September 18, 2023Join top real estate leaders Suneet Agarwal, Preston Guyton, and Nick McLean as they explore the influence of Artificial Intelligence on real estate. Drawing from their experience leading top teams, these elite coaches discuss AI’s impact on industry dynamics, providing valuable insights for professionals navigating this technological shift.
VIDEO CONTENTS:
00:00 – Introduction
00:58 – SEO & Site Data
05:50 – Is AI Changing the Landscape?
10:05 – Leveling Up
16:14 – How will the MLS adapt?
19:47 – The Legal Implications & Biggest Pushback
23:25 – The New Demand
29:26 – Who is in danger with AI? & Increased Efficiency
35:21 – The Future of the Podcast
Episode breakdown: what AI changes for real estate teams
In the first episode of the show, Suneet Agarwal, Preston Guyton and Nick McLean talked through how AI would reach agents, brokerages, the MLS and real estate marketing. Preston brought the view from a high-traffic website, Suneet the view from coaching agents, and Nick steered the questions. The conversation moved from search rankings to lead conversations by text to the skills a machine can’t replace.
Don’t risk a ranking website on AI content
Preston’s first answer was caution. His site generates three to four hundred thousand visitors a month and keeps climbing, so rewriting it with AI blogs means betting on a Google penalty nobody can measure yet. Organic visitors stay about two and a half minutes, against a site average of three to three and a half. Because the site shows up for 150,000 keyword phrases, some people land there by accident and leave within 15 to 20 seconds.
A brand new site is a different case. With nothing ranking yet, there’s little to lose by testing. The hosts also warned against chasing traffic for its own sake. If someone clicks through and finds no value on the page, the visitor count goes up and no new client comes with it.
A lot of times the first person gets killed. So you don’t always have to be the first person to jump on something with SEO.
Preston Guyton
Expect AI to handle the first lead conversation
Preston described a ChatGPT texting test he had reviewed that morning. A lead replied that they were buying in a couple of months but had just had a baby. Within five seconds the system congratulated them, acknowledged the lack of sleep that comes with a newborn, and carried the conversation forward. He expects this to shake up the VA and ISA market first, and to improve as it learns from more interactions.
He separated this from the scripted chatbots most websites run. Those follow a fixed path. An AI connected to a team’s knowledge center can answer real questions in a way that feels like a person. The hosts expect it to move to voice, work the top of the funnel and hand the mid and lower funnel conversations to a real person.
Use the gap while most agents wait
When Nick asked what individual agents should do, Suneet said this is the moment to level up. Learn from wherever you can and execute. He had put that energy into the blog on his own coaching website. His view was that anyone who simply creates more content, of any kind, will win, because the person who brings the most value to the market wins.
This is your opportunity, if you’re average, to produce something outside of average.
Suneet Agarwal
The hosts also expected a drop-off. A task that used to take two hours might take 30 minutes, but many people will tire of even that. The ones who keep going will pull further away, so AI may widen the gap between average and elite. Preston’s own team already published 40 blogs a month on its site, about 80,000 words.
Look for change in search and listing data before the MLS
The hosts doubted the MLS itself would adapt quickly. Preston explained why. To show listings from three different MLSs on one site, the data first has to be standardized, and MLSs have little reason to combine. Where he saw the change instead was in what a team builds on top of its own feed.
We could look at the IDX feed we pull and create unique AI content based on that database of information we get, which then creates unique content on listing details pages.
Preston Guyton
Search will change too. Instead of ticking boxes for two or three bedrooms, a buyer will type a plain request, like a house within a mile of the beach, and get suggestions in the style of Amazon’s “you might also like.” On the admin side, the hosts expected listing input to drop from an hour to 10 minutes.
Get better at the work AI can’t do
If anyone can produce content, the hosts asked, what becomes scarce? Their answer was personal interaction and the ability to present. Consumers will show up to showings knowing more about schools, zoning and floodplains than ever, so an agent’s value moves toward personal connection and what they called risk reversal. Many buyers and sellers could handle a deal alone. They pay to avoid the cost of getting it wrong.
The examples kept coming back to time. A kitchen redesign that once took hours in AutoCAD was generated in seconds from a typed description. AI could draft agreements, amendments and offer letters. As one host summed it up, the change comes down to the compression of time on anything done at a computer.
Key takeaways for team leaders
- If your website already ranks, test AI content carefully rather than rewriting what works. A new site has less to lose.
- Judge web traffic by whether visitors find value and become clients, not by visit counts.
- Watch AI texting for first-touch lead conversations, and plan where a human salesperson takes over.
- Treat early adoption as a window. Consistent use, not a single experiment, is what separates teams.
- Use your IDX data to build unique content on your own site instead of waiting for the MLS to change.
- Invest in presenting and in-person skills. They get more valuable as everything else gets automated.
