Real estate is too human to automate.
And too important not to.
Buying or selling a home is one of the most emotional and important decisions a person will ever make. It deserves a real human guide, an agent who understands the market, the trade-offs, the moment in someone's life. That part can't be automated, and it shouldn't be.
But great guidance has always been limited by time. A single agent can only give a handful of people their full attention. The rest get rushed conversations, late replies, generic follow-ups, or nothing at all. Not because agents don't care, but because there are only so many hours in the day.
We started HouseWhisper to change that. With AI, the personalization and care that used to be reserved for an agent's top clients can be extended to every buyer and seller they serve. Real conversations, at the right moments, tailored to each person, so agents can show up fully for the human parts of the job and no one gets left behind.
The team behind it.
HouseWhisper was founded by a team of former Zillow leaders who spent decades building the systems that shaped modern real estate. We kept seeing the same problem: teams spending real money on leads, only to watch them stall in the CRM. Not because agents didn't want the deal, but because they were already stretched thin closing the deals they had.
Built the way agents actually work.
Most tools that try to fix this ask agents to change how they work: a new app, a new dashboard, a new habit on top of an already-full day. That friction is where adoption dies. HouseWhisper was built to work the way agents already do, by call or text, with no new app to learn.
From AI teammate to full platform.
HouseWhisper started as an AI teammate for agents, designed to understand real estate and keep deals moving forward. Today, that same AI teammate is joined by Lead Engine and Rules Engine, reactivating dormant leads, nurturing them with personalized 1:1 conversations, and routing them to the right agent at the right moment. One platform, working behind the scenes so agents can focus on what only they can do.
The Founders
The founding team.
HouseWhisper is founded by former Zillow executives: Luis Poggi, Alex Kutner, and Spencer Rascoff.
Luis Poggi
Co-Founder & CEO
Luis spent more than a decade as an executive at Zillow, leading product, engineering, and operations teams that built the core consumer platform and launched Zillow Offers, Zillow Mortgages, and New Construction. He founded HouseWhisper after seeing the same problem play out across every part of the business: great agents stretched too thin to give every client their full attention. He also writes AI Digest, a Substack on emerging trends in AI. Originally from Argentina, he lives in Seattle with his family.
LinkedIn — Luis Poggi (opens in new tab)
Alex Kutner
Co-Founder & CTO
Alex spent more than a decade at Zillow building and scaling the technical systems millions of agents and consumers depend on. He led a team of 70+ engineers and managed Zillow's core assets, including search, maps, and the Zestimate. At HouseWhisper, he leads engineering and product architecture as an AI-native company, designing systems that feel effortless to agents but are powered by deep intelligence. He lives in Seattle with his family.
LinkedIn — Alex Kutner (opens in new tab)
Spencer Rascoff
Co-Founder & Board Member
Spencer co-founded Zillow and served as its CEO for nearly a decade, growing it to 4,500 employees, $3 billion in revenue, and a $10 billion market cap. He previously co-founded Hotwire, sold to Expedia for $685 million in 2003. He is Co-Founder and CEO of 75 & Sunny Ventures, an early HouseWhisper investor. He currently serves as CEO of Match Group.
LinkedIn — Spencer Rascoff (opens in new tab)
How we got here
HouseWhisper has grown to serve hundreds of real estate teams throughout the United States in just over a year on the market, almost entirely through word of mouth.
The company is backed by Mayfield, Pioneer Square Labs Ventures, 75 & Sunny Ventures, Integra Groupe, and 1P Ventures, with $10 million raised to date.
Learn more about HouseWhisper in articles written by GeekWire, Inman, and HousingWire.