If you’ve ever bought a home, you probably remember the wait. The endless signatures, the back-and-forth emails, the closing delays that somehow stretch into days.
For Natalia Karayaneva, CEO of Miami-based Propy, those inefficiencies became an obsession. Now, she’s introducing a solution that doesn’t sleep, eat, or take lunch breaks: Agent Avery, the first AI escrow officer for real-estate closings.
The launch of Agent Avery comes alongside Propy’s $100 million national expansion to modernize the $25 billion U.S. title and escrow industry. The company plans to acquire regional title firms in states like California, Texas, and Florida, then retrofit them with AI and blockchain infrastructure to make closings faster, safer, and fully digital.
“Real estate has had every kind of digital upgrade except the one that matters most: how deals actually close,” Karayaneva said in a press release. “By automating the closing process itself, we’re cutting out inefficiencies that have slowed this industry for decades. The productivity gains with AI are on par with what fintech did for banking.”
That inefficiency is a big target. Nearly 7,000 title firms operate across the United States, many still running on paper and email. According to the National Association of REALTORS®, 63 percent of agents reported seeing title fraud in their markets last year, a number that jumps to more than 90 percent in parts of the Northeast.
Agent Avery was built to handle the work that consumes most of an escrow officer’s time: contracts, compliance, communications, and fund transfers, including both crypto and traditional payments. Trained on thousands of transactions, Avery also understands federal RESPA regulations and real-estate law, ensuring each deal remains compliant. In early pilots, Propy says Avery cut workloads by roughly 40 percent while helping title firms boost their margins.
“Closing on a home is still a bureaucratic maze, while Gen-Z and Millennials expect digital, on-demand services,” Karayaneva said in an interview with Forbes. “Avery and our acquisition strategy give us a path to scale nationwide, transforming closings into a faster, AI-driven experience built for modern buyers.”
The company’s broader plan goes beyond automation. According to CoinDesk, Propy’s $100 million rollout is financed through a mix of traditional lenders and on-chain private credit, including decentralized finance (DeFi) loans from the crypto lending platform Morpho. It’s one of the first examples of DeFi funding real-world property consolidation at scale – a glimpse of how digital finance and physical assets could converge.
Founded in 2017, Propy has already processed more than $4 billion in digital real-estate transactions and operates as a licensed title company. Now, the company is targeting profitable regional firms with $5 million to $50 million in revenue, giving them instant access to AI-driven tools, nationwide reach, and blockchain-based compliance.
“Our long-term vision is for real estate to become programmable,” Karayaneva told Forbes. “We’re laying the foundation for homes to transact instantly, globally, and securely on-chain.”
It’s an ambitious goal, and one that could redefine what it means to “close” a deal. If Propy succeeds, the next time you buy a home, your closing documents might not pass across a desk at all. They might pass through the hands – or rather, the code – of an AI officer named Avery.
Pictured at the top of the post is Natalia Karayaneva, CEO.
READ MORE IN REFRESH MIAMI:
I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.
Latest posts by Riley Kaminer (see all)