A 36 year old chess prodigy has created software that includes
an algorithm that allows him to essentially snatch up hundreds of
homes in Atlanta and sell them two big investors and flippers.
Now, the man is AJ Steigman and
he sold more houses in Atlanta last year than any other real estate broker,
despite the fact that he lives in Florida and also has zero full time staff.
So, how did he make that happen?
Well, Steigman is able to sell residential properties from
thousands of miles away, thanks to a $20,000 computer and
a proprietary software system called Steignet.
Which he launched at the University of Pennsylvania in 2018.
The system's algorithm scan large data sets to identify
undervalued single-family homes before the human competition.
Its name is a reference to the terminator's
villainous artificial intelligence network Skynet.
So, just to give you a sense of how successful his software is, and
how much I think it should be banned and illegal.
Last year, he sold 300 properties in Atlanta for
a total of $86 million, according to the Atlanta Realtors Association.
He said this is just a fraction of his total closings,
including Florida sales, which he estimates to be around $130 million.
Now, why do I say this should be banned?
It's not about him and his particular software, so no offense to Steigman.
It's more about the fact that he is assisting investors in gaming the system
to their advantage to also his advantage, because of course he's the broker,
he's making commission off these sales.
But the problem is middle class families, ordinary workers,
ordinary people, they immediately get priced out of the market,
they're forced into the rental market.
And since there's an ever expanding population of people who have
no choice but to rent, rent goes up significantly.
Okay, so that look, progressives get on me when I talk about this,
go ahead and get mad, but this is the reality, okay?
They love to put the cart before the horse.
No, okay, I am totally fine with changing zoning laws, but
before we change zoning laws to allow for more construction.
Which will then get snatched up by the investors immediately,
both domestically and foreign investors.
We need to change our laws to ensure that we're a changing the zoning law
specifically to build affordable housing, not market priced housing.
Which is gonna be astronomically expensive if people can't afford.
And when we need to make sure that once we build the housing, it doesn't get preyed
upon by the same investors who put us in this mess in the first place.
>> Yeah.
>> Am I a nimby for wanting to be smart and strategic about how we do this.
>> Yeah.
And I think actually it's way worse than that.
So, let me explain why this is going to lead to the wealth
accumulation ending in this country for the middle class.
It's over.
So, this is the beginning, but
eventually the board will take over all of your houses.
So, look, sometimes the right wing calls mainstream media the Matrix, and
I think that's actually probably the best thing the right wing has ever done.
That's a fair description of mainstream media, but
it's actually broader than that guy.
It's the Matrix is corporate rule, and so here, and
it's I don't know if they actually intended it that way, but
in the in the movie, they say, the agents say that they are inevitable.
Their victory is inevitable.
And that's the case here with corporate rule.
Now, once he designs the program to buy the undervalued homes, and
private equity companies can then come in and
make money with something that is reliably buying undervalued homes.
They're all going to rush in, because that is near guaranteed profit.
So that means they're gonna snatch up all those houses and when they have the house,
and they can by the way buy them easier because they have cash.
Whereas you gotta go through a process of getting a mortgage, right?
So they have a huge advantage.
So once they have the houses, they accumulate wealth because they
pay the mortgage, but then they charge you rent.
Not only do they make money on the difference between the rent and mortgage,
but they make money on the accumulation of wealth like you used to when you bought
a home, right?
But now they're squeezing you out of the market and not only can you not buy
a home and accumulate wealth, but you've got to pay higher prices for rent.
So it's a win win for the private equity guys.
That means they will invent a lot more apps like this,
because if Steignet can do it, they can do it.
And if you can make money by buying one or 10 or 100 homes in this fashion,
that means you can make money buying all of the homes.
So the fact that the Wall Street bankers are going to systematically over
the next several decades buy almost all the homes of the market is inevitable.
>> It is inevitable, in fact,
what this chess prodigy has to say about what's going on.
He specifically says on his website that he's using his skills to quote,
disrupt the residential real estate market.
>> Yeah, that's business Lingo.
Look, I don't blame Steigman at all.
He's a smart guy, he figured out this app, he's making tons of money.
The problem is the system not necessarily one particular player that's taking
advantage of it and he's not the banker, the bankers then come in and
buy those homes, right?
And so, look, it's whether, >> But he's assisting the bankers,
like he knows what he's doing.
And he tries to minimize it to which no, he is the bad guy, because, look,
yeah, he's a smart guy.
Remember when we used to have smart guys use their smarts to do good in
the country?
>> Barely. >> Barely, you're right,
alright never mind.
>> [LAUGH] So, look, you can't have Neo, you can't fight back,
it's not inevitable, but you are fighting a machine.
And there is a certain inevitability to markets and capital, so
capital will move wherever it's going to accumulate more capital.
So, this is going to spread throughout the country, it's already there, but
they're just the tip of the iceberg.
It makes too much economic sense now that they've discovered it in buying homes.
And guys, there's a third hidden advantage to this for
corporate rule and this one is the most devastating.
The more you're beholden to corporations where you cannot leave your job,
because if you leave your job, you have no wealth that you've accumulated,
the more they have you as indentured servants.
So, once you can't build wealth anymore through your homes, that was the,
I should clarify,
that's the number one way that Americans build wealth through their homes.
Historically, it's always been the case, okay?
So now if you take away the number one way that you build wealth, well,
then the middle class is destroyed.
And then at that point, corporations can say, in which they are already doing,
we're going to lower your wages to bare sustenance levels, right?
So you can barely survive and you don't have an option,
because you don't have any accumulated wealth, the bankers of all of the money.
So then we're gone forever, and there is no middle class, there is no America and
we all live as servants of corporations, so that's what's ahead in our future.
We better wise it up right now, otherwise soon it will be too late.
We have to fight that right now, and here's who's not fighting it.
Republicans and Democrats, Republicans love corporate rule.
They're funded 100% by corporate rule.
Any of the populism that they do note that it is all fake,
it is all related to social and cultural issues.
Never to economic issues, because Republicans and
right wing media serve giant corporations.
They're marketing arm and they are their servants, okay?
And the Democratic Party has progressives,
progressives actually want to fight against corporate rule.
That is why mainstream media hates us.
That is why corporate Democrats hate us.
That is why Republicans hate us.
The entirety of the Matrix hates progressives and you all know that.
There's plenty of love for right wingers, there's tons of love for
the corporate middle, but everyone hates the progressives under corporate rule.
Because we're the only ones who would actually do something about it.
Whereas corporate democrats, they love taking donations from private equity,
and venture capital and doing exactly as they're told.
And they give the illusion of opposition, the illusion of democracy and
the Matrix needs that, so that's the reality of America.