6 Innovative Ways Real Estate Agents Are Using Artificial Intelligence

The real estate industry may well look back on 2023 as the year that artificial intelligence (AI) became useful in a tangible and measurable way. Any number of products and tools have adopted AI to enhance their effectiveness, to the benefit of real estate agents everywhere.

Recently, Liz Sturrock, Chief of MLS and Innovation at Miami REALTORS®, shared her perspective on AI in a webinar. She noted different ways that real estate agents are using AI today to save time and money while providing top-notch service to clients.

While she doesn't think that AI is going to replace real estate agents, she does think that the agents and brokers who are best able to leverage AI will have a distinct market advantage, so it's a good idea to get on this bus as early as possible.

1. Generate and nurture leads

The latest AI tools go above and beyond website chatboxes, which have been in use for some time. Some AI lead generation options are indeed chatboxes, but their ability to answer questions for consumers and even hand off the conversation at any point in time to a human are next-level.

2. Send personalized property recommendations

Finding the right house to buy, especially in markets with low inventory (which is just about every market in 2023), can be a challenge. In addition to setting buyers up with an MLS feed, there are AI tools available that can comb listings and deliver recommendations for homes for sale that might have slipped through the cracks for one reason or another.

3. Finally get that blog up and running

There are two big reasons why many real estate agents choose not to use their blog or website as a lead-generation tool. The first is that they don't know what to write about, and coming up with a list of topic ideas that are relevant to their audience and that they can write easily is a huge hurdle. The second is that even if they do have a list of topics, they don't have the time to execute on those stories.

AI writing tools can solve both of these problems. Agents can ask a chatbot "what should I write about?" or even "what should a real estate agent in the San Francisco Bay Area market write about on their blog?" and then pick and choose from the list of ideas that the chatbot delivers. If they don't have time to write the piece themselves, they can ask the chatbot to do it (always making sure there is time to review it for accuracy before posting online).

4. Write property descriptions

Writing a property description that shines takes a certain kind of talent, which not every real estate agent possesses. Thankfully, there are ways to almost instantly generate a property description using AI that both fits the home for sale and highlights its most attractive attributes.

5. Virtually stage and enhance properties

Staging is expensive, although it does help sell houses. If agents want to save their staging budgets for the big, splashy listings, AI can insert furniture and artwork into listing photos, as well as make changes (subtle or large) to help buyers envision what the space could look like if they took out a wall or added some windows, for example.

It's a good idea to clearly mark any digitally staged or enhanced images so that buyers aren't disappointed and know what to expect when they arrive at the house in person, that said!

6. Ask for business advice

For agents without a coach or mentor, AI can answer common questions about business strategy, motivation, and any number of other issues that agents might struggle to manage. "I want to find more listings; what would a real estate coach tell me to do?" is one prompt that can generate all sorts of ideas from an AI chatbot. Or, "I would like to retire from real estate in ten years. How should I start preparing?"

How can you stay up to date with the latest AI tools and how people (including agents) are using them? Sturrock suggested two resources: Reddit and a newsletter available at therundown.ai, which curates new AI products and sends them out in a list to subscribers.

For more details — including specific product details and recommendations from Sturrock — watch the full webinar.