The AI revolution is here. Ever since the public launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, there’s been a race to leverage AI tools in nearly every industry, including real estate. 

We previously covered how generative AI can help real estate investors. Now, we’ll go over how it can be used by agents. In this article, we will have example prompts that you can paste into chatAI.com, so you can see the results of the examples I give.

But first, what is generative AI exactly?

What sets generative AI apart is that it can produce original content based on its algorithmic knowledge.

What Is Generative AI?

Generative AI is a form of machine learning (ML). It analyzes massive amounts of data to identify patterns and trends with which to make predictions about the future. 

What sets generative AI apart is that it can produce original content based on its algorithmic knowledge. Users can supply generative AI with a prompt, and it will respond with an output that aligns with what it knows.

To make this more concrete, take ChatGPT. It’s a general-use chatbot that can respond to questions with human-like responses. Ask it what the capital of Florida is, and it will tell you Tallahassee. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 

ChatGPT can generate recipes, poems, study schedules, and much more. As the tool continues to evolve, it will only become more powerful. 

Other generative AI tools produce audio, images, or video instead of text. These include tools like DALL-E, Mubert, Runway, and Midjourney.

The long and the short of it, however, is that generative AI is a powerful tool that real estate professionals can leverage to improve their businesses. 

Here are the top four ways agents can start using generative AI today:

With generative AI, you can get more done for your clients at once.

1. Personalize the Client Experience

As a real estate agent, you work with many clients at a time (at least that’s the goal). Juggling all their needs can be difficult, however. Especially during busy seasons.

With generative AI, you can get more done for your clients at once. For example, you can have generative AI help you come up with an email template that you can personalize for each of your clients. This can save you from sending out an impersonal mass email or writing many individualized emails from scratch.

Generative AI can also help you answer your customers’ unique housing questions. For example, if a client wants to know what their expected mortgage payment would be on a specific home, you can feed generative AI the relevant variables (such as home price, mortgage rates, and down payment amount), and it will give you the answer.

If you work with clients whose native language isn’t English, you can also use generative AI to translate your communications with them in real time.

With generative AI, you can scale your marketing efforts without letting it absorb too much of your time.

2. Scale Marketing Content Creation

To stand out online, agents need to engage prospective clients with helpful content. However, creating and sharing content can easily turn into a full-time job of its own.

With generative AI, you can scale your marketing efforts without letting it absorb too much of your time. For example, you can use it to generate ideas for social media posts or blog articles. If you ever experience writer’s block or get stuck, have it produce an outline for you. The hardest part of creating content is getting started, so having a tool that does that for you can be super helpful. 

Of course, many agents are tasked with writing compelling property listing descriptions for their clients. Generative AI can help with this, too. Have it write a first draft by giving it the relevant property details (address, square footage, year built, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, etc.). Then, revise the prompt until you get something close to what you want. With enough iterations and tweaks, you can get a killer listing description in no time!

The same goes for video marketing content. You can use generative AI to help you come up with scripts or even generate the video itself. The possibilities are endless!

With the right data, generative AI can run complex calculations and provide tailored answers that you can pass on to your clients.

3. Perform Basic Market Analysis

Another way agents can use generative AI is in basic market analysis. Running comps and making ROI calculations is an essential part of an agent’s job. 

With the right data, generative AI can run complex calculations and provide tailored answers that you can pass on to your clients. It can also alert you to potential concerns based on historical real estate data. 

Generative AI’s data computing capabilities coupled with your human expertise and empathy make for a powerful combo that homebuyers and sellers will appreciate. 

As long as you have a grasp of the material yourself, you can use generative AI as a personal administrative assistant to do the heavy lifting.

4. Sift Through and Summarize Long Documents

It’s no secret that real estate is a heavily regulated industry full of all sorts of red tape. From mortgage applications to property titles to insurance policies, there’s plenty of paperwork to go around.

As an agent, reviewing all these documents and explaining them to clients can be time-consuming. Use generative AI to review and sift through large documents, pinpoint relevant clauses, and summarize them in a way that’s easy for clients to understand. 

As long as you have a grasp of the material yourself, you can use generative AI as a personal administrative assistant to do the heavy lifting. It can even draft routine emails to various contractors and third parties for you.

Limitations of Using Generative AI as an Agent

As powerful as generative AI is, it’s not the be-all and end-all for agents. It has its limitations. Some that you should be aware of include:

• Possible inaccuracies. Generative AI can occasionally make mistakes, especially if it’s working with flawed data. So always make sure you verify what it generates for accuracy.
• Outdated information. Many generative AI tools are trained up until a certain date. For example, ChatGPT is only trained up until September 2021. As a result, its output may be outdated.
• Potential bias. Finding 100% objective information is difficult. Naturally, if the data fed to generative AI is biased, its outputs may exhibit bias as well.
• Regulations. Real estate regulations can change, and the consequences for violating them can be severe. As a result, you should never rely too heavily on generative AI to keep you compliant.

The Bottom Line

Ultimately, generative AI will never be able to fully replace agents. It’s just a tool (albeit a very powerful one). 

Agents who learn how to use generative AI will, no doubt, gain a competitive edge and be more likely to see their business thrive in the coming years. It will save them countless hours of busy work and ultimately help them work smarter, not harder.