The collective consciousness is on fire when it comes to artificial intelligence — a term that describes computer systems, software or processes that can mimic aspects of human work. We’re trying to figure out how best to use it, flushing out both its strengths and weaknesses. Despite the relatively buzzy nature of AI in this moment, AI-based platforms have been a part of the real estate industry for a while, helping both agents and homebuyers and sellers in ways small and large.
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How is AI Used in Real Estate?
AI isn’t limited to large language models like Bard and ChatGPT. In fact, most AI in the real estate industry does a very specific job — that might be acting as a sort of personal assistant for realtors, helping to track things like sales touchpoints or enabling homeowners and homebuyers to have a better understanding of their home’s value.
One popular tool, HouseCanary, uses AI across its platform to do little jobs that make a big difference to how its users understand their home’s value. It can also help real estate agents know who is most likely to list their home soon.
“The deployment of AI at HouseCanary extends across a multitude of critical functions, from property valuations and the selection of comparable properties to the sophisticated utilization of computer vision to assess the condition of listings,” says Brandon Lwowski, senior director of research at HouseCanary in San Antonio. “Moreover, AI plays a pivotal role in forecasting market trends and even predicting the likelihood of a house being listed for sale.”
Another AI real estate platform, HomeZada, helps homeowners and real estate agents stay in touch without creating more work for the agent. The software helps homeowners track everything from maintenance to remodeling projects as well as handling questions real estate agents commonly are asked, saving the agent’s time for more specific needs.
“Consumers are seeking information on the buying and selling process, financial advice about mortgages and the latest trends on insurance, property taxes, renovations and maintenance,” says John Bodrozic, co-founder at HomeZada in El Dorado Hills, California. “AI serves as a 24/7 self-service resource about all aspects of homeownership so they can make smarter financial decisions about how to buy, own and sell their asset for the greatest fulfillment and, ultimately, return.”
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AI is Already Helping Agents Work Smarter
When it comes time to search for a home, homebuyers once made their local real estate agent their first stop. It’s been a while since that was the norm, but navigating traditional real estate websites can still be difficult alone. Platforms have been testing different kinds of integrations to make searching for the ideal property easier, especially in huge markets, which then makes a real estate agent’s job a lot more simple.
“AI can help in refining criteria, which I believe is already being done and integrated by some of the major search portals,” says Nicole Beauchamp, senior global real estate advisor and licensed associate real estate broker at Engel & Völkers in New York City. “I recall a few years ago, there was a tool in the New York City market whereby prospective purchasers and tenants could essentially conduct a large part of the search correspondence with an AI-powered bot and at the point that they were ready to go and tour, they were then a paired with an expert agent.”
Although real estate shoppers are using AI-powered platforms more and more, often without knowing it, many real estate agents are using them to work more efficiently.
“In the real estate industry, we are working to service our clients at the highest level while simultaneously making the best use of our time,” says Abigail Davis, broker associate with Corcoran Reverie in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida. “AI allows us to do both, with tools like automated calendar functions like Calendly, the ability to find a more elegant way to craft a listing description and blog curation with ChatGPT, and even the ability to research and perform market analysis on RPR (Realtors Property Resource, a massive property database exclusive to National Association of Realtors members).”
AI Platforms Still Can’t Replace Human Judgment
Despite the many ways that AI power can make life a lot easier for real estate customers and real estate agents, there’s still a lot left to be desired, as well as some legitimate concerns about legalities. Since real estate laws vary from state to state, and even sometimes between municipalities, there’s a lot of trouble that an uninformed AI can cause when left on its own.
“A huge risk is implicitly trusting output without refining for your specific jurisdiction and making sure the output is in compliance with relevant laws,” says Beauchamp. “I see the use of AI very much as a ‘trust but verify’ and ‘your mileage may vary’ tool.”
Another serious concern real estate agents have across the board is just how well AI tools will be able to handle their clients’ needs. Real estate can be a very emotional and detail-oriented industry, which AI has proven it can’t quite deal with to this point.
“AI is only as smart as it is programmed,” says Désirée Ávila, real estate agent at Charles Rutenberg Realty Fort Lauderdale in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Imagine that AI doesn’t understand the context of a situation and says something outrageous to a client or erroneously conveys information on behalf of the client. I personally am not willing to take that risk with my clients, I respect them too much to relegate them to an intuitive computer, but a computer nonetheless.”
“I would say that when buying or selling your most important asset, human to human interactions are vital,” Ávila stresses.
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Is AI the Future of Real Estate?
Although the information an AI-based real estate platform can provide can be impressive, there’s still a lot of interpretation that needs to be done by an expert in a local market in order to make its results useful. Real estate agents are more like guides in a real estate journey, rather than tools used to buy or sell a house. Ideally, AI will simply help them do their jobs better and create better informed consumers.
“We shout for the live representative when we are on hold and I believe clients will shout for a live agent when AI can’t explain niche details about an area, explain to them the lifestyle that they will experience or truly be there to help guide them when they are in need,” Davis says.
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How AI-Driven Real Estate Platforms Could Help (or Hurt) the Industry originally appeared on usnews.com
