Meet Agent Avery: From Fraud to Security: How AI Is Fixing Real Estate’s Biggest Problem

Bystacybennin Updated on
Propy Logo

If you’ve ever bought a home, you know the drill: weeks of waiting, mountains of paperwork, and a closing process that feels like it belongs in the last century. Despite every other aspect of real estate going digital – from virtual tours to electronic signatures – the actual closing remains stubbornly analog, inefficient, and vulnerable to fraud.

That is changing more and more everyday.

In October 2025, Propy announced a $100 million expansion to modernize the U.S. title industry, simultaneously debuting Agent Avery. Avery is the first AI escrow officer for real estate closings. This is a fundamental reimagining of how property transactions close in America.

The Problem: A $25 Billion Industry Stuck in the Past

The U.S. title and escrow industry is fragmented across nearly 7,000 firms, most still processing transactions manually through spreadsheets, email, and paper documentation. The statistics are sobering:

“Real estate has had every kind of digital upgrade except the one that matters most: how deals actually close,” said Natalia Karayaneva, CEO of Propy. “By automating the closing process itself, we’re cutting out inefficiencies that have slowed this industry for decades.”

Enter Agent Avery: An AI That Never Sleeps

Agent Avery isn’t a chatbot or a simple automation tool. It’s a fully operational AI escrow officer trained on thousands of Propy’s proprietary transactions, designed to handle the complex, compliance-heavy work that traditionally requires human oversight.

What Avery Does

Avery manages the full spectrum of closing activities:

  • Contract management and compliance: Trained on RESPA regulations and real estate law to ensure every closing stays compliant
  • Communications: Coordinates between all parties – buyers, sellers, agents, lenders, and title officers
  • Fund transfers: Handles both traditional and cryptocurrency payments
  • Escrow operations: Manages the entire settlement process with 24/7 availability

The Results

Early pilots demonstrate transformative efficiency gains:

  • 40% reduction in workload for escrow officers
  • Up to 40% higher margins for title firms
  • Agents able to handle more deals per month while maintaining a five-star client experience
  • Faster closings with reduced fraud risk

“Agent Avery and our acquisition strategy give us a path to scale nationwide, transforming closings into a faster, AI-driven experience built for modern buyers,” Karayaneva explained.

The Bigger Picture: Rebuilding Title Infrastructure

Propy isn’t just introducing AI, They are systematically acquiring and upgrading the nation’s title infrastructure. The $100 million expansion uses a mixed financing package that combines private credit with blockchain-based DeFi loans, representing one of the first known examples of using onchain private credit to fund M&A activity. (Mergers and Acquisitions) – this activity refers to the consolidation of companies or assets through financial transactions like mergers, where two companies combine to form a new one, or acquisitions, where one company buys another.

The Acquisition Strategy

Propy is targeting profitable, mid-sized title firms with annual revenues between $5 million and $50 million, focusing on major markets in California, Texas, and Florida. Once acquired, these firms gain access to:

  • AI-powered automation through Agent Avery
  • Blockchain infrastructure for transparent, fraud-resistant transactions
  • Automated settlement tracking and compliance workflows
  • 24/7 digital closing capabilities
  • Instant document processing
  • Onchain title recording

In November 2025, Propy completed its first acquisition under this strategy: a premier Alabama title company commanding over 40% market share in Mobile County. The firm will now be equipped with Propy’s full technology stack, cutting manual workloads by up to 70%.

Propy’s Track Record: Building the Future Since 2017

This isn’t Propy’s first round with real estate innovation. Founded in 2016 by Natalia Karayaneva, Propy has been pioneering blockchain-based property transactions for nearly a decade.

Milestones Worth Noting

The company operates as a licensed title company and is backed by venture capitalists including Tim Draper. Its advisory board now includes former U.S. Treasury official Chris Campbell, Science Inc. co-founder Mike Jones, and former SEC Commissioner Michael S. Piwowar.

“There’s a clear institutional appetite for innovation in real estate,” said Dr. Piwowar, now executive vice president of Milken Institute Finance. “Propy’s use of AI automation and onchain infrastructure could redefine how property ownership is tracked and transacted in America.”

Why This Matters for Real Estate Professionals

For agents and brokers, Agent Avery represents an opportunity to close more deals with less friction. The AI handles the time-consuming administrative work, allowing professionals to focus on client relationships and business development.

For title companies facing labor shortages and rising compliance costs, Propy’s technology offers a path to remain competitive while improving margins and reducing fraud risk.

According to Morgan Stanley, AI could automate 37% of real estate tasks by 2030. Propy is betting that the combination of AI and blockchain can accelerate that transformation, particularly in the closing process—one of the most bureaucratic and fraud-vulnerable aspects of the entire transaction.

The Crypto Connection

While Avery works seamlessly with traditional payment rails, Propy’s infrastructure is also built to handle cryptocurrency transactions—a growing consideration as more buyers enter the market with digital assets. Recent RedFin data shows that 12%+ of first-time homebuyers have used cryptocurrency for down payments.

Propy offers crypto-backed loans and can process transactions in both fiat and digital currencies, providing optionality that traditional title companies simply can’t match. For the crypto-native generation entering homeownership, this flexibility removes significant barriers.

What’s Next

Propy is targeting a $1 billion valuation within 18 months through its acquisition and technology integration strategy. The company plans to acquire approximately 10 title firms valued at $10 million each over the next 12 months, building a national network of AI-powered title operations.

“In the next 12 months, we’ll acquire regional title companies across the country,” Karayaneva told CoinDesk. “This will allow us to reach the scale needed for a billion-dollar valuation as a technology-driven company.”

Agents, brokers, buyers, and title firms can now request early access to Agent Avery at propy.com/avery for a first look at how automated closings can cut costs and accelerate transactions.

The Bottom Line

For decades, the real estate closing process has been the industry’s last analog stronghold—expensive, slow, and vulnerable to fraud. Agent Avery represents more than just incremental improvement; it’s a fundamental rethinking of how property transactions close.

As Millennials and Gen Z, many of them digital natives who expect on-demand, transparent services, become the dominant homebuying demographic, the pressure to modernize will only intensify. The question is not whether AI will transform real estate closings, but who will lead that transformation.

Propy is making a strong case that the future is already here. It just needs to scale.

Stacy Adell is a Montana real estate broker (licensed as Stacy Bennin) who assists buyers and sellers throughout Paradise Valley, Livingston, Bozeman and Southwestern Montana in general. In addition to her work in conventional real estate sales, she explores how blockchain, self-sovereign digital identity, and new technologies are shaping the future of property ownership and personal privacy. Stacy writes with the goal of making these subjects simple and informative. She can be contacted at stacybennin@gmail.com