Daniel Foch can attest to the idea that some things are inevitable. The chief real estate officer of brokerage Valery.ca grew up with parents who were established real estate brokers, and while he admits to initially recoiling at the prospect of following in their footsteps, he says his aptitude for the profession emerged early in adolescence.
“My family was in the business, so naturally I didn’t want anything to do with it," Foch told CoStar News in an interview. "But when I was in high school, I started a business that’s the modern equivalent of a digital agency. I started doing social media for Realtors back when it was only Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, so I charged a set-up fee, then a monthly management fee, plus incremental content posting."
The 34-year-old said he started the business through Ontario’s Summer Company Program, which supplied financial grants for entrepreneurial-minded students. “I sold that program and went to university,” he added. But the industry kept calling.
As chief real estate officer at Valery, Foch helps direct how the Ontario-based firm, which describes itself as the country's first "AI-powered brokerage," integrates artificial intelligence into the buying, selling, and leasing process to assist real estate agents and provide data-driven insights to clients through advanced search and other tools designed to make it easier for people seeking to purchase condominium units and other properties. For instance, people can ask Valery's AI tool questions such as "Is there going to be a market crash?" and " Can you help me find vendor mortgage-takeback opportunities?s"
Valery is focusing on AI as global brokerages also ramp up their use of it.
CBRE, JLL and Cushman — the world's three largest property services firms — have said that AI has helped property services firms become more efficient by automating such tasks as drafting and extracting leases that support rather than replace human-based relationships and judgment to find and close deals.
Last week, Cushman said it launched its "AI Impact Barometer" that uses economic, capital markets and property indicators to help clients track how AI is influencing demand for data centers, warehouses and offices. Users of the tool can get a better idea where investment is flowing in real estate that supports AI.
Co-hosts real estate podcast
Foch worked as an administrator for a Royal LePage office during his undergraduate years and, in the process, carved a niche for himself in the brokerage space.
After graduating, Foch was working for InterRent Real Estate Investment Trust, subsequently “doing the rounds” at seemingly endless stops including CBRE, Planet Realty at Hydro One’s real estate management division Avina Capital as a senior loan originator.
At the University of Guelph, he served as a sustainable real estate research assistant, then a real estate teaching assistant, all while working for Foch Family Real Estate.
“My dad is a commercial agent, and my mom is a residential agent, so I worked at my family business helping my parents out, picking up the slack in the middle,” Foch said. “They were winding the business down and I was winding up, and I moved to Rare Real Estate as the director of economic research, advising developers on strategy during the pandemic, specifically how to manage the market’s peak and then its low point."
All roads eventually led to Valery Real Estate — also known as Valery.ca — one of the first artificial intelligence-powered brokerages in the country. It operates in markets spanning southwestern Ontario to Cornwall near the Quebec border.
Foch also co-hosts a podcast, The Canadian Real Estate Investor, and that piqued the firm's interest. His social media experience and market presence has helped scale Valery.ca from three agents when it was founded about 18 months ago to 70 today.
“They wanted to capture my knowledge and for me to make a lot of social media content as well — YouTube, Instagram, etc. — so it started with that, but I was really impressed with what they were doing and the pace at which they were progressing, so they brought me on as the chief real estate officer, and we’ve done about $250 million in sales since then.”
Foch said the industry is changing faster than anyone realizes, driven by the rapid pace of technological evolution and the degree to which it’s being integrated into daily operations. He cited OpenClaw as both a disruptor and motivator.
“It’s given me some urgency to speed up the process of what we’re doing at Valery because, while we’re super far ahead and have felt that way for a long time, the gap could close quickly,” Foch said, adding that the company will commence its next fundraising campaign ahead of schedule.
“We’re at a big turning point in the AI space, and that’s one thing I’d like people to know.”