2.5 Hours. That’s All They Want Agents For

Platforms Are Taking Over — and What That Means for Agents

Ridley — the self-sale platform known for the viral “Realtors Hate Me” campaign — just raised new venture capital led by Fifth Wall. Their plan? Expand aggressively into buyer tools: pocket listings, AI-driven pricing, predictive models, and a full dashboard to manage offers and transactions.

Founder Mike Chambers says something bold:
In 5–8 years, platforms — not agents — will sit at the center of the real estate transaction.

In Ridley’s world, consumers navigate everything through software, while agents step in only for high-stakes advisory moments. Their “Pro agents” earn flat fees and spend roughly 2.5 hours per transaction offering strategy, pricing guidance, and negotiation help.

Chambers also criticizes how traditional brokerages use AI:
“They’re building AI to make agents faster, not to pass value back to consumers.”

His bet: lower fees, more automation, and a consumer-led experience will win.

READ HERE: INMAN.COM

Now let’s talk about WHY this matters today →

Ridley is right about the direction — platforms will become the center of the transaction.

But here’s the key difference:

**Ridley is building a platform that replaces agent tasks. Speculo.ai is building a platform that multiplies agent impact.**

• Ridley cuts agent involvement
• Speculo.ai evolves agent involvement
• Ridley lowers service cost
• Speculo.ai increases agent output, follow-through, and conversion
• Ridley believes agents should only show up in key moments
• Speculo.ai turns agents into full-time, full-power operators — without more hours

The future belongs to platforms. But the platforms that win will be the ones that elevate agents, not erase them.

And that’s exactly what Speculo.ai is building:
A platform where agents stay at the center of the client relationship and AI handles everything else.

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