AI isn’t just threatening to take jobs away from artists and illustrators. You could also do the same with real estate agents or anyone who is dedicated to renting your house or apartment, and proof of this are the companies specialized in automation systems dedicated to the buying and selling of homesand of which they completely dispense with humans for this work.
Imagine Home is one of these companies dedicated to the purchase and rental of properties completely autonomously. The tenant, or that person who is interested in renting a home, also performs all the procedures virtually. In fact, and as indicated ViceThese types of companies do not even have a human visit the potential tenant.
For visits, those interested in renting the property previously acquired by Imagine Home, they only have to go through an identity verification through a facial recognition system, which scans the person’s face to verify that it matches the one on their passport. Later, the company provide a temporary code with which the user can access the home and inspect it for himself.
In fact, there is not even a human available in case the person is interested in renting the house. Once the visit is over, the system sends the offer to the user’s mobile, who can confirm or reject the rental. If confirmed, you receive a permanent access code so you can start your move.
Do without humans to save costs when renting homes
Clearly, one of the goals of companies like Imagine Home is to dispense with human labor and avoid, therefore, the expense that would entail hiring a person in charge of carrying out visits and procedures for the rental of the home. In addition, they do not need to open leasing offices in those cities where they have acquired homes.
The so-called automated landlords, however, have a downside that goes beyond apparently taking real estate agents out of work. These companies tThey also use their technologies to track and purchase affordable housing.
It is precisely a strategy that deprives low-income families from owningaccording to Brendan McKay, president of advocacy for the Association of Independent Mortgage Experts. “It’s pretty easy to draw a beeline to the fact that it’s making it significantly more difficult for low-to-moderate income families to become homeowners, because that’s the market they’re buying into. So you’re absolutely disenfranchising I vote for that segment of people,” he points out.
In any case, it is too soon to know the real impact of these companies and how it can affect the real estate market.