US real estate agent passionate about ChatGPT: ‘Previously it took 1 hour to write an ad, now it only takes 5 seconds’

If you recently came across a four-bedroom, 3.5-bath home online for sale in a quiet cul-de-sac in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the United States, you probably wouldn’t think twice. . It includes descriptions of a typical property such as “ideal for entertaining” and “ample space to relax”.

But JJ Johannes, the realtor for the house, created that list of descriptions in less than 5 seconds by entering a few keywords into ChatGPT, an AI chatbot tool. He said it was a job that would normally take an hour or more to write on his own.

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

Johannes is one of the real estate agents who have been testing ChatGPT since it went public at the end of November last year. Some say the tool has changed the way they work, from writing lists and posting on social media to drafting legal documents. It can also be used to automate repetitive tasks such as answering frequently asked questions and performing complex calculations.

ChatGPT does all of that by training on massive amounts of online data to generate responses to user questions. It can write essays, stories, lyrics and research papers summaries. Some CEOs have used it to write emails or do accounting work. He even passed an exam at an Ivy League school. However, it has also raised some concerns about inaccuracies and misinformation.

In less than two months, ChatGPT has sparked discussions around its potential to disrupt industries and sectors ranging from publishing to law. Either way, it has had a tangible impact on how some real estate agents across the US do their jobs, where much of the work is formulaic and expensive. time. The impact is so great that even some say they can’t imagine working in the future without the tool.

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

‘As soon as I tried it, I was hooked’

Recently, a customer contacted Asion asking for assistance with an issue. This woman moved into a house under construction but found that the windows couldn’t be opened. She has been trying to contact the home developer for months with no response. Asion put a copy of one of the guests’ emails into the ChatGPT system, requesting it be rewritten with an emphasis on liability implications.

“ChatGPT wrote it as a legal matter and all of a sudden, the developer side showed up to resolve the issue right away,” he said.

Asion has also used the tool to draft legally binding addendums and other documents, and then submit them to attorneys for approval. “I refine all kinds of drafts using ChatGPT ,” he says. “Sometimes I would tell it to make the text shorter or funnier, and it gives you a lot of templates to choose from and edit.”

ChatGPT is currently free, but OpenAI, the company behind the tool, is reportedly considering a monthly fee of $42. Asion said it was “not even a question” because he would pay to access it. “I would easily pay $100 or $200 a year for something like this,” he added. “I’d be crazy not to do that.”

Frank Trelles, a commercial real estate agent at State Street Realty in Miami, said he would also pay to continue using the tool, because it has impacted the way he is doing business. “As soon as I tried it, I was hooked,” he said. “I signed up for a plan, thinking it would cost me at least $100 a month, and was surprised that it was free. However, nothing in this world is free and that worries me a bit.”

Trelles said he uses ChatGPT to look up permitted uses for certain lands and areas in Miami-Dade County, and calculate mortgage payments or possible return on investment. available to customers, which often include complex formulas.

“I might be sitting in the car with a client when they ask me what their mortgage payment might be,” says Trelles. “I can ask ChatGPT and get an answer in seconds. The system will also explain in detail how it got the answer. How surprising.”

Lots of potential and some limitations

However, this tool has some limitations. For example, it sometimes struggles with some basic math. Trelles says it’s useful for approximations, but not for exact numbers.

Serge Reda, commercial real estate executive and adjunct professor at Fordham Real Estate Institute, says some use cases of ChatGPT are better than others. For example, ChatGPT can save brokers time writing lists or responses, but making it an autoresponder might not be a good strategy. Because lead generation and closing often require more personalized approaches.

“People can now access this tool because it’s free and they can get a feel for how powerful this tool can be. But there are certainly significant limitations,” he said.

While ChatGPT has created a wave of interest among brokers, the incorporation of artificial intelligence into the real estate market is not entirely new. For example, the website Zillow used AI to 3D map homes, generate automated floor plans, and launched the Zestimate tool, which scans photos to see if a house has hardwood floors or steel appliances. stainless to estimate its price. Recently, Zillow rolled out another AI feature that allows potential buyers to conduct searches in more natural language.

Matt Kreamer, a spokesman for Zillow, said the real estate industry will innovate more slowly, but he said “soon we will see much bigger strides”.

He also said that Zillow does not currently see any clear concerns with brokers using ChatGPT. “We are not promoting or being wary of ChatGPT but are concerned with how it is being used and monitoring it,” he said.

While it’s too early to say whether this tool will become a mainstay in the real estate sector, real estate broker Johannes believes AI in general will transform this industry and others.

“Maybe not with ChatGPT,” he said, “but I believe some form of artificial intelligence like this will become an important part of how we work and live our lives.”

Refer to CNN