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In her more than 16 years as a Realtor in Southwest Florida, Kari Leftwich-Wolfe learned there weren’t enough hours in the day to help clients in all the ways she desired.
“I became incredibly frustrated with how much time it was taking me to offer my customers an elevated level of service,” says Leftwich-Wolfe, 52. “It basically boiled down to the amount of time that we as Realtors were spending having to do the necessary research to be that hyper-local expert.”
The residential real estate industry has the Multiple Listing Service database of property listings, and there are tools for moving transactions from contract to closing. But when it comes to accessing research on a specific local area and then communicating that to customers in an efficient way, Leftwich-Wolfe saw a void.
“There had not been a focus on customer service content management,” she says. “When I became frustrated, I thought to myself there had to be a better way.”
When Leftwich-Wolfe couldn’t find a better way, she created one.
Her Cape Coral-based real estate technology startup, My Undercover Agent, researches and accumulates hyper-local data on topics such as area schools, HOAs and communities, local projects and developments, city and county restrictions and even “bridge heights for the boating enthusiast,” she says. “Even though we’re considered real estate technology, at the heart of what we are is a data company.”
The company then presents that information — which is currently limited to Lee County — to Realtors in a manner that’s easily sharable with clients. Realtors pay a monthly fee of $44.95 for access to data through the company’s software platform and its iOS and Android apps.
“That gives them all of the data in the field when time is of the essence,” Leftwich-Wolfe says. “It’s reinventing the way we as Realtors service our customers out in the field.”
My Undercover Agent got its start, at least the idea phase, in 2016. In the early days Leftwich-Wolfe was a client of the Small Business Development Center at Florida Gulf Coast University, which guided her through the business planning, product testing and proof of concept process. That included surveying 100 Southwest Florida Realtors about how much time they spend each week doing research for customers. Almost 80% of the Realtors said between eight and 10 hours a week, which doesn’t include the additional time needed to communicate that information to their clients.
“That is over 40 hours in a month,” Leftwich-Wolfe says. “Our startup gives them a much more efficient way to do that, giving them back time for more important tasks like revenue-generating tasks.”
Even though we’re considered real estate technology, at the heart of what we are is a data company." –Kari Leftwich-Wolfe, founder of My Undercover Agent
Leftwich-Wolfe chose what she’d thought would be a lucky day to officially launch the company: St. Patrick’s Day 2020. Of course, the pandemic ruined the party.
“Every startup has its challenges, because that is a rite of passage when it comes to embarking on a startup journey,” she says. “But we’ve had a few additional ones.”
That includes the sudden shift from pandemic shutdown to red-hot local real estate market. Scrambling to meet demand, Realtors “did not have a moment to consider anything new,” Leftwich-Wolfe says, adding that the aftermath of Hurricane Ian was also a disruption.
But Leftwich-Wolfe made the most of the unexpected slow period after launching.
“We took that time to further develop the platform and to develop our apps,” she says, “and we have just released our customer interface, which now means that our Realtors can invite their customers into the hyper-local data as well through their subscription … customer service is going to be the big success differentiator for Realtors.”
My Undercover Agent has been endorsed by the Royal Palm Coast Realtor Association and Bonita Springs-Estero Realtors, and was recently named Innovator of the Year at the 2022 Industry Appreciation Awards sponsored by the Horizon Council, Horizon Foundation and Lee County Economic Development Office. That’s given the company a lot of exposure to potential clients and investors.
Her company is still in the pre-revenue stage, so Leftwich-Wolfe isn’t willing to share things like customer numbers. But word of mouth has been a strong driver for the company, and she’s heard from two large global software companies interested in My Undercover Agent’s potential.
The company has also launched an initial investor seed round with a goal of raising $1 million to support expansion into Collier County and the establishment of a sales and marketing team. My Undercover Agent currently has eight employees, including data technicians who manually research and maintain all the data the company supplies Realtors. The number of technicians will need to keep growing as the company does — and the plan is to grow.
“We are excited for what 2023 has in store for us,” Leftwich-Wolfe says. “We intend to take this national.”
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