In real estate, technology is often sold as the solution to an agent’s productivity problems. Frank Vazquez believes the better approach is to start with the problems themselves.
Vazquez — broker-owner of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Incyte Realty — is building an in-house technology ecosystem designed to automate repetitive tasks, improve consumer service and help agents focus on growing their businesses.
Drawing on his background in information systems architecture and software development, he has developed proprietary tools for customer relationship management (CRM), marketing, home search, recruiting and agent coaching.
But his approach to technology emerged from firsthand experience with the real estate business — and a realization that brokerage ownership offered an opportunity to do more than close transactions.
“I got into real estate by accident, and I was so excited because real estate was like, ‘Oh, you can do your own business, and I realized that’s a lie in essence,” Vazquez told HousingWire. “You’re just basically chasing deals. But the biggest thing I was always learning in real estate was that everybody pitches this term ‘systems.’
“They say, ‘Oh, you have to build your systems.’ I think there’s a misconception in real estate about systems, and people think systems are just flowcharts and processes. That’s not the same.”
Vazquez took over an existing brokerage in 2024 and rebranded it as Incyte Realty in June 2025. After the ownership change initially reduced its agent count from about 80 to 40, he said the company rebuilt and continued growing.
During the interview, Vazquez said his company now has more than 100 agents, approximately 600 transactions completed annually and a 20% year-over-year increase in volume.
“I went to every single agent, interviewed them and asked them what they want in the company — and started building [internal technology] from there. I realized that agents needed guidance, directions. They just needed something simple and something that they can use. So, I started building all our tools in house.”
Automate work that gets in the way
Incyte’s proprietary platform; Console, brings together a range of functions, including agent-specific CRM environments, AI-powered home search, marketing, listing presentations, comparative market analysis generation and automated buyer journeys.
Vazquez said the brokerage’s average production had increased from 6.3 transactions per agent to nearly eight.
“Now, agents can just focus on being great and being driven to build relationships instead of worrying about marketing flyers and learning all these different tools,” he said. “I fully automated it for them. We also used some focus groups to figure out what they needed to become successful, and I just built it around them.”
For other brokerage owners, the lesson is to identify a measurable problem before committing resources to a solution. A tool should make a process easier, improve service or help agents produce better results — not simply add another application to learn, Vazquez said.
Build AI into everyday operations
One of Incyte’s most ambitious projects is Morgan, an AI assistant that handles front-desk reception, property sign calls, text conversations and appointment scheduling.
The system also supports recruiting, agent onboarding, market-pattern analysis and the generation of materials agents can request from their phones.
Vazquez said he’s developing more advanced capabilities intended to let the system learn from experience and improve its operations.
“Morgan retrieves massive amounts of data from seven different departments, basically within the company, and focuses it all into one central Morgan hub,” he said. “For instance, it can reach out to potential agents that are unhappy in their brokerage. It deciphers from all the data points when agents are going to make a move. If they join the company, once onboard, that same Morgan will say, ‘Hi and welcome onboard to Incyte.’”
For leaders exploring similar systems, Vazquez stressed the importance of distinguishing between features in use and capabilities still under development, then evaluate each according to its reliability and business value.
Keep the tools simple, measure the results
Incyte has extended its technology work beyond its core brokerage platform.
Vazquez said the company has developed a proprietary coaching and accountability application called The Nyne — initially offered to agents for free before being packaged as a software-as-a-service product.
The brokerage also created a consumer-direct mortgage tool that generates roughly 50 to 60 leads a week for participating lenders, he added. But Vazquez cautioned brokerage leaders against building too much too soon.
“Don’t overwhelm your agents with tools, because an analogy for it is going to Home Depot,” he said. “Home Depot has all the tools in the world, but you don’t buy every tool at Home Depot. You only buy the tool that you need to solve a problem in your home. Build the tools around your engines. Keep it simple and expand as you need them — not because of a new shiny object.”
Incyte uses an internal command center approach to track recruitment, business projections and agent sentiment, including a measure the brokerage calls its “happiness score.”
“I wake up and talk to my bot, my system, as far as where the company is going, how many new agents are we at and how many of our agents are happy within the company,” said Vazquez.
Listen before building
Vazquez believes the real estate technology industry could do a better job of involving agents in product development.
“A lot of these tech companies just push solutions and push solutions, and then they sell it,” he said. “I build solutions for agents all the time. [Tech providers] often take no consideration of what the agents are actually looking for or their frustrations. I ask teams, ‘Have you talked to them about it?’ They say, ‘Yeah, but they don’t care.’
“I think that if we just listened to our consumers a little more and took their opinions into consideration, then we wouldn’t have a lot of issues we’re facing.”
For other brokerage owners, Vazquez’s experience points to a practical sequence. Start with consumer needs, ask agents where they struggle, build tools around specific problems, introduce them into everyday workflows and measure the results.
The competitive advantage, ultimately, is not AI alone. It is the ability to use technology to help people do their jobs better, Vazquez said.
