An abandoned house in Fort Lauderdale recently caught the attention of Akos Balogh. It wasn’t listed for sale, and most real estate investors probably wouldn’t have known it was available.
But Balogh’s AI platform had spotted something interesting in public records: unpaid property taxes.
The property became an investment for LIBA Capital, the real estate arm of Balogh’s Miami-based company. And it’s an example of what he’s trying to achieve with LIBA SI, an AI-powered platform that helps investors find opportunities hiding in plain sight.
“We spent six months and I realized there has to be a system helping on that,” Balogh [pictured above], LIBA’s founder and CEO, told Refresh Miami, recalling his own frustrating search for multifamily investments.
Balogh previously built Colle, a blockchain-powered luxury marketplace. But as enthusiasm for NFTs faded, he began reconsidering the technology’s purpose. His experience searching for investment properties convinced him that better data and decision-making tools could address a major problem in real estate.
Today, LIBA operates two businesses: LIBA Capital, which invests its own money in residential properties, and LIBA SI, which licenses its technology to professional investors.
Rather than relying on conventional listings, LIBA’s platform draws on government records and other sources covering unpaid taxes, foreclosures, insurance, zoning, and flood risks.
The platform currently tracks roughly 580 Miami-Dade properties, with more than 13,000 data points across 17 categories. Some 94% of that information comes directly from government records.
Co-founder Peter Liptak, a telecommunications infrastructure entrepreneur and multifamily investor, leads LIBA SI’s data network and infrastructure.
“We built the data network the way you build a telecommunications network: every source tested, and every reading traced back to where it came from,” Liptak said.
But finding opportunities is only half the equation. LIBA also helps investors decide when to walk away.
Its technology evaluates potential returns, financing costs, vacancy rates, and other variables. Four AI models, including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Google’s Gemini, and xAI’s Grok, feed into a system LIBA calls Consensus.
Crucially, humans retain final authority.
“All the decisions have to be principal approved,” Balogh said, explaining that investors must document their reasoning so the platform can learn from previous decisions.
For Balogh, the focus on affordable housing reflects a broader view of Miami’s economy. “It’s not the typical Miami story where you see the mega yachts and the fancy cars,” he said. “It’s more how normal people are living.”
LIBA Capital serves as the technology’s first customer, testing its capabilities on actual investments. Now, the seven-person company is onboarding outside multifamily investors through a subscription model and opening discussions with venture capital firms after funding development internally.
Miami-Dade is the starting point, with plans to expand across Florida and eventually nationwide. Las Vegas is already being tested as another market.
Balogh’s ambitions extend beyond property investing, potentially applying the same decision-making technology to other asset classes.
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“We want to be a Miami-based startup, a Miami-based next AI unicorn,” he asserted.
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I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.