Lofty Builds Vertical AI to Streamline Real Estate from Search to Settlement

Written by:

Steve Marcinuk

Date:

05 Aug 2025

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The real estate technology landscape is undergoing a significant shift as artificial intelligence moves beyond simple task automation toward comprehensive business improvement. At the center of this development is Lofty, a company positioning itself as the “Salesforce for real estate” with an ambitious vision to own the entire customer journey from initial property search through final settlement.

“We want to be the leader in getting the consumer through all the way from searching homes and connecting with an agent, all the way through the mortgage industry, all the way through to settlement in the most efficient way possible,” explains Brian Hoialmen, Chief Strategy Officer at Lofty. “We want the agent to be the centerpiece of that journey with the lender, but we have to own that through SaaS and vertical AI.”

The Challenge of Full-Stack Real Estate Technology

Building comprehensive technology solutions in real estate presents unique challenges that distinguish it from typical SaaS businesses. The complexity stems from serving multiple stakeholders simultaneously while managing intricate data integrations across various industry segments.

“In the real estate space, you’re really serving B2B to B2C,” Hoialmen notes. “Our clients are not just the agents. They’re also the consumers. When you’re a full tech stack, top to bottom, left to right, there’s a lot of moving parts in the real estate space.”

This complexity creates significant barriers for startups attempting to build integrated solutions. “There’s a lot of moving parts here that’s different than typical SaaS,” Hoialmen explains. “Learning all those nuances is a journey for most startups in this space, and very few companies have really conquered that entire tech stack.”

Beyond Surface-Level AI: The Agent Revolution

While many real estate technology companies focus on basic AI assistance, Lofty is developing what Hoialmen calls “vertical AI agents” that perform complete job functions rather than simply helping with tasks.

“We think of AI as kind of a layer that’s like ChatGPT, and that’s how this space thinks about it, doing tasks for you,” he explains. “When you’re doing vertical AI, it’s really about creating agents that are doing the actual job itself.”

The company has launched specialized AI agents that handle distinct business functions. Their marketing agent, for example, doesn’t just help write content, it creates, manages, and distributes all social media content based on understanding the agent’s preferences and brand voice.

“You also have an AI sales assistant that’s helping you set appointments, tracking your calls, tracking what you’re doing, but also engaging with the clients, almost like a virtual ISA,” Hoialmen describes. “These are higher-level AI agents that require different technology and are more costly, but you’re essentially hiring somebody to do a job that you don’t have time to do.”

The transaction management capabilities represent perhaps the most advanced application: “You’re uploading a document, and your AI assistant processes that transaction, that contract, and can edit it, can update it, can work on your behalf. AI is really about creating agents to eliminate the work that isn’t productive.”

The Integration Imperative

The effectiveness of these AI agents depends heavily on data integration and system consolidation. Hoialmen emphasizes that fragmented technology stacks fundamentally limit AI capabilities.

“If you have your CRM over here, you have a website over here, you have your SEO here, you have your leads over here, it’s very difficult for the AI to work in multi-systems and learn and be efficient,” he explains. “Really creating that ecosystem, your consumer data, your property data, your homeowner data, having that work in one cohesive way is essential.”

This integrated approach addresses what many in the industry call “copy-paste fatigue” of managing multiple disconnected tools.

Solving the Adoption Challenge

One of the most persistent problems in real estate technology is low adoption rates among agents. Many brokerages report that 80% of their agents never use new technology investments. Lofty addresses this through a unique approach to agent independence and data portability.

“Unlike typical organizational structures where you have an owner and employees who have to adopt, you’re really selling the agent on why they should use technology for their own personal, private business,” Hoialmen explains. “The average agent works for five brokerages in their lifetime, so if they’re jumping around looking for the next better commission, they need technology that travels with them.”

Lofty’s solution provides individual tech stacks that remain portable when agents change brokerages. “What Lofty does is shield the individual agent under a broker, like any SaaS product. They’re providing a subscription, and it’s a full tech stack at the agent level, at the team level, at the office level. But that agent has the ability to run their business, and it’s portable.”

This approach recognizes that real estate agents operate as independent contractors building personal brands. “It’s an agent’s personal brand. They work under the broker brand, but they’re driving their own personal business as well,” Hoialmen notes. “This individual wealth-creating platform for agents is what agents really want. That’s how you get adoption.”

The Human Element in an AI-Driven Market

Despite the advanced automation capabilities, Hoialmen emphasizes that real estate remains fundamentally a relationship business. Recent industry changes have actually increased the importance of personal connections.

“We’re in a personal relationship-building business. Whether this is a lender or an agent, it’s still a one-to-one relationship. You’re shaking hands with somebody, you’re meeting them in person. AI is not going to replace that. AI is going to take the friction away from that.”

Market data supports this relationship-focused approach: “About 93% of all transactions that happen in real estate happen not through internet search. They happen through direct marketing, flyers, mailers, postcards, meeting, shaking hands, and social media connections to hyper-local people.”

Recent regulatory changes have reinforced this trend. “This is the first time in the last 24 months where you have to have a buyer-agency agreement to show a home. You have to have that relationship contract with a buyer and with a seller. You better be hyper-local. You better be shaking hands. You better be creating lifetime value.”

Looking Forward: The Mortgage Integration Opportunity

Hoialmen sees significant opportunity in breaking down traditional barriers between real estate and mortgage professionals. “There’s been a wall between real estate and mortgage, and that’s really caused all the problems. That wall has come down in the last six months.”

This integration represents a key component of Lofty’s search-to-settlement vision. By connecting these traditionally separate processes through unified technology and AI agents, the company aims to create smoother experiences for consumers while enabling professionals to work more efficiently together.

The next six to nine months will be crucial for demonstrating whether this integrated approach can deliver on its promise. “I’m really looking forward to how AI creates a seamless and more simplified process for the consumer to engage through the process in a more dynamic way, to work with real estate professionals and mortgage professionals in a much less frustrating manner,” Hoialmen concludes.

For an industry historically resistant to technological change, Lofty’s comprehensive approach represents a significant bet that vertical AI integration can succeed where piecemeal solutions have struggled. The company’s focus on agent independence, data portability, and relationship enhancement suggests a nuanced understanding of real estate’s unique challenges, one that could determine whether their ambitious search-to-settlement vision becomes reality.