The Real Brokerage is rolling out Leo 2.0, an AI assistant built into its proprietary reZEN platform that automates back-office work, marketing and lead generation for agents. The system — in beta with thousands of agents — represents what Chief Technology Officer Pritesh Damani described as a fundamental shift in how technology should serve real estate professionals.
“I don’t think this industry has technology right, it’s backwards in many ways,” Damani told HousingWire. “Every time a broker says they’re a technology brokerage, they have just bolted in something like five different tools that they license behind one single sign-on.
“I still believe we are probably the only brokerage that actually builds everything in-house, in a meaningful way where people actually use it.”
The technology is already yielding tangible results for early users.
David Keener, CEO of Premiere Group at The Real Brokerage, said his team has uploaded about 3,000 previously non-responsive leads into the system.
“In the last 30 days, it’s had 1,992 conversations,” he said. “It’s booking tours for us and it’s literally in the middle of 444 live conversations right now. We uploaded all our dead, non-responsive leads that we haven’t talked to in over a year and it’s resurrected them.”
Leo 2.0’s AI Relationship Manager analyzes client interactions and sentiment to identify prospects who may be ready to act. The platform also provides consumers with branded property-search tools through the company’s HeyLeo platform.
Damani said the company’s technology philosophy starts with understanding what agents actually do each day.
“If you truly think about what AI is supposed to do, it’s giving you your time back, and that’s what we’re focused on,” he said. “The number one job [for agents] is to get new customers or to maintain current customers. So, the goal with Leo is to do that, to create new business for you.
“I am sure that at least 1% to 2% of people in every agent’s database is either buying or selling right now, because that’s just basic stats. They just don’t know who they are.”
For Keener, the system has replaced his entire inside sales agent (ISA) staff.
“This is my ISA platform and it’s working 24/7,” he said. “It’s doing better than my ISAs because a lot of times we hire [buyers’ agents]. There’s a language barrier. There isn’t one anymore. It tags these leads that it’s talking to through text — alerting me to say, ‘This one needs help right now.’ This is stuff we were spending over $100,000 a year, and now it’s gone.”
Controlled rollout
The company is managing the Leo 2.0 rollout carefully, not because the technology is unready, Damani said, but because of the computational costs involved.
“If I threw in all the agents on day one, we would probably spend a [over] $100,000 a day,” he said. “We have thousands of agents using it right now, but we are very selective about how we let people in, how we roll things out, how we message people and how many messages it does on a daily basis.”
Keener said the system requires minimal input from agents to function effectively.
“Once the AI has a phone number, a first and last name, and some context, just a little bit of context, that’s it,” he said. “They say they’re looking in Greensboro, North Carolina, for a three-bedroom, two-bath, and then it’s going to send out [communication] on your behalf.
“That could be something like, ‘Hey, I saw these came up over the weekend. I’m reaching out on behalf of Dave. He wanted to make sure you knew about these because they just hit the market.’”
Agents to build custom AI agents
Looking ahead, The Real Brokerage plans to launch what Damani called an agentic development environment (ADE) that will allow users to build their own AI agents.
“The idea is similar to Claude or OpenClaw or OpenAI,” he said. “You have this interface where you can write the agent and test it out. Imagine something like that built right inside of reZEN, so you can like build native agents right there.”
Damani said the company will likely launch a new AI agent every day over the next year.
“Whether it’s putting furniture in an empty photo, landscaping your photographs that you took, processing a PDF and extracting information for you, it doesn’t matter,” he said. “There will be something there for you.”
Keener also spoke of agent benefits through use of Leo Copilot, Real’s AI assistant.
“I just opened up the chat window and said, ‘Hey, my property’s at 123 Main Street. I’d like you to print a flyer because I’m hosting an open house this weekend,’” he said. “And in about two minutes, it printed me off something beautiful, slick and with everything about the home and the surrounding area.
“It did it in two minutes — and I didn’t have to go into a queue and get it three days later or four days later.”
Data as the strategic moat
Damani said The Real Brokerage has maintained a consistent strategy; building everything in-house to control the underlying data and infrastructure.
“We will build everything that creates a strategic moat for the brokerage,” he said. “In order for people to build what we have, they have to build everything else that we build first. You can’t just build the agentic part. You have to have all the data — the transaction data.
“You have to have all the signature products and you have to have the community. You have to have all of these things on which the agents sit on top of.”
For Leo 2.0, Damani said success metrics will include how many agents connect their CRM, how many trigger the agentic tools daily and how many consistently use the system.
Keener — whose team joined Real in 2024 — said he initially had doubts about such a large investment in AI.
“I thought when they announced this last year that it was not a good use of our funds as a brokerage. I was a little upset by it,” he said. “But I’ve changed my tune 100% because of what [Damani has] been able to bring forward, to bring to fruition and seeing what it’s already doing and the amount of benefit and value it’s providing to every agent. It’s insane.”
‘Six months away’ from major automation
Damani predicted that AI will fundamentally change most real estate processes within the next year — but emphasized that the agent’s role in human relationships will remain essential.
“The trust and the relationships that the agents have with their customers are the most important part in real estate,” he said. “That’s because when you’re making a million-dollar purchase or a half-million-dollar purchase, whatever it is, or $3 million purchase, most people don’t know what they’re doing. AI just spits out how you should feel about it. It’s not going to actually solve the problem.
“Everything that feels like it should be automated will be automated. I do think we’re six months away from like 80% of the processes being completely automated. But that doesn’t diminish the role of the Realtor. The Realtors will have more time for their customers, and further emphasize the value they create.”
Keener drew a historical comparison to describe the significance of the industry’s current tech transition.
“It’s like living in the 1800s when they first turned on electricity,” he said. “The first time you flip that switch and your house lit up or you were able to turn on a radio, you never wanted to go back. It wasn’t even a consideration to move into a house without those capabilities.
“Real has turned on the electricity at a brokerage, and no other brokerage has these capabilities. We’ve looked at them all. They’ve turned the lights on, and agents aren’t going to leave.”
