Comment by andrewstuart | Hacker News Reader

Comment by andrewstuart | Hacker News Reader

It is not a good idea to ask for my location then set your database to that location. Mainly because there's a very low chance this will show any houses for sale, and this makes it look like your service is unused.

You've got the normal big challenge of creating a two sided marketplace - search for that term and you'll find any number of posts and podcasts talking about that. That is going to be hard to overcome.

I think that sites should take you directly in to the data - don't force people to read some generic page of benefits - show don't tell. Put all that guff on an "about" page.

If you are going to make your age a selling point, then drop visitors straight into the data browsing page, make sure there are some houses there - and put a picture of you up top and say hello and point out you are 77 years old and you wrote this. It's something unique, so why not?

Also you should fill your database with houses - use AI or some sort of random data generator to generate them and just make sure there's a small but clear note on the listing saying this is AI data. It's not ideal but it is better than an empty database. Give people something to look at.

Great work though.

What is it built with? Who wrote it? You?

    Also you should fill your database with houses - use AI or some sort of random data generator to generate them and just make sure there's a small but clear note on the listing saying this is AI data. It's not ideal but it is better than an empty database. Give people something to look at.

This genuinely made my stomach turn. If this is the future… I don’t know if I want in.

Isn't this the PAST... something along the lines of: "spent some time to fill the database with data; any data; make it up if you have to". This would've worked long before AI, except now just a bit more efficient?

It wasn't cool then either.

It probably wasn't, just not sure why AI, for all its faults, got blamed here :)

Hello, sverhagen. I am not understanding your comment. But allow me to address what I sense you mean. PropBox is not the past - it is the future, today. We don't want "any data" we want accurate data. We want the best data. I cringe at the thought of " make it up if you have to." We do not think it is AI dependend. We will watch AI for awhile and experiment a bit with it. If it actually works for us we will incorporate it. For us one of the problems with AI and real estate is there is so much inaccurate, misleading, harmful content out there we don't want to contaminate our material.

Fully agree. Once I'd see the 'this is fake' disclaimer at any house, I'll skip.

Perhaps a demo.probox.co would be a good idea for a dech demo.

Also: this site seems implicitly us-centric, best to make that explicit.

Yeah, it’s seems weird to have a not real listing there. Maybe to start with you could partner real estate companies and have both house that are direct sells and ones that redirect you to a realtor. At least they would be real houses, and then people decide to buy a house you could message them asking them if they’d like to sell on the platform instead.

Hello,johnnypangs. We planned on launching empty. When I started my first real estate company, unlike the typical method many new real estate companys use, which is to hoard and pocket inventory while they are still with their soon to be former company, so they can open with inventory, I began with zero inventory. Let's see what happens in the coming months. We have one now, soon to be two. lets see what it look like in six months. We believe we can be successful independent of the industry. As an insider and an operator very few consumers understand the financial risks associated with real estate. All service businesses are far risker than people realize. Doctors, lawyers, car mechanics, auto sales, and many others. the problem is asymmetry., where the seller knows a lot, and the customer knows litte.

Maybe youre right.

In the other hand an empty database there’s nothing at all to see and you bounce straight back out.

Not necessarily. I think if the only way to make your business work is to start off by manipulating your customers, that's a problem. I would suggest one possible alternative is to target sellers and give them the tools they need to easily list their home and promote that listing off the platform. If sellers can see the value add, it shouldn't matter so much that there's no existing listings in their area.

michaelmior.You are correct, for the most part. If the only way to make the business work was to manipulate the customer we would not be doing PropBox. We believe being transparent with our customers is the way. I'm curious if you spent any time on PropBox, because it does exactly what you suggest it must do. We promote the buyer and seller working together with commomly shared data to reach the common goal - a successful transaction. Take a peek if you have time and tell me what you think. PropBox.co Thanks fro yoru comments. Richard

This kind of idea is always a telling stand-in for business incompetence.

Yes, seeding something like this is difficult. It takes work. Arguably it’s the main part and any sort of app is just the implementation. This is why oftentimes these things start off covering a small region and grow in time.

Hello,Waterluvian. I missed your comment, sorry. Still have a few to reply. If I understand your initial statement, to me it means incompetence drives innovation. You are correct that many start small and grow over time. The difference here is this platform is has been built to handle volume and we can handle a larger area because the feature are built into the site.So we are starting small by only opening in 13 states to interate. When we see an accelerating adoption we will likely open much faster. This all assumes customers like what we are offering. We shall learn soon enough. Thank you for your comments.

> Also you should fill your database with houses - use AI or some sort of random data generator to generate them and just make sure there's a small but clear note on the listing saying this is AI data. It's not ideal but it is better than an empty database. Give people something to look at.

Don't do this, please never do this.

Hello, dangoodmanUT. I have responded to this directly above in a couple different ways. We want to begin with accurate data. We have two customers so far and we are talking to others. We are patient and have a long runway if we need. Lets look in six months. Thanks for weighing in.Richard

Reply on news.ycombinator.com