AI in real estate: Stop asking ‘what's new’ and start asking ‘what’s next’

In 2024, Real Estate Institute of NSW (REINSW) became the first organisation in Australia to appoint an AI adviser to its board. The benefits of this appointment, including the insights accessible to the board, are becoming broader every day.

Through the experience of working with our AI board adviser, it has become apparent that, regardless of the complexity, any activity based on an established process is a soft target for AI.

Perspective is important. We must view AI as an assistant, not a replacement. We must view it as an opportunity, not a threat. And the opportunity is centred on the human-to-human experience.

Human-to-human dependent processes will not only survive, but agents providing these services also have the opportunity to further embed themselves in the transaction.

At Inman Connect, a US-based presenter explained the three distinct steps in the sale of a property as winning the client, nurturing the client, and closing the deal.

In Australia, the lines between each point are perhaps blurred, with the client nurturing work carrying across all three steps.

Either way, both winning the client and closing the deal could be said to be process-driven. That is, administrative. AI can do it.

Nurturing the client, on the other hand, is where trust and emotion exist. It’s the people-to-people space, and this is the space agents will continue to occupy. How agents use this time, while employing AI in a strategic and creative sense to support them, will determine their success.

Marketing is a case in point. When you break it down, marketing is a process-driven exercise and therefore, it largely becomes the domain of AI. And when it does – when agents use AI strategically and creatively – marketing can be effectively targeted at an individual level.

For instance, agents can already provide ChatGPT with a description of their target market and then ask for assistance to capture that market’s attention.

They can use AI to link to the social media channels of those in that target market and get to know individuals on a deeper level than ever before possible. If you want to understand someone, look where they spend their money and time.

It goes further. AI can monitor market conditions and communicate directly with people that would be interested in a message relevant to them at any given time.

Personalised newsletters, for instance, can be produced and delivered by AI and all it requires is access to the relevant data sets and appropriate prompts. With this, AI can determine those in the market that may need property services, stay in contact with them, and then take action when it sees the time is right to offer those services.

Imagine being introduced by AI to an individual within your target market and already having an understanding of who they are and the property services they are in need of. And with this knowledge, being free to focus your time and energy on the person-to-person relationship to add the greatest value.

This is all possible, and happening, now. But most agents remain hesitant. Most aren’t using AI for anything other than emails and assistance with the preparation of simple documents.

These agents may think they have answered the question, “What’s new?” But what they need to ask is, “What’s next?”

In the same way that AI can provide an understanding of a target market down to the individual level, and then target messages to individual people better than we can, so too will it come to know us better than we know ourselves.

One of the presenters at Inman Connect made the point that in the not-too-distant future, just as many businesses have their own bots, so will all of us as individuals. Like our smartphone, serving us exclusively, so too will our AI agent.

We will need to consider how we train our AI agent. One presenter made the point that “chatbots are people”. The wise among us will treat them that way.

Our relationship with our AI agent will evolve. In what way, time will tell, but we will have a hand in shaping it as it learns our preferences, and where we spend our money and time. In doing so, we will be shaping the smartest and most obedient friend we will ever have.

Would you give your AI agent your credit card to make purchases for you as and when it determines necessary? Those people and businesses that are fully embracing AI are already doing it!

Across real estate, and all industries, there is likely to be a mixed reaction to the eventualities of AI, including our personal AI bots. Some will baulk, potentially to the feeling of digital overreach. But burying one’s head in the sand is the real threat. Success will depend on opening our minds to the possibilities and taking decisive action.

To embrace what’s coming is the only choice for real estate agents. Even if it means making a few mistakes along the way, as we adopt and learn to use the technology. Pretending it’s a passing fad is an exercise in futility.

In doing this, it’s poignant to remember one truth. The technology we see and use today is the worst it is ever going to be.

Tim McKibbin is the chief executive officer of REINSW.

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