PlotTwist

PlotTwist: Automating Real Estate Intelligence

Why PlotTwist?
Two weeks ago, we spoke with a real estate developer in Boston who shared the challenges he faces when evaluating new development opportunities. His research process—spanning zoning laws, market analysis, and financial feasibility—is time-consuming and manual. As he walked us through his workflow, it became clear: much of it could be automated. That conversation sparked the idea behind PlotTwist, and we brought it to life this weekend.

Joe (the developer) was immediately excited about the idea of an intelligent assistant to streamline his research. He outlined the key pieces of information he typically needs:

Parcel Basics – Square footage, property value, current owner, etc.

Zoning Laws – What can I legally build here? What are the constraints?

Market Assumptions – What developments have happened nearby, and how are they performing?

Development Opportunities – What’s a smarter use of this land? What’s financially and legally viable?

How PlotTwist Works
PlotTwist is an AI-powered assistant that automates early-stage real estate research using Gemini 2.5 Flash and custom-built tools:

Data Collection
The agent starts by parsing the input address and gathering basic property data using web scraping and NLP—things like square footage, assessed value, ownership info, and FAR (Floor Area Ratio).

Market Analysis
Using contextual tools and Gemini, the agent searches for nearby developments and public financial data. It then recursively gathers and synthesizes relevant insights from across the web.

Opportunity Identification
With zoning data and local market context in hand, the agent suggests viable development options—identifying higher-yield uses that comply with local laws and reflect recent market trends.

Final Report
All findings are compiled into a streamlined PDF report for the developer, offering actionable insights at a glance.

Fun Facts & Reflections

Initially, we planned to build something flashier—but real estate developers value clarity and efficiency over bells and whistles. We focused on simplicity and real utility.

Gemini loves writing emails. It kept formatting its responses like outreach messages, which gave us the idea for a future feature: auto-generated owner outreach emails.

We deployed our backend on Google Cloud Run.

This was our first hackathon—and it’s been an amazing experience.

⚠️ Currently, PlotTwist only supports properties located in Boston.

Everything was written during this hackathon.