Generative AI in The Real Estate Industry

Artificial intelligence is transforming various industries, and the real estate industry is no exception. With the power to analyze vast amounts of data quickly and accurately, AI is helping real estate buyers, sellers, and investors ease their workflow and make more informed decisions.

Let's take a look at how AI is being used to navigate the real estate market with ease.

Using generative AI tools like ChatGPT to help with client outreach is a common theme that seems to be used across a variety of industries that are taking advantage of the benefits of AI.

For the real estate market, it can be especially timesaving since, for most real estate agents, marketing and prospecting are a major part of their job.

Using generative AI to create outreach emails, texts, and are among the common uses of real estate agents. Some have even used it to generate QR codes which can be especially useful for printed listings that are posted around town.

Another common one among real estate agents was creating prospecting phone scripts. Michael Montgomery from Rev Real Estate School shared his prompts for getting help with his phone scripts;

"Write a phone script for a real estate agent and ask for a price reduction from a seller."

Or

"Write me a phone script for calling a cold lead who I haven't followed up with in a year and a half to see if they're still interested in buying."

Creating listings is another part of a realtor's job that can get easier, or less tedious, with AI. As Michael Montgomery points out, something like;

"Write a listing description for a 2 bed, 2 bath home in x community,"

may be a bit basic and yield a random response. So a much better approach would be;

"Write a listing description for a 3 bedroom 2 bath home in Marda Loop, Calgary. The house is on a quiet street, has a newly updated kitchen with granite countertops and gas stove. The house is a remodeled bungalow with a double garage. Also highlight the big backyard and that it's close to shops and cafes."

And taking one step further, he notes that you can then ask ChatGPT to take the listing and make a social media post for you.

Christian Joseph Funicelli, a real estate wholesaler/investor from The One Street Company, wondered in the ChatGPT for Business & Life Facebook group if there is or will soon be an AI tool that can help him scrape the internet and social media for prospects using the data that people are sharing.

He's gotten ChatGPT to the point of;

"Based on my analysis of social media data, I have identified several individuals who may be interested in selling their homes. One person recently mentioned feeling overwhelmed with the upkeep of their large house, while another posted about wanting to downsize. A third individual expressed excitement about relocating to a new city for a job opportunity. These are just a few examples of the ways that individuals have expressed interest in selling their homes on social media. By approaching each person with this information in mind you may be able to better understand their motivations and tailor your approach accordingly."

But has yet to figure out if there is a tool to actually give him the list of profiles. When he asked;

"How can I contact these people on social media?"

ChatGPT responded with;

"you can reach out to these individuals on social media by sending them a direct message. To do this .

Not quite where he wanted to go with it, but a good idea for a platform that uses generative AI technology. But this next example may have a solution for something similar

Real estate farming is a strategy used by real estate professionals to generate leads from a specific geographic area. Agents “farm” a certain geographic or demographic area with the hopes of becoming the go-to agent of that area.

As Real Estate CRM company TopProducer has figured out, AI can help agents target the top 20% of households within the area they are farming that is most likely to sell their homes, so they can focus their marketing efforts on that group rather than waste time on those who likely will not.

They’ve developed their own AI-powered tool, Smart Targeting, that helps with that.

It uses predictive algorithms and data analytics to analyze vast amounts of data and local market trends. It identifies triggers that lead to people selling their homes by examining information about every person who has listed their home in the last 20 years and 2000 attributes, such as where they work, marital status, number of children, length of time they lived in the home, and equity.

By analyzing this data, it determines why people have listed their homes in the past and uses this information to predict what is likely to happen in the current market.

There were a few great examples across the internet of people in the Real Estate industry using ChatGPT to help with some of the technical aspects of the job.

Frank Trelles, a commercial real estate agent at State Street Realty in Miami, for example, has used ChatGPT to look up the permitted uses for certain land and zones and also to quickly calculate what mortgage payments or return on investment might be for a client who wants an estimate on the spot which typically involve formulas and mortgage calculators. For example;

"What [would] a mortgage payment would be on a $14 million purchase at a 7.2% interest rate amortized over 25 years with two origination points at closing"

Naeem Qurashi found that ChatGPT was useful in creating a rental agreement that could be useful for a property manager

"Please create a simple rent agreement for single family home."

Errol Brown was able to successfully develop real estate sales contracts for FSBO financing and lease with purchase options. He found that GPT worked well for both documents

Ariel Herrera, a real estate analyst, found that AI-powered tools can help investors decide which market to invest in, because not everyone wants to invest in their backyard, nor is it always the best option.

So she used ChatGPT to help narrow down what neighborhood she should be investing in. To start she asked;

"What economic factors should we consider when investing in real estate?"

It gave a list of about 5 different factors, the first of which is local supply and demand which takes into account things like population growth, job creation, and new construction.

Others it listed were economic indicators (GDP) interest rates, market trends, tax policies, local regulations, and investment goals.

So focusing on the first, to narrow down which cities to focus on within the United States, she followed up with;

"Which US cities have had the most population growth."

Chat GPT analyzed the data from the 2021 US Census Bureau, which as we know is as far as it is trained, for its output. Her next move was to narrow down which city she could afford;

"What's the average price of a home in Jacksonville, Florida?"

And which neighborhood may be good to invest in;

"What are the top neighborhoods for families in Jacksonville, Florida?"

And then finally;

"Find properties for sale in Riverside, in Jacksonville, Florida"

This was the first potential roadblock she came to for ChatGPT since it cannot answer with specific listings, however, it did provide website links to Zillow and realtor.com for listings in that particular city and neighborhood.

The ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine would also be a good option for that last question.

It's also worth noting how some big names in the real estate industry have been integrating AI into their real estate platforms.

Zillow, a leading platform for property listings, has incorporated artificial intelligence in various aspects such as 3D mapping, generating automatic floor plans, and enhancing its "Zestimate" tool.

The "Zestimate" tool uses image scanning to determine if a home contains hardwood floors or stainless steel appliances, resulting in a more accurate price estimation based on market conditions.

Recently, Zillow introduced a new AI-based feature that allows prospective buyers to search for properties using natural language, a capability that has long been perfected by Google.

Chatbots could be an incredibly useful tool for rea estate agents by helping to provide enhanced customer service and book more showings. Chatbots can provide a range of benefits for real estate agents and firms, including explaining how to buy, sell, and rent property,

Chatbots can also engage with potential clients and collect their contact information helping agents generate hot leads.

Additionally, chatbots can handle basic inquiries and frequently asked questions, which can help agents save time and focus on other important tasks.

And while a lot of chatbots that are currently out on the market are decision-making models that follow an "IF" this "THEN" flow, Brivity's chatbots are actually powered by AI.

Brivity's chatbots are designed exclusively for the real estate industry. Their chatbots are powered by machine learning and are customized for the real estate market with many useful features for realtors.

So the real estate industry is quickly adapting to AI technology on both the buying and the selling side.

Most agents who have started using ChatGPT to ease their workflow now can't imagine working without it!

Overall, AI is proving to be a valuable asset in the real estate industry and will likely continue to expand in the coming years.