Imagine you and your spouse have just welcomed your first child into your family. And a few weeks later you start receiving mailers and phone calls from a few different realtors. People you don't even know, asking you if you might be interested in buying or selling a home. At the time you don't think much about the postcards and calls. You're too tired from the long nights with baby to give them much thought. 

Then two years later, you and your spouse decide to buy a new car as you prepare for the birth of your second child. And in a strange coincidence, the same realtors reach out to you with more mailers and phone calls. A little annoyed, you wonder, have these agents been snooping on your social? 

And then the following year, you and your spouse take out a home a equity line of credit, so you have a nice down payment to tap into for buying your next home. And once again, you hear from the same set of realtors. This time around it's clear you're being creeped on, and you hang up on each agent as soon as their sales pitch begins. 

What's going on here? The realtors are using big data/AI software that's profiling you as someone who's likely to buy and sell. Profiling software is becoming increasingly common in the real estate industry, to the point where some brokerages are now offering it as a standard tool for all of their agents to use.

We don't like the direction the industry is going. Here's a much better way forward.