PLACE buys fintech firm; Relevate tool makes data ‘more actionable’ 

Editor's note: Technology is a driving force in real estate. From startups to established players, tech companies are constantly innovating, growing and forging partnerships. Here we highlight some of the latest news about the companies that help power the industry. 

Relevate adds AI tools to make member data 'more actionable'

Relevate has introduced AIMEE, its new AI member engagement expert, and an MPC server, the company announced this week. Both are designed to help Realtor associations and MLSs strategically use the member data that already exists within the Relevate One subscriber management platform and the tech company's supported AI tools.

AIMEE creates a "Member Story" that summarizes activity across payments, education, events, volunteer and leadership involvement, portal engagement and more, according to a news release. Association and MLS staff members can use the built-in chat to ask questions, draft outreach and identify potential engagement changes.

Relevate's MCP server, meanwhile, provides authorized users with permissioned, real-time Relevate data through supported AI tools — including Claude and ChatGPT — without the need to create separate integrations.

The rollout, which will become available to existing clients in phases, is designed to help associations and MLSs make the most of the data they already have within Relevate, CEO Mark Richburg said.

"AIMEE makes their Relevate data more actionable inside the platform, while MCP gives them a secure way to use that same data in the AI tools they choose," Richburg added. "Together, those capabilities create a new way for associations and MLSs to understand and act on the information they already have."

Property Shield expands access to fraud detection tools in Arizona

Property Shield has added a third MLS partner in Arizona by expanding its fraud detection tools to Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS). The move announced this week brings Property Shield's tools to an additional 39,000 MLS subscribers across the Grand Canyon State.

Property Shield's platform is designed to identify suspicious listings — with 99.5% accuracy — within minutes of posting and alert listing agents in real time. Its optional Ownership Verification functionality, which ARMLS is including for its members as part of the deal, adds ID and biometric checks, originating IP analysis and comparisons with property tax records to help authenticate buyer identities, according to a news release.

With this partnership, ARMLS subscribers are gaining "a comprehensive toolkit to protect both their clients and their business," Property Shield CEO Alexander Fahsel said. "This expansion into Arizona reflects the growing demand for fraud prevention solutions across the country," he added, with the company noting that its tools are now available to over 200,000 agents nationwide.

SERHANT launches new iteration of 'S.MPLE' AI platform

SERHANT has unveiled S.MPLE 2.0, an updated version of its AI platform designed to coordinate multi-step real estate workflows based on an agent's single instruction, the brokerage announced Wednesday.

The platform uses specialized AI agents to manage a variety of the tasks real estate agents handle, such as comparative market analyses, listing presentations, marketing campaigns, transaction coordination, financial reporting, compliance and client follow-up. Its new Dot interface delivers daily briefings to help agents stay on top of their day-to-day tasks, flags client communication opportunities that may be lagging, and coordinates the AI agents operating within the platform, according to a news release.

S.MPLE 2.0 also includes a financial dashboard for tracking listings, transactions and closed sales volume, and features a unified pipeline and onboarding tools for new and existing agents. The updated platform's rollout comes a little over two years after S.MPLE launched in the spring of 2024.

In the platform's first iteration, an agent would "tell our AI what you want" and it would "complete the task," SERHANT Chief Technology Officer Greg Chan explained, but in S.MPLE 2.0, "our AI proactively figures out what you need and gets the job done for you."

"It can take one objective, break it into 20 steps, coordinate five specialized AI agents and return a completed result," Chan said. "The agent directs the outcome without having to operate every tool or supervise every step."

PLACE acquires mortgage tech firm Maxwell

PLACE announced on Thursday that it has completed its acquisition of Maxwell. The AI-driven mortgage tech provider serves more than 400 financial institutions and facilitates more than $130 billion in annual transactions, according to a news release.

Maxwell's point-of-sale, business intelligence, diligence and private label origination technology will expand PLACE's financial services business and deepen the firm's reach into mortgage and institutional real estate, according to the announcement. The companies said the deal will not disrupt Maxwell's current contracts, services or customer relationships.

The acquisition comes just over a month after PLACE acquired Radian's real estate services and title businesses, a deal that PLACE Co-founder and CEO Ben Kinney said at the time similarly enabled his company to "dramatically expand its institutional offerings across some of the largest financial institutions in America."

Now, Kinney said PLACE is "thrilled to bring Maxwell's best-in-class solutions into the PLACE ecosystem and power the hundreds of institutions that make homeownership possible."

"Maxwell is fundamentally aligned with the PLACE vision of a simpler, more connected real estate transaction," he added.

T3 Sixty names Edge Pitch Battle finalists

Three months after inviting proptech companies to vie for a spot at the Edge Pitch Battle next month, T3 Sixty has unveiled the list of nine firms that have been chosen to compete.

The finalists will have the opportunity to participate in a multi-round competition at Edge: The Tech and Data Forum, after which a winner will be crowned. The two-day event takes place Oct. 28-29 in Dallas. (Note: Real Estate News, an editorially independent division of T3 Sixty, is an Edge co-sponsor.)

The nine finalists are: 10xSearch, Agent Buddi, FIJIapp, homhub, Open Houses Direct, Pairgap, Purlin, RealAnalytica and VIZO.

"The Edge Pitch Battle was created to identify real products solving real problems, not theory," T3 Sixty SVP of Technology Consulting Bryson Creighton said in a news release. "This year's finalists cover the entire lifecycle of a real estate transaction, and every one of them is already delivering value for customers today. That's the caliber of innovation we want in front of the Edge audience."

Editor's note: AI was used in the initial drafting of this content, which was then thoroughly reviewed, fact-checked and revised by a Real Estate News editor.