A property technology startup that recently launched in Charlotte is bringing artificial intelligence to the forefront of home buying and selling.
AI-powered platform Indigo was launched Aug. 15 by Shaival Shah and Wei Gan, co-founders of real estate startup Ribbon. The online tool was created to streamline bids and negotiations for real estate agents, buyers and sellers on one platform. The transactions have traditionally involved dozens of documents across several people.
"Everything in real estate is in contracts," Shah, Indigo CEO, told CBJ. "And these contracts are very complex. It's what creates the intimidation factors. We use AI and advanced technology to simplify contracts."
Indigo's AI technology maps, extracts and connects contracts automatically, providing home buyers, sellers and agents with key information on trends in commissions, offers and more. It does that through Home Checkout, Indigo's flagship offering.
The platform helps listing agents get the terms sellers desire through posting storefronts — home listings that detail the sellers' preferences. Buyers' agents can also view that information and write an offer and contract in seconds.
Home Checkout provides transparency in sellers' market demand, negotiations and critical desires. The offering builds on Indigo's vision to help bring more affordability and clarity to buyers so they feel confident when making decisions, Shah said.
Indigo was founded in the wake of a high-profile lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors and a group of real estate companies that stands to reshape the industry. The plaintiffs had claimed in the suit that the NAR’s “participation rule” and “cooperative compensation” practices unfairly forced home sellers to pay inflated commissions to buyer agents.
Indigo aims to be part of that transformation, bringing the home-listing and offer-making processes into one place to eliminate communication challenges.
"Not only what is the expected price of the home, but what are the expectations on the deposit, move-in date and everything else, so that buyers have full transparency, so they can make informed decisions and see if it makes sense for them," Shah said. "Industry changes are happening at the same time that technology is advancing very rapidly in a way that can help bring solutions that were (once) impossible."
Indigo is free for real estate agents to try until Oct. 1 and $99 a month after that.
While Indigo initially launched in Charlotte, it intends to expand across the Carolinas in the next few months and, ultimately, nationwide in 2025. The platform's first clients include real estate teams at Compass, Keller Williams, eXp, RE/MAX, among others.
In addition to Shah and Gan, Indigo's other co-founders include veteran entrepreneurs Paul Kim and Frances Bryant. They also held leadership roles at Charlotte-based Ribbon.
