AI in Real Estate

Welcome to the Leading Lane podcast for Real Estate Pros by Real Estate Pros, with your hosts, Ashley Frederick and Steven Burch. If you're looking for an honest, authentic, and raw perspective, you found it. All right, welcome back to the Leading Lane Podcast. Today we're going to talk about the scary, scary, scary AI in real estate and just kind of have a conversation about what we think AI, what it's going to do, how is it going to affect us, you know, kind of just chat about what's going on. It's a buzzword right now, but hey, so, Ashley, what do you think AI will do in real estate? Wow. I think that we're not even probably aware of what it's going to do for real estate currently. I think that different people are using it for different things, but I do think there is a misnomer of it will replace realtors. I don't agree with that. I think that at the end of the day, the human connection will always surpass any type of future generated. I know. I just couldn't imagine. If I think about, you know, anytime I bought properties, like a robot showing me a house, like, just don't foresee that, versus the person I know that, you know, has been involved in the community and has helped me buy other houses, I'm going to trust their judgment over robot. So I think that I see it more as ways that it can help us, you know, with all of the busy work, if you will, or things that are making us more efficient. And I think there are. There are some fine lines. Like, I know that there are some people that are doing like, you know, AI generated headshots, which I can't stand. My thought is like, could you imagine if you had an AI generated headshot and then you go and you meet your person and then they're kind of. Like, that's, let's be real. Like, there's people that. They have their current, current quote, unquote headshot that you see, and then you go meet them. You're like, yeah, that was from about, like 27 years ago. Let's get that. Let's get that updated there. Right? So it's like headshots. But then I also know, like, even just, you know, virtual staging right now I think is a very grayish area. And I think that, you know, like, we're pretty good about, you know, virtual staging and it's on the picture, but I know that we have, like, virtual staging staged on our picture. I don't think everyone does that, but there are, like, fine lines of misrepresentation that I think we're all going to have to be careful of. I mean like, right, you can change furniture and stuff like that, but when people start taking out walls and removing trees, you know, things like that, I mean there is definitely some issues there. But I guess the way that I've really been using it is just more so. I like it for write ups. I don't ever copy and paste just because I think it's learned who I am. So it repeats some of those things. But I think it's just a little bit of a. I get stuck in a pattern of the same things. I mean like you can only explain a house like so many different ways. Um, but I have also found that like the more detailed information you can feed it, the better that it does, you know. So I try to be very specific about, you know, primary bath with walk in tile shower. Right. Instead of just primary bath and then it'll shoot something out. I'm like, oh, I wouldn't have thought about saying it that way. And then I'll edit the rest of it. But I think you're probably a little bit more so well versed in like the background of AI, which, you know, the zapiers and those types of things that we're not thinking about that just help everyday functions. There, there's so much and I agree, like I don't think that AI is going to replace the realtor in a transaction whatsoever. I think that, I mean everything you said, it's a human connection, you have to have that relationship first. But do I think that those who are going to actually lean into AI are going to advance way further than somebody that's going to be resistant? Abso freaking lutely. You know, I was at a conference a couple weeks ago and they were showcasing these different types of, you know, predictions for the future of, you know, Matterport and these glasses and all of these different types of technology. And so imagine being able to go, you know, in, into an office, you know, with your agent and be able to put these glasses on and then you're going to be able to go walk through virtually all of these different properties. And now you are able to eliminate these properties that you don't like the floor plan, you don't like the feel because it feels like you're, you know, in there. And so instead of driving all over the countryside, you're able to go to your top two. So like, I think that there's ways that it's going to help us and I think there's going to be some really cool and I think that there are going to be different types of products and things that are out there that are going to try to replace the, the real estate agent out of the transaction. But again that, that's everybody, that's their prerogative. There's going to be the people that want that and there's going to be the people that don't. Just like there's people that want electric cars and there's people that don't. There's people that want self driving cars and there's people that don't. So that's everybody's prerogative. It's, I, I think it's just another option. But I, I was having a conversation with an agent and we were talking about AI and she was like, you know, I think that AI is horrible. It's going to replace us. And that's her opinion and that's fine. But she was going on about how it's like copyright infringement if we use AI to write a property description or help write us, write an email or whatever it's going to be. It's, you know, that we're, we're taking somebody else's words and it's not our own words. Which you know, I do think that you are still going to have to edit it and make sure it sounds like you and it's still truthful and just like any other thing. But where I really got into it with her was that AI is a tool and there are different things. If you look back in history, if you look at, I use the analogy of a calculator. A calculator is a tool. So before we had calculators you still had to do math. Pen and paper. Right. What was the tool that we decided. That Atticus or the whatever. I don't know how to say it but yes, the old thing that would. Like a little dial thing back and forth, you move it on the strings. Right. So but no matter whatever, the method is like abacus. So it still took the human and now we are enhancing it with a tool to make things quicker and faster and more accurate. Right. And she was like, well, I guess I never thought of it that way. So like what about the computer? I mean people were scared when the computer was coming. Y2K. Yeah. Like for real, everything's going to shut down. You know, like what about the Internet? Like that's a tool. Like all of these technologies are tools that you can lean into. And the way that our technology has advanced in the last five years Compared, you know, if you stack it against the past 50 years, we're advancing so much quicker. And so I think that there's going to be so much opportunity for everybody if you lean into it. You know, there's things that I use constantly with AI, we have everything, all the calls that I'm on, everything that we do is recorded. Then it goes through and AI transcribes everything for me. So I have a transcription of every conversation that is ever recorded. Right. So now then I can take that transcription. We have it set up to where it goes through ChatGPT and it says, based off of this conversation or this transcript, write LinkedIn articles and it will prompt it or we ask it to write, I think a minimum of four LinkedIn articles. Not do I take every single one and post every single one. Not at all. But at least it helps me not have to sit here on the keyboard and be like, what do I have to type? Or what do I have to talk about today? I already talk about it, so let me use that to my advantage and help me get more information out there. Right. I mean, I think that that's just how we have to remember that it's, it's just a tool, you know, it's a tool to help us do things faster, better. So we have ideas, I guess the way I see it, so that I can spend more time where my time is valuable, which is not necessarily on the computer or, you know, trying to figure out a title for my next post. It's just a matter of being with people and doing showings and doing listings like. Right. Like that's where spending time with your agents, that's where you're making money. Where sitting on the computer for an hour thinking about write up. Right. Not worth my time. So, like, and I think this is really funny because there was in the room of this conversation, she was definitely older than I, but there was somebody way younger than I in the room. And he was just listening back and forth. And it was really funny because he was like, well, like, what else in real estate has changed? I was like, well, I mean, I was coming into real estate when the MLS was going online. I remember going into my grandma's office and they were delivering the MLS books weekly. Right. Like, he was like you, they used to go around and print books and deliver books. Yeah. So look how much more efficient we are now that the MLS is online. I remember that we used to do showing time wasn't a thing when I started. Well, it wasn't bigger markets, so we Would call every single seller, every single time there was a showing request, and then they would call back to the office and confirm it or another time. And like, you think about how much time that took. And then I remember like a bigger off, like a town like an hour and a half away, started using showing time. And I had a client that moved here from there. And so I asked our broker and you know, they were just like, no, I just, I just think that's a good idea. I'm like, we should just try it. And now it's like the standard, right? And it makes things so much easier, right? Like, who needs to always return a phone call? You like, yep, 5 o' clock works today versus just pushing a button, right? I mean, again, technology. And the other thing that I remember having to deal when I was coming into my grandma's real estate office is she had a bulletin board right up front. So each time that there was a new listing, we would have to print out the listing sheet, but cut out the photo. And then we would have to glue it onto this century 21 little postcard with the write in the address and the price. And we line it all up with the, the prices and everything else. So you can see. And that's like our, our board with all of our internal listings. That's what people would come walk into to go look at. My God. And I guarantee you, if my grandma was still selling real estate, she would still print out the, an MLS sheet for every single person and put it on every single person's desk and she would have. Right. It's just crazy. I mean, but that's the way that she knows how to do real estate. And there's nothing wrong with it. And it's, it's. Again, if you are in this industry, in any industry, like you're either going to adapt or you're going to stay in your same old ways. There's nothing wrong with it, but there's always, I feel, more efficient and effective ways to get business done. Well, I don't think it's like all AI right. Like there's just technology in general like that. It's just extremely helpful. You even think about before COVID like for me to do a video tour was like few and far between, like maybe four or five. Right. And then like Covid happened and Matterport happened and Google Duo and FaceTime and all these things happen real fast, like overnight. And it's changed the way that we do real estate. And it's not necessarily, you know, a bad thing either. If somebody can't make it. You can do, you know, tours. But like I think about box Brownie, you know, super simple just for, for me I'm picky about the sky. So if it's a white guy, I hate a white sky in a picture. And you turn it over to a blue sunny sky, right? It makes the picture look that much better or. We recently started using Cubicasa, right? I mean I went to a house yesterday, I kid you not, I did a scan in 90 seconds, like 90 seconds. And this morning I had a 2D rendering of the property. I mean like what a great tool for people that want to see if that floor plan works for them before they even set up a showing. And I think that again goes back to like it's whatever it is, whatever tool. There, there's different ways that you can incorporate this tool into your everyday production. And now you are increasing your value proposition. You're increasing your knowledge, you're increasing your level of expertise. Because I mean if you had to go and do the old tape measure for that property, I mean that's any cap, take you some time, right? I mean like drawing out an actual floor plan, like no, it's going to. Be on a napkin, you know, like the level of professionalism, there's a whole nother thing. So I think that all, all the way around, all of these different tools can, can help. And I'm really excited like from a brokerage level I, I want to work on. And we kind of been looking at how can we make it to where, when we are spending money on lead generation, how can we make it to where we can train AI to respond to whatever type of lead it is. So if it's a buyer, so you know, when in our questionnaire like are you a first time home buyer? What are you? So they're filling out the information, they're telling AI who they are. And us on the back end, we train AI to respond the way that I want them to respond. So imagine a conversation going back and forth with this person via text in our CRM. And now I no longer have to worry about distributing out to my agents. You know, not that I don't want to do that, but if I'm spending money, I want to make sure that they're being followed up with properly. I want to make sure that, you know, we're, we're getting this sales system and cycle down to a T to increase our productivity. And if you even look at it that way, it's not that I'm trying to remove anything from our agents because I still need the agents to go and show. But imagine how more effective agents will be if all we're doing, instead of throwing them just leads, we're actually throwing them buyers that are ready to go look warmly, move. Yeah, we remove all the nurturing aspects out of it and say, here you go, silver platter, go show. And then now let's make a deal happen. Well, I think agents would just be more that more apt to take care of them. Yeah. At the same conference a couple weeks ago, they were showing AI voice. And I want to say it was showing time, but don't quote me, that it was a connection with a live consumer, a live buyer on the other side. And the buyer was having a true conversation with AI about the inquiry of a property that they saw online. Like full blown conversation. And I mean it was sounded legit, it sounded like a natural conversation, but it was more geared to get the buyer to move through the journey. It's just mind boggling, right? Like scary somewhat. You know, I think that let go of control is a little uneasy for me. But if done properly and set up properly, I think this, that is exactly where real estate is going to be a game changer. Those people that can figure that out and adopt that into their, their marketplace and into their everyday profession, they're going to be producing unlike anything they've ever done before. Well, and I think, you know, we talk about kind of how things have changed, you know, after August 17th. And I mean I've always practiced with the buyer broker, you know, buyer agency type of role. And I think that's where the other places, if you really think about that, like the agent is kind of the key piece that holds it together. I mean like you can have all these things to help you on the back end or whatnot, but it's, there are still emotions tied to a transaction. There are still life changes, things that happen in split instances. You have to drop what you're doing. You know, people still have to move out of their houses, Right. I helped a client move out of their house last week. Like those are still human aspects or just having a conversation that I write my other like client, they had to put their mom in a home. Like that's not a conversation that you're going to have with a robot or like online. Like those are actual human, you know, I'm sorry this is happening. Let me tell you, right? Like let me show you the way. Let me take care of everything for you. And maybe I have some things, you know, on the Back end AI that are taking care of them, but they're hearing it from a true human. And I just don't foresee that going away. I just see us using things to help us help even more people. Right. I have an AI and I'm not totally efficient in it whatsoever, but I'm learning in it. Um, it's personal AI and so what I can do is I can set up, you know, multiple different Personas of different what I need. Right. Like so I kind of think of it like a team. I can set up multiple different teams, Personas underneath me and I can train each one the way that I want it to respond. So when you're working with that person that you know is you're having to go into a home, you have somebody that is a senior specialist and you can start telling it, you know, what is going on, we need to develop a plan, you know, whatever you want to be able to do. Who are the resources that I need to be able to hand this person, blah blah, blah. And then now it's able to produce all of this information out for you that the way that you trained it. And so you're not having to recreate the wheel every single time. And I think what's going to happen is now you as that agent are going to be able to turn around and better serve more people because then you can have another Persona that's a first time home buyer and maybe then you have another one that is your marketing specialist on the back end that needs to do that listing description for you. And then you have one that is your, your social media manager. Right. Like you train all of these different hats Personas how you want it and now you don't have to. Not that you don't have to critically think because obviously you have to set it all up and maintain it but you now can better serve more efficiently more effectively and sell more real estate. But not just about the sales part, help more people. What do you think are your two favorite AI apps right now? Ooh, I use, I mean ChatGPT, like that's just where it's at, right? On the video stuff we use Opus clips, right? Opus clips to make sure. Because when I say really it's Brandon but like just taking out those little chunks of time that I. We don't have to have manual efforts on it whatsoever. What else do I really use? I mean like really Chat GPT I use for freaking everything. And I tell it like I want the tone to be like Grant Cardone or I need you to Be more friendly and empathetic and be like Ashley Frederick. Right. Like, if I wanted to train it that way, what would Ashley Frederick say? How would she say it? So I talked to ChatGPT on everything. I actually have a prompt that helps me create very specific prompts. So it asks me multiple different questions to ensure that the prompt that we are giving ChatGPT is going to be exactly the outcome that I'm wanting it to be. And once I've discovered that, that thing has been gold for me. Interesting. Yeah. What do you, do you use AI? Yeah, I use CHAT GPT. I mean I use it for a lot just outside of write ups, I think it's like, even with certain emails, you know, I'm on eight different boards. So a lot of times when it comes to fundraising type things, you know, you'll be emailing the rest of the board or whatnot. I. It's like you know what you want to say, but sometimes it doesn't come out quite right. So then I'll do the prompt of like, yeah, make it sound friendlier or can you make this sound more professional? And I think it's just super helpful that way. I think it's also helpful to just get your point across a little bit more because sometimes it'll take out like the little words that aren't necessary, but otherwise, like the virtual staging AI I've been using quite a bit. That is the weirdest thing in that it takes like 20 seconds to stage a room. I mean it's not perfect. Like you can tell. I think there was like a window and it must have thought it was another room. So there's like a couch sitting in this window. So, so can't use that. But you know, we have a lot of like older clients and sometimes people struggle when there's like older furniture in homes that get really stuck on like not seeing past the furniture. Right. Both of these homes are now vacant and so I've like virtually staged them with more modern furniture and even the clients were like, wow, it looks like a different house. So for me, you know, that was literally seconds to do. But if it helps paint a picture for someone. So those are, I mean those are probably the two that I use almost every day. Awesome. So in short, we're not going to get replaced by the technology and AI. Right? It's just, it's here to enhance us, it's here to be additional tools in our, in our tool belt here. But I really encourage every person to ChatGPT. That's probably the easiest place to start, get an understanding and lean into it. Don't be afraid of it, you're not going to hurt it, and just start playing around with it. And I really think that you'll start seeing different avenues of how you can be able to implement this into your life and even on the personal side and to be able to help you with whatever you're trying to create. If it's a workout plan or a meal plan or whatever it's going like, it will help you be able to generate anything that you're looking to be able to do. It's like having your own executive assistant right in your pocket. Yeah, I think if anyone that's listening has an app that they use that they like a lot that we haven't mentioned, definitely drop us a note so we can check it out. Absolutely. Thanks for tuning in today and please, like subscribe and share and tune in. Next time if you've enjoyed today's episode. Please, like subscribe and share with others. Stay connected for more genuine insights and strategies to boost your real estate career on Facebook or check out our website. We'll see you next time.