AI Automation for Real Estate Investors: Scale Faster With Better Systems

Benito Piuzzi (00:00)
So guiding customers so they understand that when there is uncertainty, this is the time to invest in improving their processes. Because when the market’s hot, you you don’t want to be changing your tech stack.

You don’t want to be training people and doing something new. So I think that for me it is very critical to help them understand because that’s the movie that I’ve seen and I’ve watched before I know how it ends. Once the market gets hot and you want to compete, it’s too late to improve your processes.

Freddie Steen (01:57)
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast by Real Estate Pros. I’m your host, Freddie, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. Benito, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate space with Weston, particularly in helping workflow automation amongst real estate investor pros just like you who are listening now. So, Benito, I’m glad to have you here. I think our listeners are really going to take something away.

From how you’re approaching workflow automation in real estate, an area that’s not often attacked, but can also increase to more profit, more money to scale, and being able to do that more efficiently. Let’s dive in. So, first off, for people who may not be familiar with Weston, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days, Benito? And what markets are you operating in?

Benito Piuzzi (02:52)
Thank you, Freddie, for having me and excited to be here and share a little bit about us to the audience. We operate in the United States. Our focus is very simple, is we believe the real estate investment space is huge, yet it is very fragmented. Folks operate with many, many tools. And just like me and you, we hate change sometimes when you have to do it in the middle of trying to make money. So we are building

agents that learn your business and they execute for you. So obviously, this is not about relying on decision making without a human in the loop, but it’s more about eliminating the back office elements of what it’s like to execute acquisitions, evaluate acquisitions, or lend money, et cetera, et cetera, with agents that are modular and they learn your business, as I said before, and they operate without having to change your tech stack.

So you don’t even know it’s there. Things are just getting done.

Freddie Steen (03:46)
Modular agents. I I love it. I mean, what caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to tackle an old school issue in the way that the real estate industry operates. I mean, there are no standard tools in private real estate lending space. Would you agree with that? And that’s not easy in this climate. But Benito, what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Benito Piuzzi (04:11)
You know, moving fast and listening to the feedback of those that are living the pain day in, day out. I come from mortgage. I’ve I’ve led a mortgage shop, I’ve dealt with technology. Mortgage is highly regulated. Private lending space has a lot of the same flavors, but it’s a bit of the wild wild west in terms of regulation and standardization of data and execution. So lots of tools.

are popping left and right. Some are good, some are not. So it’s more about truly focusing on what are the key problems every lender is facing. The volume they generate, the volume of acquisitions they make dictates what is the main problem. And listening and understanding how do you create solutions that deliver value is critical.

Freddie Steen (05:43)
Yes, Benito. I I think I want to dig in a little deeper when you talk about the fact that real estate transactions, I mean, the needs are different amongst the landscape of real estate. You know, one size doesn’t fit all with modular agents. How do you combat that?

Benito Piuzzi (05:59)
Yeah, so I think there is a bit of a it’s not an infinite number of customizations. It’s easy to get lost in I’ll build whatever you need, and that’s usually a bad a bad model. But it’s more understanding if you if you map the workflow, there’s a finite number of things that tend to be the key pain points. We’ve gone around and interviewed people across the spectrum of brokers and lenders, and we’re really pilot

and executed on a few engagements where you start seeing a common denominator on the typical problems. So it’s not about customizing everything. You will find that there’s always an element of handling paperwork. There’s an element around communication. There’s an element about underwriting to some sort of guidelines from investors. There’s an element about closing. There’s an element about servicing and monitoring loans. And they might have slightly different flavors, but for the most part, these are standard.

problems that happen in the flow. And from an acquisition point of view, it’s more about how do I quickly know if I should invest on on a property or not. Now the mechanics might be slightly different, but sort of the the the math behind it, the infrastructure tends to be for the most part the same. So it’s a little bit of pattern recognition, building something that with people in mind, we’re not building in silo. We’re building with people that are living the pain. And then we’re offering to others as a way to solve different parts of the workflow.

Freddie Steen (07:20)
Benito not every operator I know has a moment where things got real. I mean, maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Benito Piuzzi (07:32)
Yeah, so I’ll be transparent. Like one of the biggest hypotheses we had after, you know, all the research we’ve made in my knowledge in appraisal and originations was this idea that valuations are at the core of of every transaction, understanding the true value of of of a property. And I think what we found is that it’s in order to compete

We started partnering with an appraisal company and evaluating data, and we quickly realized that the point of entry evaluating models using appraisal data was not giving us the error rates that would allow us to compete with others. And while we were talking to different customers, we realized that it was a this is the difference between like a a painkiller and a vitamin. We’ve we started realizing it was more of a vitamin versus a painkiller. They’re like, hey.

Like I would love to have something better, but I still use these other tools versus hey, I’m spending 25% of my week handling paperwork. So there was a little bit of signals, even though we spent time and trying to model and sell this, we started to realize we needed to be more focused on the things that matter most for for for people that are trying to scale their businesses. So that was a moment for us, despite people being interested in the value proposition, we had to pivot to really maximize where was the most value that we can deliver to people trying to grow their businesses.

Freddie Steen (08:54)
Maximizing the value where you can deliver, that’s the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term, like you, Benito. With the background with McKinsey, with your current opportunities here with Weston, Benito, let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the real next goal?

For Benito, I was.

Benito Piuzzi (09:21)
Well for us to be honest is to really be able to deploy at scale solutions that can add value, as I mentioned, to businesses that are looking to grow. For us, before we even think about what’s the next frontier, which I have a lot of thoughts about, is more about helping them understand the current landscape. And the reason why I say that is because if you look at, you know, you can Google this, look at the news.

There’s a sentiment around there is capital to be deployed, but there is a lot of a lot of I will say there’s a little bit of stagnation in the amount of deal flow in general, whether it’s origination and investments, there’s a new law that went into effect. People are nervous about where they could expand.

So guiding customers so they understand that when there is uncertainty, this is the time to invest in improving their processes. Because when the market’s hot, you you don’t want to be changing your tech stack.

You don’t want to be training people and doing something new. So I think that for me it is very critical to help them understand because that’s the movie that I’ve seen and I’ve watched before I know how it ends. Once the market gets hot and you want to compete, it’s too late to improve your processes.

When the market is the way it is now, this is the time when people have a chance. And I want to help as many customers as I can so they can improve their processes before it’s too late. Now, what’s in the future?

I mean a lot of the tools in today with AI, there is a lot of a lot of you can reapply a lot of the core engine to different industries and processes. But before I even get there, like I said before, there’s there’s just a lot of people in the industry, over ten thousand lenders, thousands of brokers, investors that can use tools like like like the one I can I can help them with and and I wanna be part of that journey.

Freddie Steen (11:35)
Being part of the journey, Benito, is big. I mean, you are a former Forbes council member, especially when you’ve already got this understanding of how new competitors are in essence latching on to vibe coding, where they’re coding a problem and thinking that AI is solving it when in essence these agents are having to be recreated down the line. I mean, through context and networking.

It’s less about data to start with proprietary data. Proprietary data will come, you told me. Explain that piece of it. Why is it less about data and the proprietary data will come in the future? Can you explain that to our audience?

Benito Piuzzi (12:18)
Yeah, absolutely. So in today’s world, for any company building an AI, I’ll I’ll put them in like the there’s three buckets. There’s there’s you could argue they could build many buckets, but I I’ll do no, I’ll put them on three buckets. There’s a world of horizontal AI, which means like anybody even businesses can build their own tools. And you know what? Depending on what you’re trying to build, sometimes that is the right thing to do. It’s very depending on the business model, the need, and are you solving a problem? And if you are, no business can judge you for that or trying to resell you on something you don’t need to be solving.

It is true that AI has removed that that barrier, and that’s completely, completely fine. I think that there is also the world in which with AI you could start with something proprietary. People love to hear, here’s why I’m unique. And when you start a business, you say, Well, I I ingested 10,000 transactions where I train my model with 20 million records of something.

And then when you go sit and say, well, that’s that’s unique. That’s hard to replicate. And then at that point, but that’s very hard today to say I start with proprietary data. Typically, people start somewhere to get that. But sometimes people have done a good job. They come from partnership, they pay for data, and you have a few of those. But what I was saying is the third category, which is people are working in the background, and most people are using a version of AI that anybody has access to.

The key is how do you tailor it to serve serve a problem so you train it? Because AI would elusion it. How do you train it so you solve the problem well for that particular industry? When you do that over and over and over and you have some critical mass, now you have a mode. Now you can distinguish themselves because now you’ve trained the model to get there. But to get to that level of trainability, if that’s a word, you have to have the relationship. You have to tell someone, hey, I’m here to help you, I’m building this with you.

And there are some barrails we can create to cross-sharing, how do we work through the model? But once you have enough, then the proprietary models become a function of were you able to sell on the vision and the execution. Because in today’s world, unless you have some partners, like I said before, it’s very hard to start with like, I have this unique set of data. You create that unique set of data, and now you have something. That’s why speed becomes critical, relationships become critical as you have the models trained.

Now it’s hard to compete. Now you can anybody coming with horizontal solutions will lose because they don’t have that that that momentum. They don’t they haven’t trained their models per se. And to be frank, for any industry, it is important to have trains that are model. Otherwise it’s just it’s just you can’t go so deep. Like it’s the difference between snorkeling and deep dive you know and diving. Like there’s a it’s a massive difference and and depending on what you’re doing that’s what I was saying. Like it it depends, but but you want models that are trained, but you gotta start somewhere.

Freddie Steen (15:42)
Training models. I mean, having models in place. I mean, the speed at which you want to go to market, Benito, the next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I know a lot of people listening are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up like you. And I think they benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you, Benito?

Benito Piuzzi (16:09)
You know, I I I know it sounds a little cheesy, but just being sincere and authentic. I found that reaching out to ask for things or automating with a high outreach, it it it it’s it’s a it’s a problem. Like and and what you find is the world moves through people and it’s you know it sounds generic, but it’s people making decisions, people managing businesses. So I would say what’s made a difference for me is like being intentional.

about talking to people, being there, being present. I put on my calendar sometimes reaching out to people, but not because I’m a robot, because I legitimately I’m like, hey, I’m checking in. Like, cause you know what? Like maybe you need me and I’m here. But maybe tomorrow you need you know, I need you and and sometimes all my asks are just introduction. I’m not asking to nothing else. But I’ve been asked for things and I’m happy to help people. But that networking part of it needs to start with, you know, sincere outreach.

And we’re all people. I I don’t mind when people have reached out like, Hey, I need help with something. I don’t know you. I’m reaching out. Like I actually reply. And because you know, I want them to know that there’s people that care. And then who knows? The world is round. What comes around goes around. You never know if you’re gonna need help. And if you don’t, that’s great. You you know, get to know people, which is wonderful. There’s a lot of great people out there, but you have to be intentional, is the number one advice. Have a plan and be sincere, be yourself.

Freddie Steen (17:29)
Yeah, you can’t fake that. Relationships are everything in this space. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Benito Piuzzi (17:42)
Yeah. So the best way my email [email protected], M E E T W E S T O N dot com, [email protected] or they can just on LinkedIn find me, Benito, last name Piuzzi P I U Z Z I, and reach out and I’m happy to connect with anyone.

Freddie Steen (18:03)
Perfect. Well listen, I appreciate your time, your story and your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. So thanks again for being here, Benito.

Benito Piuzzi (18:13)
Thank you, Freddie. Appreciate it.

Freddie Steen (18:14)
And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Benito, who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.