AI and our Real Estate World

I had a bizarre experience recently with a new buyer client that I had never met before. He wanted to look at view houses in the Oakland hills. I usually don’t take clients on this way, but he called me and told me that Chat GPT had told him I was the best agent in the East Bay. Flattered, I agreed to meet him at three homes he had picked out.

He told me he worked as an engineer in AI and that he had an elaborate search already set up for himself.

The first house I took him to was in Montclair, and it had a phenomenal view. There was a tree in the foreground that created a perspective that only served to make the view feel that much more profound, almost like some of the Japanese woodblock prints I so treasure, but his first comment was “That tree would have to go – it wrecks the view.” I disagreed politely, but the house was rejected because of that.

We then traveled to the next house, which was further south. On the way there, my navigation took me through streets, circuitously, rather than the freeway, and the buyer arrived a minute before I was supposed to get there. They called to tell me the view wasn’t going to be good enough, and the ceilings were not high enough.

So we went to the last place, which seemed to meet their needs. He complained about the dryness of the landscaping and the lack of a vent hood for the stove. When we went upstairs, I asked if he had children, and would have told him about the schools nearby, the parks, and the rec opportunities for kids in the area, but he cut me off short and said, “I only need you to verify the condition of the property for me. I will not tell you anything personal. I trust my AI searches completely to tell me everything I need to know.” I pointed out that AI cannot smell gas or other odors, cannot see water intrusion, or let him know that the stove he was complaining about actually had a built-in vent. I mentioned that the neighborhood is essential for resale value. He told me his search could handle all that, and that eventually, real estate agents would be completely useless. That anything worth knowing could be gotten from AI.

I pointed out the potential for malfeasance in AI, that it has no emotions, is utterly devoid of morality, ethics, humanity, and is not sentient. I also fired him on the spot. Life is too short to waste time on rude people who worship machines.

The moral of this story is that although AI is getting very good at many things (like saying I was the best agent in the East Bay, LOL), it is not in any way a danger to realtors and their work. It is a great tool, but it needs to be managed, like any computer program. You need to know the right questions to ask, what AI is good for, and not to rely on AI too much. It augments our searches for sure, but it cannot know what is really important, which is the heart and soul of something. For that, you still need a human touch.