Reshaping Realty: How One UWG Alumnus Built an AI Platform that’s Transforming Off-Market Real Estate Experiences Share this page
When most people think of real estate, they picture endless listings and missed opportunities. But one University of West Georgia alumnus saw a gap big enough to reinvent the system. Marcus Gore’s new AI-powered platform, Topular, is turning hidden properties into accessible possibilities for owners, investors and builders alike, revealing possibilities that once lived behind closed doors.
Gore, a 2020 mass communications graduate, described his company as “the Amazon of real estate.”
“Topular is a platform that helps people discover, analyze and act on real estate opportunities all in one place,” he began. “You can’t find these opportunities on a site like Zillow. For off-market real estate, Topular is the hub.”
From the beginning of his career, Gore could see the deals and transactions were fragmented – a listing on Facebook here, an ad on Craigslist there – and wanted to create a system that would bring everything together in one simple platform. He explained that by using AI-powered property technology, Topular goes beyond traditional online estimates by analyzing investor demand, property condition, market activity and off-market opportunity potential.
“Off market means the property isn’t publicly for sale, and many of these are great options that don’t even appear on sites like Zillow,” Gore continued. “For the average person, that means there are opportunities and solutions available they may not even know about unless they did some digging and made some cold calls. However, if you plug in a few data points, timeline, condition and motivation, Topular AI can generate a report outlining your best strategy in 60 seconds.”
The idea for his company started with a single conversation. While helping a property owner in Sacramento understand the value of her home, Gore realized how much the process depended on middle steps – calling an agent, waiting on a report and relying on information that wasn’t easily accessible to everyday people. After providing her with the valuation, he found himself wondering what could make the experience faster, clearer and more transparent.
Over two weeks of late nights, trial-and-error, and plenty of headaches, Gore built the first version of his AI valuation tool. Piece by piece, it came together. What began as a simple desire to help one person quickly grew into a platform helping thousands. For him, it all traced back to the mindset he was taught and developed at UWG: see a problem, imagine a better way and build something that makes life easier for real people.
“UWG taught me how to communicate ideas, solve problems and think critically,” he recalled. “Real innovation starts with identifying a problem, then finding a better way to solve it. My UWG experience helped me develop the mindset of consistently asking, ‘how can this process be improved?’ And most importantly, communication – the best ideas in the world don’t matter if you can’t explain them clearly. Whether I’m talking to a seller, an investor, a developer or a customer, clear communication is one of the most important skills I use every day in work, real estate and day-to-day life.”
What’s next for Gore and Topular? Alongside expanding the platform’s AI capabilities, Topular is also developing real estate deal room software that provides a centralized online workspace for presenting and evaluating off-market property opportunities.
“Our long-term vision is to become a platform people think of when they need help discovering, evaluating and acting on real estate opportunities,” he concluded. “This is foot on the gas, the start of something big. Every attribute from mass communications and real estate courses at UWG to my tenure in business-to-business sales all played a factor. This is my purpose, and I love doing it. Even without the money, I would still be excited about this because I really enjoy helping people.”