Know what you'll keep, when, and who will check it
Today: Stew Williamson is finishing his North Carolina broker licence and doesn't offer brokerage services yet. Atlas, his software, is in development in Union and Mecklenburg Counties, NC; it is not a licensed real-estate brokerage. Nothing here lists or sells homes, takes fees or deposits, or represents anyone, and nothing here is an offer of service. What you can use now is a free home-value estimate, and an invite-only preview of seller tools. Nothing in the preview is reviewed by a licensed person, so treat every result as a draft to check.
What a seller will be able to count on
- Your cash at closing, at any price. Fees and NC excise tax worked out to the cent by tested code, not a model, for whatever price you choose, with every line shown. This works in the preview today.
- A timeline. Recently, homes went under contract about 46 days after listing in Union County and 45 in Mecklenburg, and closed about 94 days after listing in both (Canopy Realtor Association, Aug 2026). These are typical times, not promises.
- Every offer compared by what you'd keep, after fees and anything the buyer asks you to pay, with what each one depends on. This works in the preview today.
- Prepared by software, checked by a licensed broker. Planned, once there is a licensed broker with a firm: a licensed broker, supervised by a broker-in-charge, goes over the asking price, the listing, the disclosure statement and every offer with you. Today no licensed person checks anything.
The idea
Most of the work in selling a home is gathering facts, filling in forms, checking numbers and keeping track of dates. Software can do much of it quickly. The plan is that what the law says a licensed person must do (advising you, negotiating for you) a licensed broker does, and the rest is done by software the broker checks. That is how the fee can be lower without cutting corners.
The planned fee
Once there is a licensed broker with a firm: 1% of the sale price, with a $4,500 minimum, paid at closing, and only if the home sells. What you offer a buyer's agent is your own, separate choice. For comparison, Charlotte-area sellers pay a listing broker 2.79% on average (an industry estimate: Clever Real Estate, Aug 2026). Many sellers can pay less by asking: in a July 2026 Clever survey, 93% of sellers who asked for a lower rate got one, usually by half a point or more, which puts a negotiated fee at about 2–2.25%.
On a $650,000 sale, for example, the planned fee would leave the seller $11,635 more than a 2.79% fee, $8,125 more than a 2.25% fee and $6,500 more than a 2% fee. Nothing is charged today: Stew isn't licensed yet and offers no service.
Who does what in the preview
- Fixed rules, no AI: the estimate and its range, your cash at closing, fees, excise tax and property-tax figures, and the checks on a settlement statement. These are tested code, not a model's judgement.
- AI, checked by those rules: reading what you type about your home, splitting a pasted inspection report into findings, copying the lines of a pasted settlement statement, and drafting listing copy. A figure in an AI answer must come from those rules or from what you told us, or the answer isn't shown.
- You: decide everything: price, repairs, what you disclose.
- Planned, once there is a licensed broker with a firm: a licensed broker, supervised by a broker-in-charge, reviews this work, advises you and negotiates. Contract deadlines and reminders.
- The closing attorney handles title, the deed and the settlement, as in every North Carolina sale. The software never drafts legal documents or gives legal advice.
Where the numbers come from
- Home values: recent nearby sales in public county records. Tested on past sales: half of 3,295 Union County sales sold within 6.6% of the estimate, and half of 4,084 Mecklenburg sales within 5.8%. Errors are larger for homes over about $900,000 (around 10%) and for lower-priced homes in Union County. Every estimate shows its range.
- Costs: NC excise tax ($1 per $500 of price) and county property-tax rates, each from its source; estimates are labelled as estimates.
- Market timing: Canopy Realtor Association county reports.
What the app keeps
What the app keeps, who sees it and for how long is in the privacy notice. The public estimate page doesn't ask who you are, and what you owe, if you type it there, stays in your browser.
Fair housing
The software describes homes, never neighborhoods or the people in them. Every listing description is screened by software for wording the Fair Housing Act forbids before it is shown, and a draft that fails is withheld. Once there is a licensed broker, a broker must review a description before it is used.
Limits
An automated estimate is not an appraisal. Software checks can miss things, and AI output can vary from one try to the next. We test with simulated sellers and statements to find problems before real people do; those results are labelled synthetic and are not evidence of how real sellers will fare.