SERHANT said during his latest Inman Connect New York appearance. Founder and CEO Ryan Serhant talked about artificial intelligence, generational real estate trends, and why his brokerage business is the biggest threat to Compass.
In Ryan Serhant’s mind’s eye, he sees one future for real estate. They are Compass and Serhant.
And of course, as he sees it, SERHANT. It has the cutting edge.
Ryan Serhant |Credit: AJ Canaria Creative Services
“Listen, I think every company is great,” Serhant told Inman founder Brad Inman on stage at Inman Connect New York on Wednesday. “But by 2030, I think there will only be two major real estate companies to watch. One will be Compass and the other will be us. One will focus on real estate as a platform and one will focus on individuals as a platform.”
“I’m sorry for everyone else, but I think it’s going to be on the back burner. And if you look at what we’re doing in the background, what we’re building, and what we still have to get through this year…I’ve never been more optimistic and excited,” he added.
“Otherwise, I wouldn’t be doing this. I think my life is fine. You know what? I don’t want to be a CEO. I have an innate desire to solve the problems we’re solving for the people who are with us.”
Serhant’s confidence is not unfounded, with the CEO revealing that the exciting office scene that concluded the second season of Owning Manhattan led to a $45 million investment in SERHANT. The founders said the investment will accelerate the development of S.MPLE, an artificial intelligence-powered ecosystem that offloads administrative tasks to what Serhant calls a “team of AI agents.”
“[It’s] Kind of like DoorDash for work. What you care about is delivery. You don’t have to go shopping or pick up food if you don’t want to. You can integrate it into the system as much as you want, or you can take it completely out of your hands,” he said.
“There are agents all over Florida who don’t even know how to run their own CMA. It’s not about creating a better CRM. It’s about imagining a world where you don’t even need to use a CRM.”
“My goal is not to replace salespeople, but to add salespeople. What’s interesting about fundraising is that a lot of our competitors spend a lot of time behind closed doors talking about agent turnover and salesperson turnover. And that’s how they create disruption,” he added. “But how do you hire one salesperson and have a team of AI agents do the work for you? [On] In traditional teams, being tech-enabled is no longer important because, as you know, everyone is tech-enabled. It’s important to leverage AI now. ”
According to Serhant, S.MPLE is going through three phases, with the first two focused on helping agents understand the most effective way to instruct an AI assistant to handle and automate tasks like scheduling buyer tours and creating listing presentations. However, in the latest phase, the relationship is reversed and S.MPLE now tells the agent what to focus on each day.
“This is a whole new world. I have the freedom and flexibility to invent and innovate every day to benefit the agency,” he said.
Serhant said forward-thinking goes beyond AI. The founders attracted a younger agent demographic, the average SERHANT. The 28-year-old agent focuses on what tomorrow’s consumers want. That could include avoiding home ownership altogether.
“I’m very, very future-focused,” he said. “What will the buying and selling process look like in four years? Who will make those decisions? Who will write the checks? What will the home buying process look like? What will people want to buy a home for? Can they afford a home? What will happen to inventory?”
“I’m 28 years old and not currently involved in the industry. What do you think your dream is?” he added. “You don’t often hear people say ‘homeownership’ like you used to. So what’s the connection? How can we, as an industry, take advantage of the future rather than trying to build from where we were in the past few years?”
“I think that’s going to be a problem.”
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