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AI vibe-coding tools have made it easy for anyone to build custom tools in minutes, but they’re routinely insecure, non-compliant and off-brand. Cloze’s new Forge platform is a direct answer to that risk.
Choosing software for a real estate business comes with a frequent pain point: Either use a pre-packaged platform that may or may not work for the way you do business or “back up a truck with money” for a custom solution.
According to Dan Foody, founder and CEO at Cloze, vibe coding offers the best of both worlds, despite adding its own brand-new set of problems.
Dan Foody via LinkedIn
Agents are already using AI tools to build apps and software, whether brokerages know it or not. While their output may look good on the surface, they can also expose data, skip compliance language and break brand standards, creating a potential nightmare scenario for supervising brokers and broker-owners.
That’s why Cloze is rolling out its new Forge product, a platform that allows brokerages to build and deploy custom tech solutions with security baked in.
Why vibe coding presents a liability for brokers
Standard vibe-coded applications are often insecure by default, protected by an API key that exposes all of the app’s data if stolen or hacked. Managing access requires custom tech solutions that most brokerages aren’t prepared for or equipped to do.
“You can’t trust AI, right?” Foody said. “You can’t trust it because it hallucinates. You can’t trust it to do security right for you. You can’t trust it to do what’s in your best interest. Can’t trust it to know what matters to you.”
Cloze Forge replaces API keys with what it calls “declarative security” — auditable, external rules that set limits on which records and fields each app can access. That means that instead of the code having to say “trust me,” Foody said, the security layer guarantees that only the data fields needed are available for access.
What Cloze Forge does
Forge comes with six pre-defined app types, each with its own built-in security profile. In addition, Forge Studio is a vibe-coding tool powered by Claude Code. Apps built in Cloze’s Forge system are secure, compliant and owned outright by the brokerage.
Data comes from brokerage listings, MLS data, transactions, clients and communication history, all provided by the Cloze Intelligence Engine.
“Creating a branded digital experience is no longer a technology project; it’s a business decision,” Foody said. Now, “brokerages can load a brand kit into [Forge] so that any app that you build will automatically follow the brand standards.”
The first Forge app, launching today, is an Open House app, totally vibe-coded and offering a custom branded check-in experience with QR posters, kiosk mode and offline capability. Visitors who check in with the app have their data flow into Cloze relationship intelligence, agent follow-up, marketing workflows, financing interest and long-term client engagement systems.
According to Foody, the Open House app screens for a variety of potential stakeholders when visitors check in. For brokerages with in-house mortgage, for example, a screening question for financing interest sends contact information to a mortgage rep.
Meanwhile, open house attendees without representation flow to available buyer’s agents. At the same time, the listing agent still gets a record of all visitors and their information for follow-up after the event.
A compliance story the industry hasn’t yet tackled
Departments of Real Estate haven’t yet pursued cases against AI-built agent tools, but that day is coming. Brokers are responsible for what agents publish under their license, so rogue, vibe-coded tools create a supervision gap.
By creating an auditable, enforceable environment tied to their in-house policies and procedures, Forge heads off many of the potential objections that regulators and brokers will be wrestling with in the months ahead.
“All the security rules are fully auditable and can’t be avoided,” Foody said. “When you make the security something that is well-defined outside of the app, that can be audited and reviewed, then [compliance] becomes a much easier problem to manage.”
Cloze already serves Baird & Warner, Brown Harris Stevens, Sotheby’s, William Raveis and Windermere and sees customization as an essential part of the new competitive real estate landscape. As the superapp era gives way to individuated, brokerage-owned tools, brand differentiation is increasingly essential, both for client services and agent recruitment and retention.
“In a world where you’re competing against the Compass brand, which is everywhere,” Foody said, “the more unique you can be, the more differentiated you’re going to be.” Cloze offers an opportunity to use tech to differentiate and problem-solve without having to employ dozens or even hundreds of engineers, he added.
For his part, Foody sees no end in sight when it comes to the level of customization potential, saying, “We’re only scratching the surface of what’s possible here, I think.”
Troy Palmquist is the founder and principal at HomeCode Advisors. Connect with him on LinkedIn.
