Is AI Quietly Taking Your Property Commissions?

Here are the top 3 things in today’s edition:

• AI is turning property decisions into predictions, not guesses.
• Agent commissions are collapsing as AI takes over search, pricing, and coordination.
• Capital is backing AI-native platforms, not portals or listings.

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Founder Story of the Week: How Prop-AI Is Building the “Bloomberg of Real Estate”

Most property search tools are stuck in yesterday’s world: static listings, stale filters, and manual data gathering.

Prop-AI decided to rewrite the playbook.

Founded in 2023 in Dubai by Ranime El-Skaff and Christian Kunz, Prop-AI is on a mission to transform how properties are discovered, evaluated, and analysed using advanced artificial intelligence.

Rather than just listing buildings, Prop-AI builds machine-learning models that understand markets, risk, and value; a layer most PropTech platforms still ignore. 

El-Skaff’s blunt observation was this:

That insight became Prop-AI’s raison d’être: not just making tools, but building real-time intelligence that professionals can trust when markets shift.

What Prop-AI Actually Built

Prop-AI’s platform uses AI and machine learning to automate property search, evaluation, and decision-making. It goes beyond simple search filters by:

• Ingesting regional property records, pricing signals, and market trends
• Running valuation and risk models on demand
• Presenting predictive insights instead of static results
• Helping investors, agents, and operators make confident decisions in complex markets 

Instead of “find me X” it answers “Which property will outperform, at what price, and why?” - a fundamentally different way of approaching real estate intelligence.

Why This Model Is Dangerous (in a Good Way)

Traditional property search and valuation tools treat data as static inputs:

✔ filters and checkboxes
✔ outdated maps
✔ ask-and-receive results

Prop-AI treats data as real-time signals that can be scored, compared, and predicted with machine intelligence. That means:

• Better investment decisions: buyers/investors don’t just see listings, they see expected outcomes

• Speed over research: AI crunches months of financing, pricing, and risk data in minutes

• More confidence under uncertainty: markets rarely move in straight lines: AI models anticipate trends

This shifts the advantage from guesswork to data-driven certainty, something most operators still don’t have

The Results

Prop-AI recently secured a $1.5M pre-seed funding round led by Plus VC with participation from regional and global investors, signalling confidence in its data-first, AI-native vision. 

That fundraising allows the team to deepen regional data integrations, scale its machine learning infrastructure, launch advanced enterprise tools, and expand across MENA and Europe - markets ripe for intelligent real estate products.

The Takeaway for Property Managers

Ranime El-Skaff didn’t build another search engine, he built a decision engine.

In an era where portfolio performance depends on timeliness, accuracy, and risk insight, Prop-AI points to a future where:

📌 Operators don’t just find opportunities, they predict them
📌 Decisions are rooted in real signals, not gut feel
📌 Markets become less opaque and more actionable

If your workflows still rely on portals, legacy MLS tools, or simple filters, you’re not just inefficient, you’re blind to predictive value that AI can unlock.

Prop-AI’s approach is a preview of the next phase in property tech, one where intelligence matters more than inventory.

How AI Starts Killing the Commission Agent Model

Over the next 10 years, most commission-based agents won’t be “replaced by robots” overnight.
They’ll just wake up one day and realise:

• Buyers aren’t calling them first

• Sellers aren’t paying 1–3% fees

• And the work they used to do has quietly moved into software

This isn’t theory. It’s already happening in pieces, right now.

Let’s walk through what’s changing, step by step.

1. What Does a Human Broker Actually Do?

Strip away the branding. A typical agent/broker does five things:

1. Find people who want to buy or sell (lead generation)

2. Match people to properties (search + filtering)

3. Tour + explain (viewings + education)

4. Price + negotiate (valuation + offers + counteroffers)

5. Push the deal to completion (paperwork + coordination)

Now compare that list to what AI systems and modern platforms already do:

• Lead gen: social ads, portals, retargeting, email funnels

• Matching: AI search, recommendation engines, “people like you also viewed…”

• Tours: video, 3D tours, AI-generated walkthroughs, voice-over guides

• Pricing: AVMs (automated valuations), comp engines, dynamic pricing tools

• Coordination: e-signatures, automated reminders, transaction checklists

The broker is no longer the only way to get any of this done.
They’re just a bundled package of services tech is unbundling, one feature at a time.

2. How AI Eats Each Piece of the Broker’s Job

A. Lead Generation → Algorithms Already Do It Better

• Platforms already know who is “in-market” before the buyer calls anyone.

• Browsing patterns, mortgage pre-approvals, search behaviour, email opens — all tracked.

In plain English:
The system knows who will buy or sell before an agent does.

Once platforms decide to route those leads to their own AI assistant rather than a human agent, the human never even sees the opportunity.

B. Matching Buyers to Properties → AI Is Built for This

Humans:

• Ask a few questions

• Use filters

• Show a bunch of “maybe this?” options

• Hope something sticks

AI:

• Reads everything the buyer says

• Understands budget, taste, trade-offs, lifestyle (schools, commute, noise)

• Scores every property in the database by “fit”

• Shows a shortlist that’s actually relevant

No filters, no portals, no scroll.
Just: “Here are 8 homes you’ll probably like, ranked by how much we think you’ll like them.”

Once buyers experience that once, going back to “3-bed in SW11 under £800k” filters feels like dial-up internet.

C. Tours and Education → AI Guides, 24/7

Right now:

• Agents spend hours per week just opening doors and repeating the same explanations:
  “Council tax is…”, “Leasehold means…”, “Yes, the boiler is new.”

AI can:

• Generate a personalised script for each property and each buyer

• Answer questions via chat or voice (“What’s service charge here?”)

• Highlight issues honestly (noise, service charge, flood risk) because it has no commission bias

When combined with 3D tours and smart locks, you are a couple of steps away from fully self-guided viewings with an AI “host”.

D. Pricing + Negotiation → Data Beats Gut

Agents talk about “gut feel” on pricing.

AI doesn’t guess. It:

• Looks at every sale and rental in the area

• Adjusts for condition, floor, view, garden, noise, crime, schools

• Models demand trends

• Suggests: “List at £X, accept between £Y and £Z, expected time-to-sell 18 days.”

Negotiation?
Once both sides know the real market range, negotiation is just psychology. Even that can be coached by an AI:

• “If you counter here, probability they walk is 12%. If you accept, you’re leaving ~£4k on the table.”

You don’t need “top negotiator energy” when the system lays out the likely outcomes.

E. Coordination → Software Is Already Better

The final 20–30% of the job (chasing lawyers, brokers, surveyors, lenders) is already mostly project management:

• Who’s late?

• Who needs a nudge?

• Which documents are missing?

This is literally what workflow tools are best at.

AI agents can:

• Watch every task

• Auto-chase people via email/SMS

• Escalate if deadlines slip

• Keep everyone in the loop

Think “AI transaction coordinator” scanning the pipeline 24/7, doing what junior staff used to do.

3. The Real Story: Why Commissions Collapse

AI doesn’t just replicate each part of the broker’s job.
It changes the economics:

• Lead generation becomes platform-owned

• Matching becomes instant and better

• Tours become self-service

• Pricing becomes data-driven and transparent

• Coordination becomes back-office automation

What’s left to justify 1–3% of the sale price?

You don’t pay 3% of car value to someone for “introducing you to a Tesla showroom”.
You don’t pay 5% of flight cost to a travel agent anymore.

Property is going the same way. Slowly at first. Then suddenly.

4. A Real, Current Example: AIR in Dubai

Dubai is already testing “what happens if we just remove agents from the picture?”

• AIR launched as an AI-native brokerage.

• No agents. No traditional commission-heavy model.

• AI handles the whole flow: discovery, matching, underwriting, deal.

The value proposition:

• Sellers: lower fees, faster sales.

• Buyers: better matches, less noise, clear data.

• Platform: keeps a smaller fee per transaction at much higher volume.

Think of AIR as the early version of what will be normal in 5–10 years:

• “Talk to the system”

• Get a shortlist

• Book a viewing

• Get an offer

• Sign docs

No “my guy” needed.

5. What Actually Happens Over the Next 10 Years

It won’t be “robots firing all agents on a Tuesday”.

Instead, you’ll see:

1. Commission compression

   • 1–3% becomes 0.5–1% for humans

   • AI-driven platforms charge a low, flat, predictable fee

2. Hybrid roles

   • Some humans stay in the loop, but as advisors, not gatekeepers

   • “I want a sanity check”, not “You control access”

3. Platform-first behaviour

   • Consumers start with AI assistants

   • Those systems decide whether a human even gets involved

4. Specialist survivors

   • Complex commercial, luxury, and distressed deals still use humans

   • But everyday residential transactions default to AI + platform rails

The job title doesn’t disappear.
The economic power does.

6. What This Means If You’re a Property Manager or Operator

If you sit on the operations side (PM, asset management, BTR, SFR, PBSA), this shift is good news:

• You finally get direct access to demand instead of renting it from portals and brokers.

• AI can route right-fit tenants and buyers straight into your systems.

• You can negotiate lower fees or cut middlemen entirely.

Your leverage goes up if:

• You own your data (tenant history, maintenance, response times).

• You plug into AI discovery layers early.

• You present as “AI-ready inventory” (clean data, live availability, clear pricing).

Your risk?

• Staying dependent on humans who control the top of funnel.

• Paying yesterday’s commissions for today’s AI-powered leads.

Final Takeaway

The next 10 years won’t be “robots versus agents”.

It’ll be platforms with AI versus individuals without it.

• The platforms will own demand.

• The AI will own matching and pricing.

• Workflow engines will own coordination.

The human broker layer doesn’t vanish overnight.
It just gets thinner, more niche, and a lot less profitable.

If you’re a property manager or operator, the correct question isn’t:
“Will AI replace agents?”

It’s:
“How do I plug into the AI layer so I stop paying for the human one?”

Top PropTech Funding Rounds in 2025

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