How this Houston innovator is tapping into tech to make homeownership extra accessible

Actual property and homeownership has been traditionally exclusionary. Bobby Bryant — the primary Black man to create and franchise an actual property brokerage model — needed to do one thing about that.

Contemplating the historical past of the actual property trade — girls weren’t capable of purchase properties with out being married and African People have been refused outright because of the nation’s historical past of redlining — Bryant tells InnovationMap he noticed a chance for a enterprise.

“I take a look at variety as our superpower, and I take a look at the chance to kick that door down,” he says.

Bryant is the CEO and founding father of DOSS, a digital brokerage that makes use of tech to make homeownership extra reasonably priced. DOSS is within the technique of growing what Bryant describes as a “actual property tremendous app.” The corporate, which was born in 2016, has developed a expertise the place clients are capable of ask for real-estate recommendation and suggestions, seek for dwelling listings, get neighborhood info, and up to date gross sales information.

The hassle acquired funding by way of the Google for Startups Black Founders program, which totalled $100,000. DOSS touts its platform as a dynamic and efficient effort to methodically dissect your complete actual property course of and rebuild a modern-day digital actual property brokerage with a “flex-model” that is extra fashionable.

Bryant is trying to develop DOSS utilizing a franchise methodology. Franchisees get a program that lowers their bills, will increase their backside line, and offers leading edge expertise that features use of synthetic intelligence. Whereas the actual property house is aggressive, and for some could possibly be daunting, Bryant seems to be to modernize the trade, whereas making it less complicated to navigate. And that is the place the tech is available in.

“The fluidness of the method, not making it as restrictive to sure teams, it actually opens issues up, and that’s what we’ve seen with our expertise,” Bryant says. “How will we flip round and make information extra humanistic and centralize it?

“We wish folks to really feel snug asking questions and getting correct solutions,” he continues. “Millenials and Gen Z are the most-educated generations we’ve seen in historical past. They’re additionally essentially the most numerous in historical past. We perceive that.”

Bryant explains how vital fairness and honesty is to those new generations, and he is constructed DOSS with them in thoughts. As a former educator with two grasp’s levels in training, Bryant transitioned to the world of actual property in 1999. He says he sees a connection in his journey from serving to college students to now serving to folks discover a dwelling — particularly to those youthful generations of first-time consumers who’re coping with an ever-changing market.

“Schooling is part of all of our lives,” Bryant says. “I have been capable of educate folks on the method, and create a expertise that makes all of it extra fluid, and insightful and clear with the actual property trade. … What I’ve carried out is incorporate an academic course of, which I assume you may say is a bonus I’ve.”

Bobby Bryant based Doss to make it simpler to find out about homeownership. Photograph by way of askdoss.com