delivered! The Broker Public Portal is working! Homesnap has already delivered tens of thousands of leads to its participating agents and brokers - all covered by the cost of their MLS membership. None of the leads generated required the listing agent to pay any additional advertising fees; nobody had to buy a zip code, or pay to upgrade their profile to get all of these leads. All of this marketing exposure was available AS PART of their regular MLS dues. Strong Ongoing product improvements and Marketing Campaigns BPP reinvests all of the revenue it collects back into Homesnap product development, support, and marketing. Homesnap has a tremendous development team dedicated to providing continual product enhancements, usability improvements and better ways for agents to engage with consumers. BPP and Homesnap also partner to deliver compelling and targeted marketing campaigns to increase agent adoption and foster active consumer engagement continually. Homesnap Pro delivers access to the MLS on the go for agents: A mobile app branded for each agent, featuring MLS agent-only listing information (sales history, agent deal flow, showing instructions, commission splits), a full MLS roster for agent-to-agent interaction, built-in private messaging to engage buyers and sellers, an agent safety timer, Rapid CMA, agent marketing tools and more.