Estate agents say they can no longer imagine working without ChatGPT

() — If you come across a recently listed four-bedroom, three-bathroom home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, you might not think twice. The post possibly includes typical real estate descriptions such as “great for entertaining” and “plenty of space for relaxation.”

JJ Johannes, the estate agent for the house, created the description in less than five seconds by typing a few keywords into ChatGPT, a new Artificial Intelligence tool that can generate elaborate responses to user prompts. It is a task, she said, that would have taken him an hour or more to write on her own.

“It saved me a lot of time,” Johannes told , noting that he made some tweaks and edits to the ChatGPT work before publishing it. “It’s not perfect, but it’s a great starting point. My background is in technology, and writing something meaningful takes time. This makes it so much easier.”

Johannes is among real estate agents experimenting with ChatGPT since it went public at the end of November. Some residential and commercial agents told that it has already changed the way they work, from writing listings and social media posts to drafting legal documents. It can also be used to automate repetitive tasks, such as answering frequently asked questions and performing complex calculations.

ChatGPT is empowered with vast amounts of online data to generate responses to user requests. He has written original essays, short stories, song lyrics, and summaries of research papers that fooled some scientists. Some CEOs have used it to write emails or perform accounting tasks. Even passed an exam at an Ivy League school. (However, she has raised concern among some for its potential to enable cheating and for its inaccuracies).

In less than two months, ChatGPT has sparked debates about its potential to disrupt the functioning of various industries, from publishing to legal. But it already has a tangible impact on the way many realtors across the country do their jobs, where much of the written work can be time-consuming, to the point that some can no longer imagine working without the tool.

“I’ve been using it for over a month, and I can’t remember the last time I was so taken with something,” said Andres Asion, a broker with Miami Real Estate Group.

“As soon as I tried it, I was convinced”

Recently, a client contacted Asion with a problem: she had moved into a pre-construction house and couldn’t open the windows. She had been trying to contact the developer for months with no response. Asion ran a copy of one of his emails through ChatGPT and asked him to rewrite it with an emphasis on the liability implications.

“ChatGPT wrote it as a legal issue, and all of a sudden the developer showed up at his house,” he said.

Asion also used the tool to draft legally binding exhibits and other documents, sending them to lawyers for approval. “I refine all kinds of drafts with ChatGPT,” she said. “Sometimes I tell him to make it shorter or funnier, and he gives you lots of samples to choose from and edit.”

ChatGPT is free for now, but OpenAI, the company behind it, sees a $42 monthly charge. Asion said it’s “not even a question” whether you’d pay to access it. “I would easily pay $100 or $200 a year for something like this,” he said. “I’d be crazy not to.”

Frank Trelles, a commercial real estate agent with State Street Realty in Miami, said he would also pay to continue using the tool, which has already impacted the way he does business. “As soon as I tried it, he sold me,” he commented. “I went to sign up for a package, thinking it would cost at least $100 a month, and was surprised that it was free. However, nothing in this world is free, and that made me a little nervous.

Trelles said he uses ChatGPT to look up allowable uses for certain land and areas in Miami-Dade County, and calculate what mortgage payments or return on investment might work for a client, which typically involves mortgage formulas and calculations.

“I may be in a car with a client when they ask me what their mortgage payments are going to be,” Trelles said. “I can ask ChatGPT what the mortgage payment would be on a $14 million purchase at an interest rate of 7.2% amortized over 25 years with two points of origin at closing, and in two seconds it gives me that information. . He also explains to me how he got the answer. It’s amazing”.

Miami real estate agent Andrés Asion.

Lots of potential and some limitations

However, there are some limitations. The tool, for example, has been having trouble with some basic math. Trelles said it’s useful for on-the-fly approximations, not exact numbers.

Serge Reda, a commercial real estate executive and adjunct professor at the Fordham Real Estate Institute, said some uses of ChatGPT are better than others. ChatGPT can help agents save time writing descriptions or responses, but automating customer responses may not be the best tactic because generating leads and closing deals often requires a personalized approach.

“It’s accessible to everyone right now because it’s free and they can test how this powerful tool can work. But there are definitely significant limitations,” he noted.

While ChatGPT has generated a wave of interest among real estate agents, the incorporation of artificial intelligence in the real estate market is not entirely new. Publishing site Zillow, for example, used AI for 3D mapping, automated floor plan creation, and for its Zestimate tool, which can scan images to see if a home has hardwood floors or stainless steel appliances so your price estimate best reflects market conditions. Earlier this week, Zillow launched an AI feature that allows potential buyers to search with more natural language (something Google has long mastered).

Matt Kreamer, a spokesman for Zillow, said the real estate industry has been slower to innovate, but “I think we’re going to see much bigger strides very soon.” He said Zillow doesn’t see clear concerns with agents using ChatGPT to help streamline the work they already do and save time.

“We are not promoting or distrusting ChatGPT, but we are interested in how it is used and what it looks like,” he said.

Although it is too early to say if the tool will become a mainstay in real estate, real estate agent Johannes believes that AI in general will transform his sector and others.

“It may not be with ChatGPT,” he said, “but I think some form of artificial intelligence like this will become a big part of how we work and live our lives.”