Dalton Brewer knows the challenges of real estate firsthand. A Kansas City broker with Coldwell Banker, he saw a common problem buyers and agents face—deciphering complex home inspection reports—and decided to do something about it.
As co-founder of CD Technologies and inventor of SetWave, an AI-powered tool that streamlines home inspection cost estimates, Brewer is turning his real-world experience into innovation. By applying AI and data intelligence, he aims to help agents and home buyers make smarter, faster decisions. With the extra insight technology can bring, he says, buyers and sellers can act with greater confidence.
Brewer shares his insights on AI, virtual reality and other innovations shaking up the industry.
Q: How is technology changing the way people buy and sell homes?
BREWER: Transparency is the biggest shift. Buyers are starting to become more educated and have access to better tools to make better decisions. Brokerages are leveraging AI tools and other platforms and that’s spreading across lending, inspectors and title companies. The process has typically been very clunky and now it’s becoming more streamlined and quicker. I also think virtual tours and virtual reality tours, renovation overlays, predictive analytics—they all help buyers make more informed decisions.
Today you’re seeing it a lot in listings—AI is helping to stage vacant homes, marketing is leveraging AI tools, and pricing is becoming more data-driven.
Q: How is AI helping buyers find homes faster?
BREWER: AI allows us to take the information we have about buyers and sellers and use it to help them find homes. We can analyze neighborhoods, pull HOA rules of what’s allowed—like recently we needed to know if chicken coops were allowed. We can provide buyers with a wealth of information so they can make better decisions.
We’re also starting to see more automation behind the paperwork and compliance. With AI, we’re starting to see almost instant reports of CMAs and pre-listing repair estimates. At the end of the day, AI makes everything faster and simpler. Approvals come more quickly, documentation moves faster and closings become faster and smoother.
Q: What tech trends are you most excited about right now?
BREWER: Virtual reality showings. Buyers will be able to tour homes virtually, and we’ll even be able to stage the home based on the buyer’s personality or preferences. I also believe overlays for renovations, especially with the baby boomer market, will be huge. Many homes haven’t been touched in years, so being able to walk in, video a home, and get an estimate for rehab costs—that’s going to shake up the market.
Predictive analytics for neighborhoods and growth in home values is also exciting—pulling data from zoning records and historical permits provides insights we couldn’t easily get before. AI-driven negotiations are another trend, helping agents predict the likelihood of offers being accepted. With tools like SetWave, you can analyze home inspection reports and tie probabilities to potential outcomes. For example, you can predict whether a seller is likely to accept a request for repairs. You can even tie percentages to contract acceptance. These probability analytics are starting to make negotiations more precise and data driven.
Q: With all this access to data and AI tools, is there a risk of information overload for buyers?
BREWER: It could feel overwhelming, but transparency is beneficial. Buyers and sellers want to trust the process. Clear cost breakdowns, compliant documents and faster decisions all build confidence. Technology is speeding things up while keeping clients informed.
Q: Can AI even help determine future home values or neighborhood trends?
BREWER: Predictive analytics will allow us to pull data points that aren’t easily accessible—zoning, historical permits, tax trends, insurance history—and make some neighborhoods appear more attractive than others. Buyers will increasingly rely on these tools to identify appreciating properties.
Q: Should some homeowners or sellers worry about scaring buyers off with all this tech?
BREWER: Not at all. More information actually makes a property more sellable. Sellers who provide transparency help buyers make confident decisions, which is better in the long run.
Q: Tell us about the tool you helped create SetWave. How does it help ease the home inspection process?
BREWER: When looking at an inspection report there’s usually 40 to 50 pages. But what’s actually good or bad, and what the repairs cost could be, aren’t really clear. We can take a home’s quality assessment and turn it into a quantified assessment by tying dollars to everything in the report.
The idea for SetWave came from when I was buying a rental home. I got an inspection report, and I felt like I was a pretty good judge at the cost of the repairs. It was just a bunch of minor things. I figured it would cost me a couple hundred dollars in repairs, so I moved forward to close on the home. But after the handyman went over everything, I got a bill for $10,000.
So, we built a tool to read inspections reports, pulling material and labor costs based upon a geographical location of that property. It can then build out a report with high, medium and low priority items.
It was derived from my mistake. Now, if I buy a home, after I go through the inspection, I can get a document that says everything is going to cost roughly $10,000. That estimate report can then become a negotiation document. I can go back to the seller and say, this is $10,000 worth of work. Now, I know what my costs are, and I have more confidence to move forward with that property. It also gives the seller a document that says the costs. We can use that as a negotiation tool.
Q: Over the next five to ten years, do you think all of this technology will change the role of real estate agents?
BREWER: A lot of people worry that agents might be removed, but that’s not going to happen. It’s going to be a shift in duties. With these tools and virtual reality showings, agents will become more like consultants—helping clients interpret data and make informed decisions. The brokers who aren’t using technology today won’t be around in five to ten years, but agents will always be essential. The responsibilities are just evolving.
