Former Zillow executives Greg Schwartz and Carey Armstrong launched an artificial intelligence-powered home search portal under their company Tomo. The portal is available to homebuyers in 21 states.
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Another company is entering the portal wars.
Former Zillow executives Greg Schwartz and Carey Armstrong announced Tuesday the launch of Tomo Real Estate, an offshoot of four-year-old mortgage startup Tomo. Tomo Real Estate relies on free text search powered by OpenAI to enable home buyers to describe their perfect home to Tomo Real Estate in a conversational manner, rather than using multiple search filters to find the right listing.
Greg Schwartz
“Tomo started as a mortgage company, which differentiates us in the real estate industry,” Tomo co-founder and CEO Greg Schwartz said in a prepared statement. “We recognized that the mortgage process was a disaster for real estate transactions, so we tackled that problem first. Now, we’re channeling that momentum into real estate searches.”
Friends real estate Use “computer vision” to process listing photos in a human-like manner. So when a buyer asks for “a Seattle home with a top-notch kitchen, entertaining space, great views, and a place to work[from home],” the platform can easily find listings with those features.
“Let’s face it. The search and find process hasn’t changed much since the introduction of mobile phones,” Schwartz said. “Homebuyers have been adapting to existing technology and experiences rather than ones that simplify how people actually search for a home — which is much more nuanced than zip code and number of beds and baths.”
In addition to a more intuitive search experience, each Tomo Real Estate listing includes the current owner’s name and equity based on public records. Tomo said this feature allows homebuyers to better understand a seller’s underlying financial situation and understand how they negotiate.
If homebuyers need assistance navigating the site, they can contact a Tomo Real Estate home search consultant via phone, text message or via the chat box below each listing.
Carey Armstrong
“We are not just another listing portal,” Tomo co-founder and chief operating officer Carey Armstrong said in a press release. “Tomo Real Estate is designed to give homebuyers a unique advantage, providing real, actionable insights, rather than being inundated with information and advertising that need to be interpreted individually.”
“Think of Tomo Real Estate as your strategic partner to pave the way for home buying success,” she added.
Schwartz said Tomo Real Estate operates in 21 states and accounts for 50% of U.S. real estate listings real estate news In an exclusive interview on Tuesday Tomo Real Estate will launch nationwide operations by the end of 2024.
The company has also been testing an agent partnership program with a select group of brokers, such as Compass agent Jamie McMartin in Texas and Keller Williams agent Laurie Finklestein Reader in Florida. Schwartz said the experience with McMartin and the Finklestein Reader team was so successful that it laid the foundation for a national rollout.
“We’re not going to have a bigger advertising budget than these existing giants in the short term,” Schwartz said of his Tomo’s position in the portal space. “But we will compete to have the most innovative products that satisfy homebuyers.”
Email Marianne McPherson
