The best layout and design won’t out perform a cabin in a better location.

Opendoor is clearly one of the more sophisticated examples of AI being applied at scale in residential real estate, and it does a lot of things well—especially around pattern recognition, pricing signals, and submarket-level analysis across many markets.My post was meant to be a broader look at where AI is genuinely useful in real estate data and where it needs to be interpreted carefully.

That’s not competition — it’s pain suppression.Upfront costs, training, abstraction, contractual lock-in, and gated access to your data all become strategic leverage points.

I am data driven so I just ran a report and just the bookings that have come in since Jan 1, direct bookings account for 29.2% of the income. 

Although her data and approach seems solid in paper, but if she accumulated all these properties in 2021 with these lousy future booking, I'm afraid if she's going to fall ... hard. 

Can anyone advise me how to best get reliable rent income data for a specific rental unit.

Donna — I would in all honesty hire an STR Designer.

Most tools just give you data and leave you hanging.

I’ve successfully built a stack that automates the intake and skip-tracing process for approximately $0.15–$0.30 per lead (API costs only).The Strategic Flow:Data Integrity: Using Google Address Autocomplete to ensure zero-error data entry from the start.Instant Valuation: Pulling real-time market data to provide the seller with a custom offer range immediately.Automated Skip Tracing: The system automatically pulls legal owner names, mobile numbers, and emails the second the form is submitted.Remote Management: I manage the entire logic (margins, repair costs, SMS triggers) through a Slack/Telegram integration so I don't need a heavy CRM.I’m currently running this through a Google Sheets backend to keep the tech stack lightweight.I’m curious to hear from the veterans here—at what volume does it make sense to move away from 'all-in-one' platforms and into custom API-driven automation?

The dominant amenity might be a lake, trails, glamping units, or even community-driven programming, but the takeaway is the same: you’re underwriting an operating business, not just dirt.