Answer extracted from the The Boulos Beat: A Commercial Real Estate Podcast — listen to the full episode below.
How can artificial intelligence compress real estate due diligence timelines from 90 days to a single day?
Rely's AI-powered software automates the entire audit process—lease files, utilities, contracts, and financial data—for apartment complexes, compressing what typically takes 60 to 90 days of due diligence into completion within a single day once data is received. This automation is powered by AI's ability to read, scan, organize, and search information at scale, a capability that would have been impossible without current machine learning technologies.
The Four-Pillar Automation Framework
Rely's platform handles four critical audit categories simultaneously. The software processes lease files to verify tenant agreements, utility audits to reconcile consumption and billing, contract audits to identify obligations and risks, and financial audits to validate property economics. Rather than having human auditors spend weeks manually reviewing documents, the AI engine ingests all data at once and surfaces findings in structured, actionable reports.
As George Matelich explains in the episode, this consolidation eliminates the sequential bottleneck that has defined the traditional due diligence process. Each audit phase typically required different teams and multiple review cycles, creating natural delays. Automation collapses that timeline because document processing happens in parallel, not in series.
Why Speed Matters in Portfolio Churn
The real estate industry faces a structural pressure that makes faster due diligence critical: properties flip in and out of managed portfolios at a rate of approximately 30% per year. This means a firm managing a portfolio must continuously evaluate new acquisitions while assets shift hands or change operators.
A 60 to 90-day due diligence window can become a competitive liability when deals move faster than the audit process. Compressing that window to one day allows firms to move with market velocity and make faster acquisition decisions without sacrificing the depth of their analysis. This is especially important in the multifamily sector, where the property management industry generates approximately $100 billion annually—a scale that demands efficiency gains.
"I wasn't put on this earth to build someone else's dream."
George Matelich — Co-Founder of Rely. A 29-year-old software entrepreneur who transitioned from major tech companies on the West Coast to build a real estate technology business in Kennebunk, Maine. Previously served as a product lead at Updater, where he focused on multifamily property management software and developed deep expertise in the operational pain points of the real estate industry.
Rely launched its software platform in January 2026, with dozens of firms already adopting it—a signal that the market recognizes the competitive advantage of accelerated due diligence. The platform was built by the team at Cardinal Group over approximately five months before launch, embedding real-world expertise into the automation logic.
If you want to understand how the real estate tech landscape is evolving and the specific workflows Matelich rebuilt, the full episode covers the detailed mechanics of how Rely handles document classification and risk flagging.
Key takeaways
- AI document processing automates lease, utility, contract, and financial audits simultaneously rather than sequentially.
- Due diligence timelines compress from 60–90 days to one day, enabling faster acquisition decisions and portfolio management.
- The property management industry's 30% annual portfolio churn rate creates urgency for faster audit cycles—a competitive edge Rely's automation delivers.
- Rely launched in January 2026 with dozens of early adopters, validating market demand for AI-accelerated due diligence.
See also
How did aggressive networking and community building accelerate startup success in a new geographic market?
George Matelich and a co-founder created Nexus Maine as an online community in Slack with the goal of reaching 100 members, but it grew to over 1,000 members, accelerating startup success through network effects and local connections.
What prompted a software engineer to relocate from San Francisco to Maine and build a business there?
George Matelich and his wife visited Kennebunk during New Year's 2021-2022 after 18 months of considering Maine, and they loved it. Nine months later, they purchased a house and relocated after spending only four cumulative days in the state.
What challenges do office property operators face in the post-pandemic commercial real estate market?
Office property operators face continuous compression of profits and expanding operating expenses driven by tenant evolution and market shifts in the post-pandemic environment.