AI agents could dominate home search, Lower and HouseCanary CEOs say

Industry executives speaking at HousingWire‘s AI Summit on Tuesday predict that AI agents will not only continue to take the reins on tasks now performed by real estate agents, loan officers and other housing professionals but will eventually dominate the home discovery process.

Dan Snyder, CEO of Lower, and Chris Rediger, CEO of HouseCanary, discussed the evolving role of AI at each of their respective companies during a panel moderated by HW Media President Diego Sanchez. Snyder and Rediger agreed AI will likely amplify the productivity of top-performing professionals while reducing demand for more manual roles.

Snyder’s prediction was particularly direct: Consumers will eventually ask an AI agent to find a home based on their goals and preferences, he said, adding that Lower is building an end-to-end homebuying platform through acquisitions, including real estate portal Movoto and mortgage technology company Neat Labs. The goal is to connect the consumer journey from home search through financing and closing.

AI is accelerating that effort, Snyder said, allowing companies to develop and deploy technology faster while reducing reliance on third-party software.

Snyder also expects consumers to increasingly use AI agents to search for homes, compare options, and eventually schedule showings and secure financing, comparing future reliance on AI to mobile banking or consulting with a trusted adviser.

Rediger similarly predicted that AI could allow consumers to identify agents based on much more specific information, such as an agent’s transaction history and negotiating performance.

He said that HouseCanary’s partnership with Google, which is in a national pilot and involves the companies working together to display home listings within Google search, illustrates an early stage of the transition from tool to adviser.

More than 10,000 agents are on a waitlist to have their listings and profiles included, Rediger told the audience.

Replacement for portals?

The Google experience is not intended to replace traditional real estate portals, Rediger clarified. Instead, it serves as a top-of-funnel search tool that can connect consumers with local agents.

“Is what was designed by Google meant to replace a portal? The answer is no. … This is very much like a single-shot hit,” Rediger said.

Still, both executives expect the distinction between traditional search and AI-powered discovery to blur. Rediger said the listing data currently used in Google Search cannot be fed into Gemini or used to train large language models due to existing licensing restrictions. He expects these rules to evolve as the industry develops new ways to license and distribute real estate data.

That evolution could also change how consumers select real estate professionals and search for homes. Instead of relying primarily on referrals or paid leads, buyers could ask AI systems to identify agents based on specific performance criteria, such as experience in a neighborhood or the ability to negotiate discounts.

Snyder said Lower is also using AI to reduce the cost of mortgage origination. A typical loan transaction can involve hundreds of individual tasks, many of which can be automated, he said.

Lower’s goal, he said, is to automate more of that work while preserving the human relationships that remain important to borrowers, allowing the company to lower costs and maintain margins.

Both executives said the companies that successfully integrate AI will have an advantage, while professionals and businesses that resist the technology could struggle.

“The winners will win and the mediocre will go find a different industry,” Snyder said.