Building a Real Estate Brokerage Around AI | Ryan Magner of Proxy Real Estate | The Brainiac Blueprint
Updated: Oct 14
Today on The Brainiac Blueprint Podcast by Left Brain AI, we sit down with Ryan Magner, Founder of Proxy Real Estate, a New York City brokerage built around AI instead of bolting it on, working across commercial and residential deals with startups and mid-sized firms.
Ryan shares his 20+ years in real estate brokerage, how COVID wiped out his pipeline overnight and pushed him to rethink the whole transaction process, and how a self-described non-tech guy used vibe coding to build the tools he always wished he had.
He also walks us through what Proxy offers its agents and clients today: a mobile tour planner, an AI marketing center that makes flyers, social ads and property videos in minutes, Proxy AI for comps, pro formas and market data, and a client portal for updates, applications and documents. Plus, what's next with AI lead generation and coaching for new agents, and why he's proud of every mistake he's made along the way.
Full transcript below.
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⏱ In this episode, we discuss:
00:00 - Intro
00:26 - Welcome Ryan Magner
01:48 - Who is Ryan Magner and Proxy Real Estate
03:12 - Building a brokerage around AI vs bolting it on
05:24 - Is tech natural to Ryan, or a must to keep up?
07:48 - "I think AI is..." Ryan finishes the prompt
08:19 - Is the fear around AI overblown?
11:05 - 20+ years in New York City real estate
14:38 - How COVID wiped out his pipeline overnight
15:28 - The first pivot: real estate on the blockchain
18:57 - Focusing on what he can control
19:51 - Vibe coding the tools he always wanted
21:30 - Why real estate agents are entrepreneurs too
24:00 - What to keep from old school real estate
26:14 - Proxy's tools, starting with the tour planner
28:00 - The AI marketing center: flyers, ads and videos in minutes
29:13 - Proxy AI: comps, pro formas and market data
31:43 - The client portal and dashboard
33:50 - What's next: AI lead generation and coaching for agents
38:40 - What agents really care about when joining a brokerage
40:15 - What he would do differently launching Proxy today
42:29 - Rapid fire: automation, overhyped AI, elephants and more
49:13 - Open forum: Proxy is growing and looking for agents
51:11 - Where to find Ryan and Proxy Real Estate
🔗 Ryan Magner
🔗 Proxy Real Estate
Website → https://proxyre.io/
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Episode Full Transcript:
Ryan: I think AI is a tool with exponential possibilities and I think that it will be as utopian or apocalyptic as we let it be.
Kyle: Welcome back to another episode of the Brainiac Blueprint where we discuss the intersection of AI and how it impacts business and the world around us with our esteemed guests. I'm your host, Kyle Lambert, founder of Left Brain AI and Action Hero Marketing.
In today's episode, we're going to discuss what a real estate brokerage looks like when you build it around AI versus bolting it on. With that being said, today's Brainiac is Ryan Magner. Welcome to the show, Ryan.
Ryan: I'm so happy to be here, Kyle. Thank you for having me.
Kyle: Of course.
Ryan: Of course I like being referred to as a brainiac. That's maybe the first time.
Kyle: You are. You're a Brainiac now and forever. Love that. You know, it's so funny, I don't know what it is. I almost always trip up on your name. I see Magner and I want to throw like a French, think like a magnet or something. You know, I don't know, you've got me thinking you're fancy or something.
Ryan: I like that, yeah.
Kyle: There we go. So that can be your official brainiac name.
Ryan: Usually I get like Brian Wagner. You know, I'm usually that guy also.
Kyle: Yeah, yeah, that's fun.
Ryan: I had to go to a government office and they looked at my ID, somebody typed it in wrong, I was Ryan Nagner. And so I feel like it's a simple name but always getting chopped up, but you know
Kyle: Six letters is not difficult. Like that should be, you know, relatively standard. Ryan, thank you so much for joining today. You're the founder of Proxy Real Estate. We met a couple years ago at the New York City Expo when you were just kind of starting to kick things off and kick the tires and stuff like that.
And now you've really got it built into a, you know, I don't want to say a real brokerage as if it was fake before, but, you know, it's really grown into its thing. So, if you could just tell us a little bit about you and about Proxy.
Ryan: Yeah. Again, thanks for having me and thanks for the nice introduction. Yeah, we I've been in real estate brokerage for over 20 years now. And in 2012 I went out and started my own brokerage. And then I experienced some let's call the effects of COVID and it made me start to rethink this whole industry.
And I always felt like the transaction process was kind of broken and people on both sides of the deal were unhappy. And so I did some homework and I did some really deep thinking and I decided to rebrand the company where I was more or less like a solopreneur in my last company.
And we rebranded as Proxy Real Estate, thinking about all the problems and how to make them better for not only our agents, but the customers that we serve.
Kyle: Very cool. Yeah, I think it's so interesting, you know, today in business, we're at this weird inflection point where AI you know, despite it being so powerful, it's really at its infancy. And so we see a lot of businesses, Action Hero being one, where we're established and introducing AI versus businesses, you know, that are we have AI, we're building the business around that.
And I think that's kind of where you're at. And it's very cool to see. How you've built it from the ground up around AI, you have this AI real estate brokerage, you're offering these features to everybody. So it's interesting to see such a old school industry, if you will, but this new school thinking.
Ryan: Yeah, thanks for saying that, that's true. I mean, this is a legacy industry. It's been around for, you know, a hundred years and it's kind of, you know, it has its flaws. And I think, you know, even being a real estate broker, the term, you know, carries a stigma with it that I actually wore pretty hard in my first couple of years.
I was like almost a little embarrassed to be a real estate broker. Maybe a self-hating real estate broker to a degree. But I think a lot of that had to do with understanding that, you know, what the what people do in this position and how did the stigma come about.
And as I mentioned, I mean I think these are where there are problems with maybe the transaction process in itself and maybe the way some of the laws are written to protect the people and winds up kind of making a hard time for the agents.
But with AI recently, We're seeing like a lot of advancements and like I'm proud to say that we're solving a lot of these problems. And I'm a novice. Like I'm not a tech guy. I enjoy all new technology that comes out, but I'm not like I don't know how to code or anything like that. But AI has been really it's like almost like a miracle to bring ideas to life.
Kyle: Well, you know, in the call it two years that you and I have known each other, we've discussed a lot of forward thinking ideas that you're working on and that you're interested in. Is tech and innovation just natural to you? Is it something that you have a curiosity about? Or is this more of just like I'm about to become antiquated and I have to do this? Or both.
Ryan: I think it's probably a little bit of both. I like I've always like I'm always interested to see like what the latest gadget is, right? Like since I was a kid and mess around with it. But I'm far from the guy who really understands what's going on in the background and how they're made.
You know, it's like I just think it's just a natural way of getting older and still playing with toys, maybe. Yeah. But certainly I think you know, if you're a business owner, you have a responsibility to understand I think Not even just business owners.
I think anybody alive really has a responsibility to kind of understand what's going on with AI. But then there's another thought I have on it is that the things you learned, you know, today and yesterday, AI is moving so quick that it almost, you know, it's I think it's good to have a background, but I always wonder like how much do you need to know?
Because it's just like it like the way we see processors move, you know, it's just like moving so quickly and it's really it's intimidating and exciting at the same time.
Kyle: I go through that you know, that emotional up and down all the time, the backlog of ideas that I have and I'm just like, Oh, I'm falling behind, I'm falling behind. But in the end, if you're making incremental growth, like that's the point, right?
You know, you can't fix everything overnight. So you introduce what you can, you adjust, you know, you react and hope that it you're getting a positive ROI in some shape or form.
Ryan: It's true. And it's like, you know, it we do we work our best to stay focused in our lane, right? And on what we're trying to build. But it is also I think my responsibility to understand what other people are building and doing like alongside and You know, sometimes that could be throw you off track a little bit, you know, because you're like, Oh, what do they got and what are they doing?
And then you look into it and you find the, you know, it's just a chat bot. Like it has nothing to do with AI, even though they called it AI or right, you know, or maybe they're building something massive, you know, as well.
But you know, that's for them to do. And again, like we try to keep our head down and continue to build what we're working on.
Kyle: Absolutely. Very cool. Well, I want to dive in a little bit more, but before I do, as you know, I'd like to everybody to kinda finish the prompt I think AI is, so that we can kinda, you know, get a level setter of your perspective on it. So if you could please finish that prompt.
Ryan: I think AI is a tool with exponential possibilities and I think that it will be as utopian or apocalyptic as we let it be.
Kyle: Okay. Interesting. Interesting. Do you have those fears? Are you seeing the like OpenAI headlines and hiding under a blanket? Or is it something you think is just you know getting blown out of proportion here?
Ryan: No, not me. I don't think it's blown out of proportion, but that's not me. I'm like a progressive jump into the fire type of person. Like I'm definitely a risk taker and I get burned a lot, you know, but a lot of times it works out too, right?
So, but I think that I am so forward thinking on it for a long time that I'm constantly talking about it with, you know, not only people in the industry but or in the real estate industry, but all walks of life. I find that most people are pretty nervous about it.
And I find myself get frustrated about it a little bit because like I'm like, I don't I think it is proper I think it's important proper rails and guidelines are put into place as we see this like increase in the technology and the speed and the things that it can do.
But I also like I think overall I'm a progressive minded person, right? Like whereas like I think just keeping trying things and building and I believe this is the best way for the future. So
Kyle: I agree. I try to always tell myself that it is human nature to fear change, right? And when something is this for lack of a better word, crazy or innovative or new or you know, whatever it is, I think it's just naturally gonna cause that fear to some segments of people.
And of course they always get amplified more than others. So you know, it just causes issues when it doesn't need to be, but again, that's just human nature.
Ryan: Yeah, I think it's a healthy concern. You know, I think that it should be thought out, right? But it's complicated question. Actually I just saw there was a documentary on Netflix called The AI Doc. And then it the subtitle actually says something about apocalyptic optimism or something like that.
And they take experts in the industry and they interview 'em and the gentleman who does the documentary, he's an artist. And he talks about like, you know, the positives and negatives and he wants to hear the people on the ground, you know, what they think and it's across the board, you know, people are the experts, the people that really understand how the technology works. I mean, the they're on both sides of the coin.
Kyle: Yeah. What did you say it was called?
Ryan: The AI Doc on Netflix.
Kyle: Okay. I'll have to check that out. That's interesting.
Ryan: Yeah, it great watch.
Kyle: Very cool. Very cool. All right. Definitely want to keep diving into some of this stuff, but I would like to take a quick step back. Just tell us a little bit more about your experience and your career up to this point.
You mentioned how, you know, COVID was pretty disruptive to everybody and it kind of shifted some things for you. So would love to kind of hear about your experience leading up to here. And what I'm really curious about is when did you like really be like, all right, I need to start like what was the moment that was like, all right, I really need to remodel, you know, this business and rebrand and think about how I'm doing things differently? What led to that moment?
Ryan: Okay. Yeah. So as I mentioned before, I've been doing real estate. I've been in real estate brokerage for about 20-plus years, since 2004 or five. And I've done every type of transaction you could think of I've worked on, like from residential, you know, rentals, sales, we represent tenants, we represent landlords.
And then I switched over pretty quickly to commercial real estate where I've also over the 20 years like I didn't exactly pick an exact niche, which is not really a popular thing to do, but 20 years later here I am that I could say with confidence that, you know, I've worked on everything from investment sales to industrial.
We do a lot of retail and office leasing here in New York City. So I'm very fortunate for this type of background, and lucky to have done this. So as I was mentioning earlier, is like I picked this industry because like I think being like the owner of real estate is very noble, you know, to be able to provide space, you know, and like I wanted to learn more about that.
And, you know, I'm very proud of my background, but it is somewhat humble. And I thought maybe breaking in through brokerage was the way to go. And but I noticed that, like I said earlier, is that The transaction process is complicated.
A lot of times, you know, you see people I don't know if you've ever leased a space or bought a property, you know. There's always a bit of frustration, you know, and some of that just goes to spending a lot of money, right?
I mean, that's a nerve wracking decision for a lot of people. Or moving your business and how that's gonna get started. So there's a lot of feelings, right? And so you see there's like a lot of defensiveness on all sides.
But being a real estate agent is kind of like you don't really control anything. You're kind of in the middle, right? Some people are pretty good at sales, but I think you're like just really assisting people to get to where they need to go if you're doing the job right, right?
You're not pushing anybody into anything. And so because people control information, people are tight with that information too, right? And so that makes the job a little challenging, right? And it makes people guarded because they get screwed over again, whether you're the agent or you're the client.
It happens on both sides. And it's frustrating to watch, right? And like we have kind of like a unique view into that. So anyway, so most of my career I've been focused on commercial real estate. And there was always like these tools that I wanted and couldn't figure out, you know, why they didn't exist.
And not being a tech guy, like it just didn't seem possible to have them. But I had a wish list in my mind, you know, like I would love to, you know, have all these different types of things to help the client, you know, be more transparent with them or to make our job easier, whatever it may be.
And in 2020 when COVID happened, it within a couple of months, like I had worked really hard, you know, and to build up like a nice book of business and close like a lot of nice deals and had commissions coming in for a pretty good amount of time.
And overnight, it like evaporated. And it really messed with my mind because I was like, I thought I did everything right. You know, I worked really hard and like I built this business and I was just like, holy cow, like everybody's screwed, like nobody's going back to the office anymore.
Like the prices of the properties are gonna change, people are gonna be underwater on their mortgages. Like how is this gonna work going forward? Right. And so it made me rethink everything and actually my first pivot. Was to try to figure out how to use real estate in the blockchain.
Because I had become very interested in that technology and beyond just the trading, right? I was always kind of like when Bitcoin came out, like I thought like, oh, this is really cool, right? Like this is something kind of like anti-disestablishment a little bit, but like made a lot of sense to me about, you know, that there's a ledger and everything's kept securely on there and it's public information.
And I really like the idea that And so a buddy of mine came up with a concept and I followed along with him and we went to the Bitcoin conference in Miami and we were very well received down there, but we were a little ahead of US regulation on it and we were gonna do this thing where we lend on Bitcoin and use Bitcoin as collateral. People are doing it today, nobody was doing it then. And it was a great idea that we just
Kyle: Fear again, you know, fear from change, you know. Yeah. Yeah.
Ryan: And cryptocurrency is a bad word, right? Like you think AI is a bad word. Like people I think they did a study, it's like seven to 10% of people like get it and like it, and like the rest of the people in the US are like, we don't want to hear anything about it.
It's a scam, right? But blockchain technology is real and many of the companies people know are using it in the background that's just not trading it, you know, and losing millions of dollars on it. So anyway, so That was really exciting and really fun and then it was like we thought like actually right where I met you there was a vendor right next to you, right?
And he had a title company and one of the things we had been thinking about is like wouldn't it be great if all the titles were digital, right? And that's a process by county and state that happens and it's pretty complicated, but it's already starting to roll over in some states where they're recording title digitally and they're transferring the records digitally, but it's not I think it's state regulated, not federal.
So it you can't really like it's not something like you could really what am I trying to say? It's like
Kyle: Scale or translate state to state as well.
Ryan: Yeah, so there's like a big waiting game and there's a lot of people that make money, you know, in the title game, right? Or whether it be on an insurance or whatnot. So they don't want to see things change, right?
So it's understandably so, right, that people have built big businesses around this. So we had I came up with this big concept, right, about what the future of real estate looks like and how people transact and where are real estate agents gonna fit into that.
And I think maybe, you know, many entrepreneurs, I don't know if I can call myself an entrepreneur, but like we can many oh thank you. Like many entrepreneurs like get caught into this my ideas are too big, right? And like they're really hard to execute.
And I honestly had a really hard time selling people on the idea because I think it was so far or at least at the time people were thinking it was so far down the line. It didn't make sense or I just couldn't really sell it.
So what I did is over time is like what is in my control, right? Like ask myself that on my professional and personal life all the time. I was like what can I control? Right? And the answer is actually not much. But
Kyle: True. At least not completely.
Ryan: But no but I thought what I know is real estate brokerage, right? Like and I like it a lot. And so I thought, all right, well maybe I can start doing some of the things with that. And first I reached out to a bunch of developers to help me build this project and I was pretty unsuccessful, I gotta say, after a couple of attempts I would kind of leaving with no money.
I was giving money and not receiving something. Or we kind of went down the line and like it just we just weren't understanding each other. But what wound up happening is during that period, AI got better and someone introduced me to vibe coding.
Actually my brother he built a project of his own and I said, let me give this a shot. And so I used a variety of AI to help me build the tools that I always wanted to make my business better. And I couldn't believe, like, I mean, it took me a few months, but I couldn't believe that what I came up with and that I was actually able to execute on it.
Kyle: It is honestly amazing. It makes you feel so powerful what you can do when you see it come to life. But I have to say, you know, in the beginning there you mentioned you like the nobility of you know providing space, right?
I you know, you're you just going through that and sharing the ups and downs. There's something about almost like the nobility of entrepreneurship and persevering through the Oh, I did everything right and you know, built my business up and then the whole world shuts down because of, you know, a I keep wanting to say a quarantine, a disease, whatever you want to call it.
And then you know, you build it back up and try to use this new technology, but the government isn't ready for it. And then oh, here's this new other new you know, like the ups and downs and the perseverance. It's so cool to kind of see it and you know it feels like You're in the positive momentum at least, you know, and you're hopefully starting to get some of that return and everything from your you know, keeping your hands dirty. So it's very cool to hear that. I like those stories, yeah.
Ryan: Yeah, oh thank you. I was hoping I wasn't too long winded. But yeah, on that note though, a guy came up to me the other day, young guy, and he said, in the gym and he says, You know, I wanna do what you do.
I wanna have my own business and I'm like, You sure? Because like honestly, like you know, it looks good, but you know, it's hard. It's very, very hard, you know, to start your own business and like to have the stomach for it.
But I think what kind of works for me is like Being a real estate agent in general, even if you work for somebody else's company, you're kind of running your own business, right? And you're dealing with those ups and downs.
So it really prepares you for that. And I think that, you know, credit to real estate agents that stay in the game for a long time, that they've really earned it because no one is not susceptible to, you know, the heartache that comes with this job.
Kyle: And that's why I said you can call yourself an entrepreneur because even prior to, you know, any of this or any of your like you're right. When you're a real estate broker, you, it's your own book of business.
And if you're not, you know, getting leads and closing deals, then nobody is for the most part, right? So it's totally on you to do your thing. So I definitely think there's very much entrepreneurial spirit in a lot of real estate for sure.
Ryan: Yeah, yeah, thanks for saying that. I think that's true. I think like real estate agents like I said before, a lot of them get a bad rap. In general, it's kinda like when somebody's called a real estate agent, you kinda like people, we're humans, this is what we do.
We put things into categories and we just kinda like, Oh, we see you coming. We know who you are, right? But like we're skeptical already, you know, like who are you working for right now? You know, me, the other, the landlord, yourself, the seller, the buyer, you know.
But I think it what I've learned is like there's some really excellent agents out there, you know, and they're able to kind of cover all the bases of, you know, understanding market knowledge while giving some kind of white glove service, you know, while doing that.
And in fact, like that's what we help build, right? That's what we got with our AI is really what we try to do is make that job easier for our agents.
Kyle: Yeah. That's I mean, in any industry, any business, whatever it is, you know, you might be able to get that quick buck for a little bit, but if you're not providing value, at some point you're gonna burn out, right?
And the ones that do provide value are gonna rise to the top for the long term and real estate's no different. So true. I wanted to ask, so when you started to, you know, build Proxy and you were going in this AI heavy approach.
I'm curious, was there anything that you thought about from we'll call it old real estate that you wanted to intentionally keep? Was there anything there that you thought, you know, is like I don't want to lose this, but there's all this other stuff I can use AI to support or reconfigure or whatever it may be.
Ryan: Good question. What did I want to? I mean, I think there's certain factors that you can't change, right? And again, I think we're a little we're also a little bit ahead of the curve on a lot of this stuff. So you know, we built some amazing tools, right?
And maybe I could share a little bit about that in a minute, but like, but it's still the old job, right? It's still like If you use the tools, you're putting yourself way ahead of the pack, right? But at the end of the day, you still have to make phone calls, right?
You still have to meet in person. You still have to I mean, I recommend meeting in person. You don't have to, but like I think that's a proper way to do the job. But so it is still the old business, right? Like it's gonna take a lot for that to change, and it will, and it will, but we're not quite there yet.
Kyle: And in the end, regardless of what you do and how you approach it, you need to convince these people to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars, right? And that's just not something that just happens from an email or from a quick conversation or whatever.
There's a lot that goes into I mean, there's no bigger purchase, you know, for the average human than real estate. So
Ryan: That's exactly right. I just want to correct you again. We're not convincing anybody to do anything, right? Like again, if you're doing the job right, it's that like but we're supporting them in their decision, you know, to show them that this is a great purchase for them or it's not, right?
Like this is gonna make generational wealth for you or you know, stay away from this. I mean that's really what we do. And again the tools we have, you know, truly support.
Kyle: Yeah, well let's jump into some of those tools. I mean in our previous conversation you mentioned that you know you're trying to get a whole bunch of agents to join the team and so you guys can grow and you've built a lot of these features to support them and I know you're using them, so you know, hit me with it. What's some of the cool stuff that you guys provide.
Ryan: Cool. I'll start with like the light lift stuff, right? So like I was able to put together like one of the quickest things that I built. It was like one of the last things, but one of the quicker things I built was like a tour planner, right?
So on the go on your mobile phone, you sign into our platform and the agents on the go, they can be putting all the address, the information about who they're gonna be meeting, information on the property, like very quickly, change the tour order, be able to get directions to and from the place.
And you could do it within a few minutes. You could put all this information and it saves so much time and headaches. It answers so many questions on the tours. You can share it with your clients so they can see what's going on and they don't feel anxious.
They can see what's left, where we're going, what you know, if it's worth their time and so transparency is a very big it's very important to me, you know, because I think that's important to the clients. So that was a light lift and, you know, something I'm very proud of and something that I wanted like from like day one, right?
It always seemed cumbersome to use Excel or we use CoStar and they have like a tour order report thing, but yep it's not bad, but it's not easy, right? So That's in commercial real estate I'm discussing. So but we can use that for residential and commercial deals.
Another thing we built that was a little more complicated, but again, I'm I really am very proud of is we built a marketing center where we can make the AI assist in making our flyers. It can make ad for ad type for your social media posts, it can make a video for you about your property you represent or maybe if you wanted to pitch a landlord on their property.
But not only can it do it, like you can do it in under five minutes. Like I think I'm even exaggerating with five minutes, right? And it's like it's pretty, pretty cool. And like again, it's something I always wanted because one of my pain points as an agent, you know, is putting together the marketing material.
Like I'm very I'm very comfortable talking to people, but when it comes to you know doing the tech side of it. I've never worked for a company, I've never hired somebody that does all our marketing material. Now AI does it for us and at a really crazy speed.
So I'm super proud of that. And like I use you know, all these things I use myself. Another tool that we put together, the big one, is our Proxy AI, right? And so This is an AI that does that's dedicated to real estate.
And we built it. Like we built this thing that like it's really great for New York City as far as like any pertinent information about a property that you need, a market, comps, pro formas, calculations, what's going on as far as latest news events.
I mean, it is a beast. It can take an agent from being in the infancy of their career, right, to make them an expert in a couple of clicks. And it also could take the expert agent and support them, you know, while they're going about their transactions and keeping them up to speed with the changes that are happening or giving them variables that the AI itself like it gets smarter as you go.
The more you ask it, the more you put in. It just keeps growing, right? And it gets smarter and it understands the things that our agents and that our clients need. And so it's saying, hey, did you think about showing them this?
Did you tell them about this neighborhood that is similar? Have they looked at these properties? Investment sales, do they want to combine these two buildings to build an even bigger building? Here's the actual math of what you can do there, right? And so
Kyle: Yeah.
Ryan: It's wild. I mean this could sometimes take days or, you know, analyst and underwriting for these companies. Now like the regular real estate broker can do that.
Kyle: It really is unbelievable the things that you can simplify these days. And I myself have been in the market recently and one of the things that I've noticed on some of the apps, you know, the common apps that are out there from a user or a buyer standpoint is you can kind of add in important locations to your life.
For example, I go to the gym and so I was able to say I want to be able to use public transportation to get to the gym. And so I'm curious if there's gonna be any focus on the buyer side, any like features maybe that they'll be able to use that helps with like their neighborhood or their lifestyle frequently, you know, gone to places, anything like that, that maybe will fuel the conversation from the agent or will just help, you know, the buyer out when working with you guys. And I'm curious if there's any of those advancements you're thinking about.
Ryan: That's a great question. And that was very important to us while building it. Like we created a portal for our clients to come on. So we can not first the tools, the well, they don't need the marketing center, the clients, but the AI tool is ready available.
In fact, as of right now, we have it on the front of our website because we're so proud of it, we want to show it off. And you can get a limited amount of uses to try it out and to kind of take it for a test drive and show you what it can do.
But then once you become one of our clients and you log in, you have full access to ask it all the questions in real estate that you want, right? So that's available to them. But then our whole back end, we have a full dashboard for our clients where they on their own or they can connect with the agent they're working with in the company and they can get real-time updates on all the properties they've seen and they can it's a great place, you know, to keep track of all the information, to communicate, take notes on the properties, ask questions or because you go through so much you know some people have tours and they figure out what they want to do in ten properties, five properties, you know.
Some people like I've heard, you know, like I've heard people that doing have done over 50 properties, you know, it's not too uncommon, although that was, that's a tough process.
Kyle: Okay, yeah.
Ryan: But yeah so we're very much focused on all that. Like I mean our clients can do applications. I don't think that's so new, right? But our clients could do applications through our portal. They can make payments through our portal.
Like we've gone out of our way to make sure that the security, you know, everybody could feel very secure. They could upload their documents through it. And it just really helps finesse the whole transaction and keep everybody on the same page.
Kyle: Cool. Yeah. If anybody wants to check it out that may be listening to the episode, it's proxyre.io. Proxyre.io. So check it out. Those are some very cool features. I mean I love to see innovation and things like that.
Is there anything obviously share whatever you're comfortable with, but anything in the pipeline that has you really excited for, like any upcoming features or expansions or anything like that.
Ryan: Yeah, thank you for asking that. We so like the first iteration, like I can't stress enough I'm repeating myself, but I was so psyched to build it. Like I was like I couldn't believe that we made this come true.
Like, you know, so the second, what we're actually working on right now is twofold is one of the pieces of it is for lead generation. You mentioned this a little bit before is like, you know, you're responsible to get your own leads.
Like as an agent, it's not easy, right? So how do you get started on that? Well, it used to be you worked for a big name company and they would supply you with leads, and for that you paid them X percentage, right? And usually about 50%, sometimes less, sometimes a little more.
But my understanding is leads aren't being given out to agents like they once were, right? This is a change in the consolidation in this industry. And so the agents have to work a lot harder. And that's why we're seeing a lot of agents leave the industry.
But at Proxy, with this tool, we're actually psyched about bringing new agents on, right? Like we love experienced agents and we can take care of them very well. And we can compensate them well for that as well. But new agents can get extremely great splits.
But they'll also be able to get these tools that you know will help them build their business from day one, right? Like that they can start day one, they don't have to ask us where to go. They're all they're the lead generation system will already be there for them.
Not only that, the other thing we're working on at the same time is we're instituting into our AI like a whole coaching mechanism, right? So if you are a brand new agent and you're not really sure how to start, like I mean here, we're very hands-on with our agents.
We're me personally, you know, some of the other people on the team, like we pride ourselves in holding our agents' hands in real life, IRL, right? Like we're always available to do that. But it could be twelve o'clock at night and you're like, I'm psyched for tomorrow, like I wanna learn, what should I do?
You know, so our AI we're building it so that the AI will tell you exactly what you need to do, like from the perspective of the real estate agent, how to get started, how to stay motivated, help you plan out your calendar for the day, for the week, and keep you motivated.
I mean, I think that's something that people have the best of intentions, but that seems to slip for all of us, you know, a little bit at some point. Sometimes we just get exhausted, you know, sometimes we get overloaded. But the AI can actually help guide you through this whole process.
Kyle: And is this guidance based on your specific like calendar and client and lead volume or is it just like a templated approach like say like you should be reaching out to X amount of people or you need to stage this house or like whatever it is? Yeah, I'm curious how
Ryan: You're right. It's both. So we it's like I would say we aim to finish it where everything and I don't think this is gonna be very far off from where we are today. But yeah, like it could be like your whole pipeline managed into your calendar just like that, but it could also be as general as like, you know, tomorrow wake up and make sure you make five phone calls, right?
And then like But then it could be call these five people and make sure you follow up and it puts it like in our system, we use Google Workspace. And so it's all we have all the Google tools integrated. So your calendar, your Google Drive, your email, it's all in the back end and that's up to the agent if they want to sync up with it and connect it. But it's been proven so far to be very valuable.
Kyle: Cool. So yeah, it seems like it's gonna be very different for the person who's day one versus the person who's like year five or something like that to help you, you know, for your kids. Yeah.
Ryan: I mean, I think if I understand you correctly, like I'm actually like jealous, right? Like I feel like you're I wish I had this when I started, right? I mean, like I still think like nothing is better than a real life mentor, right?
Like somebody who's been through it, you know, like I don't think machines replace people yet anyway. So but I think that there's always a human need out there and that these tools could really help fill that.
Kyle: What do you think is like really influences an agent to join the brokerage? Is it something like mentorship? Is it, you know, compensation? Is it technology? Is it being provided leads? Like what's like what do you think is the one thing that if you know, like every single agent cares about and at least asks about it to figure out what the you know what the situation is?
Ryan: I mean, I think like the answer is the commission split. People are
Kyle: That's what I was gonna guess.
Ryan: Like you get it you're you get involved in this business usually because you want the potential to make the most amount of money, right? So yeah, people want to know about the commission split. And we offer across the board, we start people at generous splits and we even go up from there, right?
We're very open-minded about that. But I think the question they should be asking is like, what's the support? How am I gonna get business? You know, what's your experience and how can you help? That's what they should be asking me.
What's your experience and how can you help me? Right. And then and that we do have for them. And then in the end, you know, we want to make these tools, they're great to have, but we need to make them so super easy to use so that it makes their day easier, right?
So they don't have to data input all day. So they don't have to, you know, I mean. The hours I used to spend, you know, going through websites to find these little pieces of information now like I mean, less than ten minutes, you know, you're it's all done on our platform.
Kyle: Yeah, very cool. Very
Ryan: Answer that question?
Kyle: Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I have one final question. Oh, that I almost lost it for a second there. One final question for this core bulk section here. And I'm curious, let's pretend today that you are working for a different brokerage and you decide that you know today I'm going to build and launch Proxy.
But let's say you have all the knowledge that you have now. What would you do differently?
Ryan: Whoa, that's a good one. What would I do different if I was gonna launch Proxy today?
Kyle: But you have the knowledge that you have today.
Ryan: But I have the knowledge that I have today. I would probably I gotta think about that question a little further because I wanna say I wouldn't do anything different right now, but I'm sure there is though, but I thought
Kyle: You were say that you would just build it yourself from the start, as opposed to getting some other people to you know, help you out.
Ryan: But though that's a great answer. But like the truth is I it came to my mind, but like the reality is like it sucks at the time you're going through it, but like sometimes I feel like you have to go through it because it makes you stronger, you know, in the end it makes you have to work a little harder and learn a little more and so like when I got screwed over by these developers, I left that with, you know, all these outlines that I built, you know, and like going into that.
And so when I started building it myself, it was like I already had the information there. Right. And so I you know, listen, I've made many mistakes and I'm sure I got many more to make, but I'm kinda proud of them all, you know, in a way because it definitely I don't know, it sounds corny, but it definitely has helped, you know, shape me along the journey.
Kyle: That's an amazing perspective. I love the concept of being proud of your mistakes. That's a beautiful sentiment. I love that. So very, very cool.
Ryan: Yeah, and I got plenty of them to work.
Kyle: You and me both.
Kyle: All right. Well, that was awesome. So right now I want to have a little bit of fun and just have or throw five kind of quick rapid fire questions at you. You can answer them however you see fit. I ask every single person this first one just because I find it interesting.
If you had a magic lamp and a genie came out and he automated some process from you right now, beginning to end. What would that be? And it can be personal, it can be professional, it can be anything. But what do you want to not do and what do you want to be like fully automated at right now?
Ryan: Fully automated. I would like to what would I like fully automated? You stumping me here, Kyle. What process would I like fully automated?
Kyle: Tough one.
Ryan: Yeah, maybe getting my kids to get into bed at night.
Kyle: Hey, hey, that works.
Ryan: Yeah.
Kyle: I mean my answer is always something like that, like, you know, cleaning or cooking or something like that, 'cause it just it takes me away from the stuff that I want to do. So
Ryan: I
Kyle: I know some horror stories from other parents, so that nighttime can be rough.
Ryan: Yeah, to be honest, my kids are pretty easy on that too. I shouldn't even say that. So but yeah, but help around the house, yeah, for sure. That's where I could definitely would love some help. Like maybe like the Jetsons, you know, have a Rosie around or something like that. That would be pretty awesome.
Kyle: There we go. That's great. All right. Question number two. Is there anything that you think in terms of AI in real estate is too overhyped? Or is there something that you think maybe is very underhyped, you know, or should be talked about more?
Ryan: Yeah, I think that I think a lot of it is overhyped, to be honest. And then like I was saying, I was like I fell for it a lot. Like I'll go on LinkedIn, right, and I'll see people talking about the AI things, the things that they're analyzing and like at the end of the day, like I just think people are just overusing the word.
Right. A lot of times it's just a chat bot that somebody has, which was kind of around before AI and it doesn't really get you anywhere. And I don't like I haven't really seen too many people. I think it's great at underwriting, right?
Underwriting deals. But also I think you still as a human need to go through it and really evaluate the particular deal for your particular needs. But I think that, you know, I think just people overuse it. And I just haven't seen I think a lot of people were talking about AI and real estate and prop tech, they were originally talking about things for property management tools or they were talking about things that were like cooling buildings or, you know, like the temperature control in buildings.
And so like I would go to all these prop tech conferences and I'd be like, What where's the fun stuff? Like where's the cool things? You know, and like it would be booth after booth after booth of just like, you know, like some things that are unimpressive.
That said, I think we're on the brink of like really turning the page where like we're gonna see some really cool things come out in the very recent future.
Kyle: I agree. I think with any industry like we talked about, like everybody and their mom comes out with a solution and then, you know, 95% of them die because they suck, right? And then the real good stuff really starts to shine and come out. So
Ryan: Yeah. That's true.
Kyle: Cool. Question number three if you were to write an autobiography, what would it be called?
Ryan: My life and my mistakes.
Kyle: There we go, there we go. I like it, I like it.
Ryan: Well, yeah.
Kyle: Question number four to play off of the what's that
Ryan: Let me go back to three for a second. You know, I think the other thing that I really think is important in my autobiography would be patience and empathy. You know, I think that I think those are things that everybody could use more of and it would solve a lot of problems in the in people's personal lives and professional lives.
Kyle: I couldn't agree more. I think empathy is running very low these days. It's everybody could use a good dose of that. Very cool. Question number four, to build off of that, if you were to create that autobiography and if it was turned into a movie, who do you want to play you?
Ryan: Who would play me? Let me look at myself for a second. I would say like growing up like Johnny Depp was always my hero, but I'm a pretty short guy though, so maybe that guy from Game of Thrones, somewhere in between that Johnny Depp and that guy.
Kyle: There you go. There you go. I like it. All right. Fifth and final rapid fire question here. If there was no issues, no threat of danger and like everything was easy managed, what exotic animal would you like to have as a pet?
Ryan: Oh, this is a no brainer for me. I love elephants. Like oh I've always had an obsession with elephants. I'd like think they're like they seem kinda sweet and humble and like serene kinda beings. And then like but like if they have to get mad, like you definitely don't want to be in the way of an elephant, you know, and like I just really there's something about it I feel like I have elephant statuettes and statues and paintings all over my house. I really love elephants.
Kyle: That's very cool. And it kinda goes hand in hand. You know, everything I hear about them is they're very like intelligent and have a lot of empathy like you're saying and have that like social kind of connection and everything. So that fits. I like that.
Ryan: Yeah. It would be probably difficult to get in a New York City apartment, but
Kyle: Can you imagine? Oh my god.
Ryan: Who knows, maybe with AI they'll start genetically making some tiny elephants for pets or something like that, right?
Kyle: It's like the teacup pig, but instead of teacup pig it'll be teacup elephant. Yeah.
Ryan: Can you imagine
Kyle: Oh my god.
Ryan: Remember Looney Tunes when we were younger? I think there was an episode where they had a tiny elephant actually.
Kyle: Oh for sure, for sure. There's actually a Looney Tunes movie out right now with Wile E. Coyote. Yeah, yeah. Really? It's coming back. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. Amazing. Thank you for that, Ryan. I'd like to do a little just open forum here.
Is there anything that I didn't ask you about that you're excited about, you're passionate about, you want to get out there, whatever it may be.
Ryan: I think you know, as a company we're looking to grow right now. So we're looking for agents. If anybody that's watching this knows people that are looking to have their hand held or, you know, looking for a place to become part of this family and this thing that we're growing here.
We would love any recommendations and they can give our platform a test drive. And I think like the other thing I want to say about our company that I didn't mention is that like, you know, I really think of us as like the people's company.
Like we are a small company in New York City with where we have like the biggest real estate companies, whether they be brokerages or owners in the world. And we've kind of carved out a little bit of a niche of working with startups and mid sized firms and we'll be the first people to run into a complicated business type use that maybe other people wouldn't, right?
Because like we just really care, we're not looking for the easy transaction, right? We like to get to know our clients and really assist because we're entrepreneurs too, right? So like we want to get we want to help them get started in their career and their business and their investment and be part of that.
And so Yeah, I really pride ourselves on being that guy that works with startups to mid sized companies and helps other people get their start too.
Kyle: Amazing. I love that. Well, Ryan, I've known you for a couple years. I know that you're a great guy. I feel like people would be lucky to join the team and learn from you and use all the tools that you've built and everything.
So I hope you continue to have all the best success. If people want to reach out to you again, Ryan Magner, they can find you on LinkedIn. And Proxy is Proxy R E. That's for real estate, so Proxy R E dot I O. Anything else you want to shout out or plug or anything?
Ryan: Super grateful for you, Kyle. Like it's been awesome getting to know you. You're a great guy. I love what you're doing on your channel and your podcast and you're like the advice you've already been giving me for marketing has been second to none.
Like so thank you so much again. No, I mean it, you know, like you've really been excellent. So thank you. And I think this is a really awesome idea what you're doing and Yeah, thanks for again providing that platform for all of us for myself and all of the rest of us that have used it.
Kyle: Of course, of course. And I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm so happy to have you on. Thank you for joining and being our brainiac today. If you don't mind, please look at the camera and say, stay brilliant, brainiacs.
Ryan: Stay brilliant, Brainiacs.
Kyle: Amazing. Thank you, Ryan.
Ryan: Thank you.
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