Full-Stack AI Engineer for Real Estate Auction Platform MVP

We are looking for an experienced full-stack engineer to build an AI-powered real estate marketplace and property auction platform. This is not just a property listing website. The platform will allow sellers and agents to publish properties, buyers to search and review listings, and verified users to participate in scheduled online property auctions. We need a product-minded generalist who can take ownership across frontend, backend, database, real-time bidding, AI integration, payments, admin workflows, and deployment. ABOUT THE PLATFORM The MVP will include: • Residential and commercial property listings • Search and filtering by location, price, property type, bedrooms, and other attributes • Detailed property pages with images, documents, features, and auction information • Seller and agent onboarding • Buyer registration and verification • Scheduled online property auctions • Real-time bidding • Admin management and approval workflows • AI-powered property processing and assistance AUCTION FUNCTIONALITY The auction system should support: • Auction start and end times • Reserve prices and minimum bid increments • Real-time bid updates using WebSockets • Bid history and participant activity • Optional automatic or proxy bidding • Anti-sniping time extensions • Bidder registration and approval • Refundable bidder deposits or payment authorisation • Auction winner confirmation • Email and in-app notifications • Complete audit logs for bids and auction activity Accuracy and reliability are critical. Competing bids must be processed safely without race conditions or duplicate winning bids. AI FEATURES The AI functionality should be practical and grounded in actual property data. Initial AI features may include: • Automatic property tagging and categorisation • Extracting property details from uploaded documents • Generating or improving listing descriptions • Summarising inspection reports and property documents • Natural-language property search • A property assistant that answers questions using listing data and uploaded documents • Identifying missing or inconsistent listing information • Suggesting comparable listings based on available platform data AI-generated information must be clearly separated from verified property information and should not be presented as legal, financial, or valuation advice. CORE SCOPE • Responsive public website • Property search and listing pages • Property detail pages • Buyer, seller, and agent dashboards • Real-time auction room • Registration, authentication, and role-based permissions • Property submission and approval workflow • Document and image uploads • AI processing and review workflow • Payment or deposit integration • Admin dashboard • Notifications and activity logs • REST API development • Database architecture • Testing, validation, and error handling • GitHub repository and technical documentation • Production deployment PREFERRED STACK Frontend: • Next.js • React • TypeScript • Tailwind CSS Backend: • Node.js • NestJS or Express • REST APIs • WebSockets • Background jobs and scheduled tasks Database and Infrastructure: • PostgreSQL and Prisma • Redis for real-time bidding, queues, and locking • AWS or another suitable cloud provider • Vercel • Docker • GitHub Actions AI and Integrations: • OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini APIs • RAG and vector search • Structured AI outputs • Stripe or another suitable payment provider • Google Maps or Mapbox • Email and notification services We are open to technical recommendations where they improve security, reliability, or development speed. WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR We need someone who can work across the complete product rather than only handling one layer. You should be able to: • Translate business requirements into a practical architecture • Build both frontend and backend systems • Design a reliable real-time auction engine • Implement AI features inside a production application • Work with payments, APIs, webhooks, and third-party services • Build clear admin and approval workflows • Identify risks before they become expensive • Communicate technical decisions in plain English • Keep the MVP focused without overengineering it • Deploy and support the final product Experience with real estate platforms, marketplaces, auction systems, fintech, AI SaaS, document processing, or real-time applications will be highly valued. PROJECT STRUCTURE We would like to begin with a paid discovery and architecture phase. The expected development phases are: 1. Requirements, workflows, and technical architecture 2. Property marketplace and user dashboards 3. Real-time auction engine 4. AI and document-processing features 5. Payments, admin workflows, testing, and deployment The initial MVP is expected to take approximately 6–8 weeks. This can be structured as an hourly or milestone-based project. Ongoing work may be available after launch for mobile applications, analytics, additional auction formats, CRM integrations, and advanced AI functionality. TO APPLY Please include: 1. Two or three relevant marketplace, real estate, auction, SaaS, or AI projects. 2. Your experience with Next.js, TypeScript, and Node.js. 3. An example of a real-time feature you have built. 4. An AI, RAG, or document-processing feature you have implemented. 5. How you would prevent conflicting bids during a live auction. 6. Your recommended architecture for the MVP. 7. Your availability and hourly rate. Please avoid a generic proposal. We are looking for someone who can understand the product, challenge weak assumptions, and take responsibility for getting the complete platform launched.