AI aids real estate, but it’s not perfect

June 14, 2023



“Join us for an unforgettable open house experience at this luxurious 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom estate. Located in a prime location with easy access to shopping, prestigious schools, and convenient transportation, this property is the epitome of luxury living. Don’t miss this chance to see this exceptional property in person.”

This open house ad was written in less than five seconds by an artificial intelligence (AI) tool known as ChatGPT.
ChatGPT, developed by tech company OpenAI, is a chatbot capable of generating human-like text based on the prompts it’s given. The tool has captured the attention of real estate professionals—some of whom claim ChatGPT has the ability to revolutionize the business.
Chatbots and AI tools have been around for decades. In fact, chatbots for real estate websites are very common—some agents and homebuilders are already using them on websites for lead generation.
Agents, brokers and business owners worldwide are already boasting about the various ways they’ve used ChatGPT in their day-to-day business.
For example, ChatGPT can: 

• Write property listing descriptions, open house ads, or sales copy by providing a list of features, statistics and community traits to highlight.
• Create captions for social media posts or blog articles, email newsletters, or even video scripts, all while requesting a specific tone or brand voice.
• Compose quick email or direct message responses to potential leads about particular listings or inquiries.
• Make rough calculations about mortgage payments, down payments or renovation estimates, or research permitted uses for certain properties or land zones.

ChatGPT’s technology looks like the ultimate time-saver for real estate professionals, but it has limitations.
The most recent data influencing ChatGPT’s intelligence has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021, which means ChatGPT may be operating on outdated information (when it comes to the pandemic or mortgage interest rate changes, for example).
The chatbot is not always accurate when it comes to calculations such that it may be useful for approximations but not for exact numbers. Similarly, some have experimented with using this technology to draft legal real estate documents, but not without their lawyer available to review the product.
The tool may save time when writing listings or email responses, but all content generated by ChatGPT should be vetted by a professional before it’s used publicly. Think of ChatGPT’s responses as templates that can be customized.
Additionally, as the platform becomes more popular, ChatGPT’s servers commonly become overloaded, which at times makes it challenging to access the chatbot’s services.
ChatGPT remains free to use for now, but OpenAI just launched ChatGPT Plus, a paid pilot version of the program, in the United States. This paid version costs USD $20 per month and will be launching in Canada soon.

Courtesy of Royal LePage, Canada