Unlisted CEO Katie Hill on adapting to changing consumer needs

HousingWire

In this episode of the RealTrending Podcast, Katie Hill, CEO of Unlisted, discusses the problem she is solving with her platform, which features homes that are not currently for sale. She explains the missed opportunities in the real estate market for homeowners who are considering selling but are not yet ready to list their properties. The conversation delves into the inefficiencies in the current transaction flow, the role of MLS and AI in the industry, and the importance of data management and accuracy. Katie emphasizes the need for real estate professionals to adapt to changing consumer needs and the evolving landscape of home buying.   Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:   Unlisted focuses on homes that are not for sale.   There is a significant market opportunity in the gray space of real estate.   The platform allows buyers to express interest in homes not currently listed, join a waitlist and be contacted when the property comes to market.   Real estate agents play a crucial role in facilitating transactions when homeowners are ready to sell.   AI is not a threat; not adopting it is a risk for agents.   Data management is essential for accurate property listings.   The real estate industry needs to focus on consumer needs.   Unlisted aims to serve homeowners throughout their journey, not just at the point of sale.   The future of real estate will involve changes in search and consumer engagement.   Related to this episode:  Unlisted  https://unlistedhomes.com/  Katie Hill Linkedin  https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiehill11   The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Transcript

00:11while inventory is rising in a lot of markets in some markets it's just simply not and today

00:18I spoke with Katie Hill she is the founder and CEO of Unlisted it is a new service that

00:26features homes that are not for sale and buyers can put themselves on waitlist so it's not a private

00:34listing network and she talked all about it and the importance of it as a marketing tool for agents

00:40so enjoy the podcast hi Katie welcome to the real trending podcast hi Tracy thanks so much for having

00:47me yeah so I'm interested to talk to you a little bit about private listings today obviously that

00:53has been a topic of much contention in the real estate industry is just clear cooperation off

01:03market ML or off MLS inventory so but you built your platform around private listings and homes

01:10that aren't for sale at a time when everyone is going crazy over the off market so tell me a

01:17little

01:17bit about Unlisted and what problem are you trying to solve and what do people not understand about

01:22the product yeah so I think you hit right on the nail on the head about what people don't understand

01:28about the product which is that we're not a private listing site we are very much focused on homes that

01:34are not for sale yet with the idea that whenever they're ready to transact they'll go into the industry

01:42as it exists today whatever the debate is however agents want to advise those customers is really up to

01:50them but the idea really our focus is that before they're ready to list they're thinking about it

01:56sometimes for years and largely not exactly addressed or serviced and that's that we feel

02:05is a missed opportunity that represents you know really a missed opportunity that could be a great

02:11opportunity for the industry so is it kind of like I mean Zillow used to have like make me buy

02:16or

02:17something something I can't remember what exactly was called um where you could see a house and say

02:22you know put an offer in on it explain to me the service and how it relates to real estate

02:29agents and

02:30brokers so yeah Zillow had make me move um I think they took that down as I understand again we're

02:36different from that as well so maybe I think one of the best ways to explain what Unlisted um is

02:42and

02:42how it came to be is the origin story about where the idea was born from which is that um

02:48during the

02:49pandemic when the public swimming pools were home or were closed and I was home with two small children

02:54um I noticed that the house across the street had a little pool in its side yard and I mentioned

03:00to

03:00the neighbor that if he was ever interested in selling his house I was interested in buying it

03:05and like I don't know if that's a normal thing to do but we were doing all kinds of abnormal

03:11things

03:12in in that time and so I was you know really kind of moved by his response to that interest

03:21that I

03:21expressed which was that he kind of lit up and said really because I'm starting to think about my

03:26retirement it's going to be a little while before we find my replacement and um you know that I'm actually

03:32ready to to retire but when we do we're planning on moving south and I'm thrilled to know that

03:36somebody wants the house and we chatted a bit further and ultimately agreed that I would have

03:40a right of first refusal whenever he was ready to sell and that was just a really powerful experience

03:47I was really excited that I had a line of sight to what really is my dream home it's it's

03:52the perfect

03:52house for me it's just across the street but it's it really represents an optimization for me and my

03:57family and I could tell he was excited to know that he had some feedback about that he had an

04:03attractive home that you know somebody wanted um and so I just it kind of like got me thinking about

04:10how that was a revelation um that I had always sort of thought of properties as either for sale or

04:17not

04:17for sale until I had that experience and I started studying this this experience this this problem

04:25and surveying people and collecting data and come to find out and consistently now over the course of

04:31more than two and a half years about two-thirds of Americans identify as in this gray space of not

04:36for sale but not not for sale um some of them are in their homes right now and would move

04:42tomorrow but

04:43something is holding them back there's a mess in the basement or they're just not ready to make the

04:48full leap or they're nervous or whatever it is that's holding them back there's another group that's kind

04:53of like my neighbor where they know they're going to retire soon or they know they have a young you

04:57know their youngest is graduating from high school and they're going to be moving in in a year or two

05:02um and then there's a third group that's sort of like always for sale for the right price

05:07and this is the market that Unlisted is designed to serve um it's a 31 trillion dollar market opportunity

05:13in the U.S. and um yeah so we've created a platform to serve the folks who are not for

05:19sale yet

05:20so you you said the system is really flooded with inefficiency um where specifically do you see

05:25the biggest waste in today's transaction flow time data money in terms of inefficiency in the market

05:32what like what I would say is that there's a lack of opportunity for people to express interest

05:37outside of this sort of all or nothing experience that there's an opportunity for more information to

05:43flow um to allow buyers to express interest in homes that aren't for sale which is what Unlisted

05:49does and for buyers to collect uh interest in their properties um even though they're not yet

05:55listed this idea that is sort of a perpetual opportunity to exchange information we think is

06:00really exciting so so the way that we're doing this on Unlisted is we've created a platform with

06:05every home in the U.S. on it that's in the public record so it's 121 million properties in the

06:11platform and we've added this feature called the wait list which is a button on each one of these

06:16properties that allows a buyer or searcher a dreamer however wherever they are in their in their journey

06:24to search not just homes for sale but to search every single home in the market and if they like

06:32the home but it's not for sale currently then they can join a wait list for the home we notify

06:36the

06:36homeowner that there's a wait list for their property and um and then the two parties can chat in the

06:42platform about the possibility of a future transaction um do you know how many homes have

06:47been sold the this way through the platform so we don't we stay out of the transaction i think that's

06:52a really important um like uh you know point about what we're doing is the idea is that it's just

07:00the

07:00the early conversations and then when they're they determine that they're ready to sell Unlisted also

07:06wants to be a source of resources um the number one resource that we have available really the only

07:14resource we have available right now is agents so agents purchase um access to a zip code and then they

07:21are the designated local expert in that zip code so then whenever um somebody is ready to transact

07:27they'll talk to the agent and the agent takes it from there we stay out of the transaction what i

07:31would

07:31say are some of the more like the numbers that we care about is we've had over 21 000 homes

07:37wait

07:37listed valued at over 26 billion dollars since june which indicates um you know that there's good

07:45understanding of the idea and good appreciation of it we're excited about that um the other thing

07:51about our platform is that when the numbers that we're tracking is that these property profiles that

07:56we've created are entirely editable by a homeowner or if they would like to assign a collaborator which

08:03could be their agent the agent can also edit the details of the property profile uh we've had over

08:092 500 of the of these homes you know claimed or updated on the platform um valued at over 2

08:15billion

08:15dollars and over 60 of those have indicated that they're open to moving now or soon so that is

08:22what's exciting about unlisted is it's the signaling that's happening on the platform that allows um us

08:28to kind of see what's coming and then when they're ready to transact then then they can hit the industry

08:34like how they do right now um we stay out of that okay let's talk overall industry um you know

08:40mls's

08:41face a lot of pressure from the portals private networks um and now ai so what do you think the

08:46mls

08:46must become in the next five years to remain central to the industry that's not my area of expertise to

08:53be honest with you um mls's are about homes that are for sale and we're focused on homes that aren't

08:59for sale um so i feel like i just you know like i i just i've been reading a lot

09:04about this and thinking

09:05about it but um we really feel like the part of the market that's underserved is this pre-transaction

09:12audience and i don't think the mls is focused on that and so it's not something that i think about

09:19very deeply okay um but but in you know um as part of the information that i was sent you

09:26you've been

09:27clear that ai isn't the threat not getting on board is so where do you think brokers and agents are

09:32most at risk right now by not adopting ai fast enough well i think kind of everybody everywhere

09:38is at risk if we're not all adopting ai fast enough um i think that a piece of of what

09:46we're

09:46building here is um you know longer opportunities to engage with their clients so as ai starts to

09:55automate things that can be automated the human aspect the relationship aspect becomes more and

10:01more important for humans to be really good at really effective at and so one of the things that

10:06we really love about what we're building is we're paying attention to homeowners the whole time

10:12they're in their house you know not just when they're ready to move and we're providing opportunities

10:18then for agents to add value to their clients the whole time they're in their house not just when

10:23they're ready to move which we think is will be more powerful than ever in this age of ai where

10:29everything else gets automated more quickly but having the human touch and having people who are with

10:34you sort of all along it's very much it goes right in line with anything related to spirit marketing

10:40you know or sphere nurturing um it's wonderful to send gifts and cards and calendars and pies

10:47i love that and i do think that's meaningful but also if you can directly contribute to the way that

10:54homeowners are thinking about their properties the way that they're presenting their properties

10:57digitally perpetually if they're attracting interest so they understand their options these are real

11:02ways that agents can in an in an all new way add value to their clients between transactions yeah

11:08absolutely and um you know data quality is always the achilles heel with ai um so what do you see

11:17um

11:18you know how are you in making sure that your data is accurate i know you're you said that um

11:25the

11:26homeowner can update it um but what are how are you ensuring accuracy in the data that you're offering

11:32again this is another place where agents can add value between transactions as they coach their

11:37you know clients on which aspects of the data is correct and which ones aren't i think what's

11:42really interesting is like in the public record um there's not a lot of management of the quality of

11:48the data and this is something that should be happening and homeowners should be aware of what's

11:53out there about their properties and in my opinion they should be able to edit it because they're the

11:58closest to it now at the end of the day the system is going to correct itself because if if

12:04a um if a

12:06homeowner were to indicate something that was not accurate about their property it will show up you

12:12know when that when the next person comes to to purchase it and they're going to be corrected

12:17quickly um and there's lots of ways that you can sort of um you know manage those in online

12:22platforms with ratings and and accuracy scores um so yeah i think that like never more than now

12:30is it important to manage property data the the whole time because because the truth is and which

12:36is something i feel like we don't pay a ton of attention to is that the data around around homes

12:42is

12:42dynamic it's changing monthly right are you doing your your termite inspections are you did you put a new

12:50roof on are you upgrading you know your appliances this is something that is kind of constantly

12:56happening and um we should be helping homeowners track so that when they are ready to list everything

13:03is in in a really good order like one one of the one of the comparisons we like to draw

13:09that i think

13:09sometimes really helps people understand how we're thinking about this is um just like like linkedin

13:15we kind of consider unlisted like linkedin for for real estate um just you don't want to create your

13:21linkedin profile the day you need a job and you shouldn't start your listing the day you want to

13:25sell your house right there's things you can do sort of ongoing so that then when you are ready

13:29there's like oh there's you know thought leadership and all these you know achievements and stuff it's

13:33the same thing with the properties there's stuff going on constantly that we can make sure is captured

13:38in real time so that the full picture is there and homeowners are getting credit for everything that

13:42they're doing great and do you have any case studies of agents using unlisted um any success stories or

13:48anything that you can share yeah so we have almost 90 agents on the platform now across about 220 zip

13:55codes um we really just started selling our zip code or offering our zip code product in october so we're

14:01excited about that um that traction and i think like i mean there's there's different ways that agents use

14:09it but i think this these opportunities of where agents are connecting with their clients on the

14:16platform as collaborators and then very sort of gently and organically and and naturally learning

14:24that their clients are planning to move sooner than they thought things have changed since the last time

14:27they talked and unlisted is providing this really great uh sort of platform to have these kinds of

14:35conversations and to keep agents really up to up to speed with what's going on with their clients okay

14:41great um and what do you see is the next big structural shift in the industry that maybe agents are

14:48underestimating that's a great question um i think that probably search is going to change um i think we

14:58all need to be optimizing for the llms um i feel like most of us are heading to chat gpt

15:06multiple times

15:07a day and you know really making sure that for the folks who are asking questions that we can answer

15:14that we're showing up is is something that's that's you know really important now and will continue to be

15:20important any any last thoughts on you know unlisted or the industry in general yeah i mean i so i

15:27i i think

15:27that the number one thing that i want to get across about unlisted that i really want the industry to

15:32understand about us is that we're not a private listing network right um i've come to learn that

15:37the name you know carries a lot more uh weight in the industry than i had understood um when i

15:45when i

15:45first set out to do this i don't come from the industry i come from a marketing and a startup

15:49a technology

15:50background um and in that same breath consumers love the name and it means a lot to them because

15:58they you know they they're not they're thinking about their homes all the time and um and so this

16:07idea of being unlisted is something that's meaningful to a homeowner um and that you know and i just feel

16:13like we can serve people in this space really really well with a little bit more attention and thought

16:19to this journey that homeowners are on and then meet them where they are in a really powerful way

16:26that then sets us up for great success when it is time to transact and i i just think this

16:31idea is

16:32really important from a consumer standpoint and we need to be thinking about what do consumers want

16:37what do consumers need as an industry absolutely well katie thanks so much for joining real trending

16:43today i appreciate you coming on the show thanks for having me

16:54thank you

16:54you

16:55you

16:56you

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