Real estate agents say they can't imagine working without ChatGPT now

If you came across a recently listed four-bedroom, 3.5-bathroom home on a quiet cul-de-sac in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, you might not think twice about listing online. It included typical real estate descriptions such as "ideal for entertaining" and "vast space for relaxation".
But JJ Johannes, the home's realtor, created the description in less than five seconds by typing a few keywords into ChatGPT, a viral new AI chatbot tool that can generate elaborate responses to user prompts. It's a task, he said, that would otherwise take him an hour or more to write himself.
"It saved me so much time," Johannes told CNN, noting that he made some changes and edits to ChatGPT's works before publishing them. "It's not perfect but it was a great starting point. My background is in technology and writing something eloquent takes time. It made it much easier."
Johannes is among the real estate agents experimenting with ChatGPT since it went public at the end of November. Several residential and commercial agents told CNN 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 trained on massive amounts of online data to generate responses to user prompts. He wrote original essays, stories, song lyrics and abstracts of research papers that misled some scientists. Some CEOs used it to write emails or do accounting work. He even passed an exam at an Ivy League school. (However, this has raised concerns among some about its potential to allow cheating and inaccuracies.)
In less than two months, ChatGPT has sparked discussions around its potential to disrupt various industries, from advertising to law. But it already has a tangible effect on the way a number of real estate agents around the country do their work - when a large part of the written work can be formulaic and time-consuming - to the point that some of them can no longer imagine working without it.
"I've been using it for more than a month, and I can't remember the last time something amazed me so much," said Anders Ession, a broker from the Miami Real Estate Group.

"Once I tried it, I was hooked"

Recently, a client came to Ession with a problem: the woman moved into a pre-construction house and could not open her windows. She tried to contact the developer for months with no response. Ession ran a copy of one of her emails through ChatGPT, and asked him to rewrite it with an emphasis on the liability implications.
"ChatGPT wrote it off as a legal issue and suddenly, the entrepreneur showed up at her house," he said.
Asion also used the tool to draft binding legal supplements and other documents, and sent them for approval by lawyers. "I direct all kinds of drafts with ChatGPT," he said. "Sometimes I'll say it to make it shorter or funnier, and it gives you so many examples to choose from and edit."
ChatGPT is free for now, but OpenAI, the company behind it, is reportedly considering a $42 monthly fee. Ession said "it's not even a question" that he would pay for access. "I would easily pay $100 or $200 a year for something like that," he said. "It's crazy not to."
Frank Terrells, a commercial real estate agent at State Street Realty in Miami, said he would also pay to keep using the tool, which has already affected the way he does business. "As soon as I tried it, I was sold," he said. "I went to sign up for the package, I thought it would be at least $100 a month, and I was thrilled that it was free. But nothing in this world is free - and that made me a little stressed."
Terrelles said he uses ChatGPT to look up the permitted uses for certain land and areas in Miami-Dade County, and calculate what the mortgage payments or return on investment might be for a client, which usually involves formulas and mortgage calculators.
"I can be in the car with a customer when they ask me what their mortgage payments might be," Terrelles said. “I can ask ChatGPT what the mortgage payment would be on a $14 million purchase at 7.2% interest amortized over 25 years with two starting points at closing, and within two seconds, it gives me that information. It also explains how he got the answer. This is amazing."

Lots of potential, and some limitations

However, there are some limitations. The tool, for example, previously struggled with some basic math. Terrells said this is useful for rough approximations, not exact numbers.
Serge Reda, commercial real estate manager and adjunct professor at the Fordham Institute of Real Estate, said some use cases for ChatGPT are better than others. ChatGPT may help brokers save time when writing listings or responses, but automating customer responses may not be the best tactic because generating leads and closing deals usually requires a personal approach.
“It's accessible to everyone now because it's free and they can get a taste of how this powerful tool can work. But there are definitely significant limitations," he said.
While ChatGPT has created a wave of interest among realtors, integrating artificial intelligence into the real estate market is not entirely new. Listing site Zillow, for example, has used artificial intelligence for XNUMXD mapping, automated floor plan generation and its Zestimate tool, which can scan photos to see if a home has hardwood floors or stainless steel appliances so its price estimate better reflects market conditions. Earlier this week, Zillow rolled out an AI feature that allows potential buyers to conduct searches in more natural language (something Google has long dominated).
Matt Cramer, a Zillow spokesman, said the real estate industry has been slower to innovate, but "I think we'll see much bigger strides very soon." He said Zillow doesn't see any obvious concerns about agents using ChatGPT to help streamline the work they're already doing and save time.
"We are not promoting or wary of ChatGPT, but are interested in how it is used and viewed," he said.
While it's too early to say whether the tool will become a mainstay in real estate, Realtor Johannes believes artificial intelligence in general will change his industry and others.
"It may not be with ChatGPT," he said, "but I believe some form of artificial intelligence like this will become a big part of how we work and live our lives."