Are algorithms or agents the missing link for disconnected homebuyers?

A conversation with Maiclaire Bolton Smith and Amy Gromowski

At a glance, the modern homebuying process appears more advanced than ever. Algorithms suggest listings. Automated systems handle pre-approvals. Platforms quietly track your preferences and predict the next move.  

Today’s homebuyers face a fragmented digital journey where each step is powered by different tools — and they don't talk to one another. Buyers are recommended a house by one platform, qualified by another, and nudged by yet another tool without ever truly understanding what's happening behind the scenes. Despite two decades of technological progress, including the rise of AI, homebuying is still a confusing, emotionally taxing, and a highly human experience.

Why is that? And what would it take to make this journey feel less like a maze and more like a guided path?

In this episode of Beyond the Buildings, host Maiclaire Bolton Smith sits down once again with Amy Gromowski, Head of Data Science at Cotality, to explore the tension between automation and the human touch in the real estate world. Together, they examine how artificial intelligence is being applied across the homebuying process, what’s working — and what’s not — and why human expertise is still critical in creating trust and clarity for buyers.

In this episode

2:30 – Where does homebuyer’s mistrust with AI come from?

6:45 – AI has been part of technology for decades — are homebuyers using it without realizing?

12:00 – How do homebuyers blend technology with human guidance to make the smartest move?

19:21 – Finding the right real estate agent, mortgage broker, and lender starts with comfort.  

24:15 - Erika Stanley breaks down the property taxes numbers in The Sip.  

27:30 – How to enhance AI literacy in the homebuying process.

Transcript

Amy Gromowski:

At some point, I think Maiclaire, we're talking as an organization at Cotality, as we continue to embrace the changes in technology and really think about how it changes the property ecosystem, the lives of property professionals, and ultimately the lives of end consumers, what does the future look like?

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

Welcome to Beyond the Buildings by Cotality. I am your host Maiclaire Bolton Smith, and I'm just as curious as you are about everything that happens in the property industry. On this podcast, we satisfy our collective curiosity, explore questions from every angle and look beyond the obvious. With every conversation, we illuminate what is possible. Buying a property is a big undertaking, not only because there's a lot of emotional cost in a home's price tag, but there are so many steps to complete in the transaction. In the last two decades, we've increasingly used technology to help make the process smoother. The latest iteration of this evolution is AI, but while AI promises to smooth the bumps in the road, humans are still largely involved. Why? Because even though home buyers are surrounded by systems, homes are automatically recommended. Qualification processes are automated platform tracking preferences. None of these systems are speaking to each other. That's a problem. Without guidance, buyers are moved between systems with little explanation and even less trust in the process, but there may be a way to bridge the gap. So to talk about how humans and technology can interact to create a system of insight that buyers can trust, we have Cotality's Head of Data Science, Amy Gromowski, back on Beyond the Buildings. Amy, welcome back to Beyond the Buildings.

Amy Gromowski:

Hi, Maiclaire. So happy to be here. I love talking to you, and you always have such interesting topics.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

Yeah and this one is definitely an interesting topic.

Erika Stanley:

Before we get too far into this episode, here's a friendly reminder about how to see what's coming up next in the property market. To make it easy, we curate the latest insight and analysis for you online, find us using the handle at Cotality on all our social media channels. But now let's get back to Maiclaire and Amy.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

So, I guess the thing I want to kind of start with is there's a lot of mistrust with AI technology. Everybody doesn't know what they can trust, and I guess when it comes to buying a home and spending hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, that scares people even more. But where's this mistrust coming from? And I guess where do we trust technology in this whole homebuying process?

Amy Gromowski:

Yeah, you know, with this question, I do just first think well, do humans mistrust AI, just first and foremost. I mean, maybe I'm a little bit too close to AI and what's happening in the world of AI. I think more than anything, just people are really fascinated by it. I mean, everybody loves to play with it. I would think everybody is really playing with it, and it's fascinating. I mean, I'm about ready to head on a vacation internationally with my family, which can be a little bit daunting to just think about does everything go well? And I was just talking with a colleague who was like, "My last trip I used AI to plan it all." I mean, it helps me with which trains I should take and how I should think about timing and recommendations that it made. And so anyways, that's just very, very fascinating. But I do agree there's also an aspect to it that is scary. And so what is it that makes it scary is really just about, I mean, first and foremost, it's like, well, what does this mean for me specifically? For all of us? We are asking that question, is my job able to be replaced by AI? What does it mean for my kids? I know right now everybody that I talk to is thinking I have children who are about to enter the workforce. Well, not quite. They're about to enter college and make those decisions about what their career should be. And so then it's like, how do I guide them and help them what to study? Or are they going to have the critical thinking skills? Are people in general going to have critical thinking skills with AI? Those are some of the things that we're talking about. So, I think it's really fascinating, but it's a little bit scary about the implications.

The trust piece is a whole nother dimension, and I think really there are aspects that are very manageable to ensure that we can trust AI. I think generally the sentiment is it's moving very quickly as far as the true, I'll say intelligence, it's still trained on data, so it's not truly going to find the next cure for cancer. Although, I don't know, maybe there's scientists out there who say that it could, that's way outside of my range, but certainly it is giving you information. Now, the AI is based on what it's trained on, so just innately, it's historical. It's a representation of everything that's just available today. But in the trust, it is about just what's the transparency and the explainability. There's some scary things around there. Deep fake is real. I mean, I just saw some deep fake videos that are very, very real and can trick people for information and who you're talking to and really thinking that it's legitimate companies or people. So privacy, security, data protection, those are all things that we need to address if we're going to trust the AI. But mostly right now, it's like let's make sure we're doing those right things. I think for our audience today, ensuring that you're working with people you can trust, the companies that you can trust that are taking all of that seriously and looking around those corners for you. And from there, then you can just focus on the value and the fascinating pieces and the scary things become less scary.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

Yeah. You know, Amy, when you started, you said, do we really trust, mistrust, AI? And it took me back immediately to the podcast you and I did last time when we talked about AI and we're like, well, what is AI? And that you talked about, you mentioned this to your daughter, what is AI? And we think of all of these like brand new things like generative AI, things to be what AI is. But AI has been a part of technology and our lives for so long that we trust it without even realizing that we're relying on it in many aspects too.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

So, I Think what you really hit on though, the key thing is it's the transparency and the understanding of what AI is doing for you.

Amy Gromowski:

That's right. That's right. I think that's right. And who's behind it? Who's behind it? And I know we're going to get into who ultimately is responsible when decisions are made or information is used that isn't accurate. And those are real concerns because as AI grows and takes hold more, there's this idea of AI is agents and acting on behalf of people. I think there's so much opportunity there to be used for real productivity gains but then it comes down to if it's all AI, well, who's on the hook? And putting some time into that I know is one of the things that we need to talk about and think about when we think about the whole, you know, property ecosystem. And at the end of the day, it's people who are buying homes.  

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

Right, right, and I almost feel like maybe that mistrust comes not from the technology itself, but the breakdown between the connectivity between all the different parts of the ecosystem as somebody is trying to buy or sell a home and what that could look like. So I guess, you know, is it - is there a way that technology can bridge this gap and link all the different components together?

Amy Gromowski:

Yeah, I think, yes, short answer, yes. If you look at the process in which we buy and sell homes, secure a mortgage and secure financing, secure insurance, and look at the affordability of that. And heaven forbid, if there's something that happens to your property and you need to file a claim, you need to make your property whole again and have your place to live and all the restoration and everything that comes with that. There are lots of different companies and parts of that whole value chain that have always had their box in which they live and are responsible for. And that's really important because each of those areas require some deep subject matter expertise, an agent helping a homeowner buy or sell a property, and what they're looking at and the criteria that they need to satisfy and the role that they play, I should say, right in that process is very different than an appraiser, is very different than a loan officer, and underwriter or an underwriter is different than an insurance underwriter and the insurance company.

And so they've built all the AI and the systems and processes around that role and that area of responsibility that they have, which is good. It's good because that deep level of expertise is there, and you need that. You need somebody who understands risk around a property and how to price insurance. You need somebody who understands how to guide a homeowner through a transaction. But what that did create then is a whole ecosystem that you could argue is disconnected and it puts a individual in the middle of navigating a complex process and AI as it continues to evolve. And here we are with large language models and generative AI and Agentech. There's now a world in which each of these entities, so I'm talking about the agents and broker process with the appraiser, with the lender and going through underwriting,

Even the servicer, they can all start building agents, and the agents in part of those processes can talk to each other. And so now maybe what puts a homeowner from navigating a complex kind of system, the AI could be navigating that. Which could reduce and eliminate a lot of pain points. It could take our, I don't know what we're up to today, 60 to 90 days maybe from the time you put in an offer to the time that you closed. What if that just condenses down into a matter of a couple of days? I mean, there'd be a whole bunch of other implications to that. But I do think that is something that could happen today if we ignored trust responsibility if we just ignored everything. Could you build that all today and hit a button? I think so, possibly. Yeah.

Erika Stanley:

If you haven't had a chance to meet Cotality yet, come say hi. We help you see property from every angle by analyzing the nuances behind billions of data points across the globe. A link to learn more is in the show notes.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

So, we did a survey a few months ago and we found that 59% of the people who responded thought that Gen Z would trust a blend of technology and humans rather than just technology. I guess. Amy, this is interesting to me still. Why do you think the younger generations still want people to guide them through and not just rely on technology?

Amy Gromowski:

I can only guess because I am not Gen Z, but really, boy, if you think about homebuying, it is a major financial decision and it's emotional. It's about maybe you are moving in with a partner, maybe you're moving across the country and you're starting a new job. It's a new neighborhood and a new set of doctors to find, where to grocery shop, and what am I going to do here for fun? There's all these things,

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

You're a grownup now.

Amy Gromowski:

Yeah or you're moving with your family and you're changing locations with your children. So, it's a large emotional event as well. And I just think that people want people by their side, and I'm not saying that people aren't in the center of AI. I think they are. They're building it, they're deploying it, we should be monitoring it, all those things. But at the end of the day, you want a person who can help you with all the complexities to think about affordability, not just, can I afford this property now and today, but will I be able to afford it in the future? The mortgage will stay the same. Maybe you refinance and you can lower your interest, but what about risk? What's happening in risk? Or how do we think the neighborhood's going to change? You want expertise. You want to talk through these complex things with somebody. The AI certainly can talk to you these days, but I think it's more about you are going to turn to a person in all of this when it comes to trust who's on the hook, you're going to turn to a person. Organizations still are going to look to their employees around why is AI behaving this way? AI is not the accountable, it's people.

So, I just think if I was that age and I was coming into some of these big adult type decisions, I certainly want to know there's another experience adults on the other end of it that's helping me.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

That's actually a really good point too, is somebody who could guide you through this that knows what they're talking about that's either done it before themselves or somebody that helps other people, almost like a therapist for buying a home, having that counselor who actually helps you understand what you're getting into. I guess you nailed it too when you said, in theory, if you have a traditional mortgages in this country are fixed for 15 or 30 years. We do have adjustable rate mortgages as well where it will change, but you can be, quote unquote, guaranteed what your mortgage might be for the foreseeable future, but property taxes could increase, insurance, very likely will increase. So understanding, I know myself as a home buyer, when I first bought my first home a number of years ago, I didn't know anything about any of that, and you know, I was - it was interesting. Eye opening, I think is the right thing for me.

It was eye opening for me to really understand that. And having somebody be there to kind of help you through that, because many times these automated systems could take you down the wrong path. They could, they're showing you homes that fit your budget, quote unquote. But I think a lot of people, when they look at it, they use these automated tools, they see that, oh, this is what the mortgage is going to be. Oh, that'll fit my budget without factoring in these other things of maybe you need mortgage insurance, maybe have you factored in your insurance costs, have you thought about property taxes? And those things could add, you know, hundreds or thousands of dollars on your monthly payment that people may not know. So they end up going down this path of being taken in the wrong direction. So I guess, how could a homeowner really know who they can turn to trust? We say they want to rely on people who are those therapists? Who are those counselors through the homebuying journey process?

Amy Gromowski:

There's still personal brand out there. There's still going to be, and I think this will be true as it goes forward when it comes to trust, you look, you know, to people that you trust in your circle and then you ask, who do you work with? Who have you had a good experience? Who do you believe is knowledgeable about it? I think AI does have a role if it's possible that you can look to your network and your circle of people that you trust and you're in a space that nobody has that kind of experience. So we'll turn to AI, right? And we'll say, let's just say our good friend ChatGPT, who's the best agents in this local area or in the area I'm looking to explore? Who knows the neighborhood? Or you can just maybe come to a company like Cotality can be available. Let's say today we're more business to business, but if there were these tools available just to an end consumer, tell me about a neighborhood.

Then it just comes down to do I trust? What's the brand of a company? What do I know about the data that they're using? Or even asking, being able to ask the property professional you're working with, who do you look to for the information that you're getting, and how much transparency do you have around that information? And is it explainable? At some point, I think Maiclaire, we're talking as an organization at Cotality, as we continue to embrace the changes in technology and really think about how it changes the property ecosystem, the lives of property professionals and ultimately the lives of end consumers. What does the future look like? The world will become more and more Agentech. We're going to have systems talking to systems. And I think as part of that, we as just people need to become more and more AI literate. That's what we're calling it in our organization, just the AI literacy.

And I think a lot of that AI literacy is knowing what questions to ask. So, if I'm a consumer and I'm working with somebody who I know is using AI, being able to ask them the questions of how do you know the ultimate data sources of this and where it comes from, and do you know why this risk score is high or why my insurance is really high? What's behind that? So, I think we as an organization have to be able to arm property professionals with that kind of information so that end consumers can also grow trust with AI and with the data and the knowledge that's out there.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

Yeah, I love that vision of the informed consumer and the informed consumer is informed because of the informed community around them, whether that be their agent or their mortgage broker, or just the property professionals that are helping them on this journey. I thought a lot about what I did when we bought our first home. Again, I knew nothing, had never bought a home before. I had no idea how to do this. The agent we ended up working with was a neighbor of our friend, somebody who they recommended. They also recommended a mortgage broker, but when we bought this house, we moved to a totally new area. We didn't know anybody in the area that could recommend somebody specifically for this area. And I did, I went to technology, I went to the internet. I started looking, I found homes myself that I was interested in, and I looked at who are the selling agents for those homes?

And we ended up meeting our agent kind of through a connection to somebody, to somebody, to somebody else. And I mean, she's still a dear friend of ours and we trust her now. We've recommended other people to her, and it is just working with people, make you trust those people. The other thing that I think is really great about many people experience is many of the agents have that whole network set up. They're like, oh, I have a mortgage professional that we can recommend. We have this, we can recommend, and they can help connect all those dots for you. So I think that that helps. The million dollar question, Amy, that you kind of alluded to is who really does own the homebuyer journey? I mean, ultimately, I guess the homebuyer tracks their own journey, but yeah, who owns the journey?

Amy Gromowski:

I agree. I think it's the homebuyer. They own the journey, obviously. I mean, okay, so that's the obvious. They're the ones who will choose the home they want to buy, the lender they're going to go with or a mortgage and the agent or whom they trust to shepherd them through a process. In future worlds where we are more and more Agentech and systems are talking to systems, and you don't, and maybe at some point it's even behind the scenes. Maybe a homeowner says, or potential buyer says, I just want the best rate, the best terms, and I don't know that I care about the lender. I mean the brand of the lender who's behind it. Is that possible someday, right?

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

I would love to survey people to see if they even know who their lender is.

Amy Gromowski:

That's true. And once you go with a lender, often it moves to a different servicer, right? I've had a loan out with a lender or a bank and then it transfers and somebody else's servicing that.

Does that matter to me? No. I mean, as long as I know where the check is going and that I can see in my house and that everything paid, absolutely. Yeah. So to the question around who owns the homebuyer? I feel, and this is just my opinion, it is that first person, it's that person that you are choosing in the first part of that shopping experience, in the buying experience, or even the selling experience. That is the emotional piece. That's the decisions that are getting made. Once that decision is made, all the downstream things are what have to happen to ensure that you can secure the loan, that you can secure the insurance, that everything then becomes about getting into that property. So, I think, yeah, it's really about that trusted person. And again, this is just my opinion that shepherds you through all of that, just like you talked about Maiclaire, right? That's the person that you looked to. I had the same experience, especially our first house. I don't know any home inspectors. Do you? How do I know who to go to? It's the agents that help you with that, right? Yeah, I don't see a world in which the expertise of those property professionals, by the way, I don't see a world in which those go away. I think the expertise and the roles of the individual property professionals is very necessary. I don't know how necessary it'll be for the end buyer or seller to be in the middle of all of that like they are today.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

Ah, I see.

Amy Gromowski:

Right. So the upfront person that you choose to work with, really, I think they're the ones who are the primary owner of the relationship and the process.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

Sure. Yeah. No, that makes sense. And you're going down the exact direction of where I want to end today, Amy.

Erika Stanley:

For years, people were told to buy a home and lock in a mortgage to protect themselves from rising costs. But when property taxes and insurance can jump double digits each year, that stability disappears. In fact, a new Cotality analysis found that serious mortgage delinquencies are growing and pressuring states that are particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. Plus, not all loans are built the same. Government backed FHA and VA loans are meant to help people with lower incomes or less savings get on the property ladder. But Cotality's data shows that serious delinquency rates for FHA loans are five times higher than conventional mortgages. VA loans are not far behind. They have three and a half times more serious delinquencies than conventional alternatives. Learn more about how rising escrow costs are eroding affordability and raising the cost of staying put. And that's the sip. See you next time.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

I always like to say, if you could look into your crystal ball, and if we look at the future, we've talked a lot about humans here today, and it's like the focus on people and that people need that human intervention to really have confidence in what they're doing when they're spending hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars. And I guess, do you think there will ever be a point where that relationship between humans and technology will change?

Amy Gromowski:

I think it's changing all the time. Where it goes, I am in a lot of different conversations about it. What's going to happen with public policy, law and regulation? We have no federal law regulation today. Everything's at the state level. There's a lot of new proposals always coming out. We're always monitoring that and understanding does it apply to our world? Doesn't apply to our world? I'll be curious to watch how that all unfolds over time, what it means for protections for people, consumers, companies, there aren't any real true standards, and the technology is changing so fast. I think it's really hard to say where it ends, if it ends. I do still come back to, we've talked about it a lot today. It's still people who are held accountable. It's still people who have to make decisions. And so, people will always be in the center, and it may turn from the expertise in having to be in a property or be physically somewhere or choose who the lender is or who you're working with. And it might move more toward the, uh, transparency. What kind of information am I getting back from what the AI is doing? How explainable is it? How comfortable am I in it? Do I have a name I can go to if I don't like what I'm seeing? How do we all become AI literate so that the AI can operate, it can improve our day-to-day lives?

Because we want someone in the middle of navigating all of that, you know? We don't, but we want the comfort of knowing the right things are being done. We want the comfort of knowing that there's expertise in the process. And I think we can do that actually with the technology. I think we can offer that. So in some ways, I feel like we can have our cake and eat it too.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

Yeah. Well, Amy, you are coming back and we are going to have that conversation. How can I be more AI literate? Because I think throughout the property industry, throughout life in general, that's something that is such a, that's a loaded question, and I would love to dive into that as well too. But Amy, always great to chat with you. Thank you so much for joining me today on Beyond the Buildings by Cotality.

Amy Gromowski:

Thank you for having me. It's a fun conversation.

Maiclaire Bolton Smith:

I love it. Okay, and thank you for listening. I hope you've enjoyed our latest episode. Please remember to leave us a review and let us know your thoughts and subscribe wherever you get your podcast to be notified when new episodes are released. And thanks to the team for helping bring this podcast to life producer, Jessi Devenyns, editor and sound engineer, Romie Aromin, our facts guru, Erika Stanley and social media duo, Sarah Buck and Makaila Brooks. Tune in next time for another conversation that illuminates the ideas that will define the future.

Erika Stanley:

You still there? Well, thanks for sticking around. Are you curious to know a little bit more about our guest today? Amy Gromowski is the Head of Data Science at Cotality, leading teams of data scientists and machine learning scientists in developing artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions, including computer vision and generative AI for property related solutions in the real estate, mortgage and insurance markets. Over the course of her career, Amy has held various AI related roles, including data scientist, client executive, analytics product manager, and most recently as a leader of AI machine learning business development. With 25 years of experience, Amy enjoys working with C-Suite leaders on AI and machine learning strategy, technology leaders, product leaders and clients to innovate the property ecosystem.

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