The AI-Powered Agent: Automate Listings, Follow-ups & Analysis

You didn’t become a real estate agent to spend your days copy-and-pasting data from the MLS and sending the same cold emails to stranger after stranger in the hopes of selling them a house. Your role is to be a realtor — to build relationships, negotiate sales and guide someone through the life-changing process of purchasing or selling their dream home. According to Realtor.com, however, the average real estate agent devotes as much as 25% of their work time to mundane administrative tasks. That’s a full day of work, every week, being an overqualified admin with an underpaid realtor salary.

This isn’t a time management issue, it’s a system management issue. Trying to force your way through every customer follow-up and trying to deal with paperwork manually will inevitably lead to you feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. And trying to deal with this by adopting a different routine or technique or system (i.e. another productivity tip) is missing the point entirely. This is a “workload management” problem, and it needs a “system management” solution. Which means dealing with automation and technology to eliminate the tedious work and allow you to focus on higher value, more profitable tasks — like closing sales. If you’re looking for help implementing this, talk to our team.

The future relies on AI — the good, the bad, and the sensational. Not the bleeding edge, revolutionary AI you read about in the news. Instead, we mean real, actionable, practical AI that solves concrete problems that impact your revenue. This is your guide to building that AI engine.

TL;DR: How to Use AI Without the Hype

AUTOMATING REAL ESTATE SYSTEMS FOR BROKERS TUESDAY TIPS

What should I focus on when automating systems in real estate?

• Focus on Three Systems: Don’t try to automate everything. Focus on property listing creation, lead follow-up, and market analysis to create the greatest ROI on your time.

Aimed at boosting real estate sales and marketing, RealEstateAI: Actionables for Success delivers practical uses of artificial intelligence (AI) to make advertising and marketing easier. These feature-filled solutions can automate real estate marketing tasks, simplifying the sales and marketing process. With access to these tech tools, users can enhance their marketing campaigns and improve communication. Real estate agents will gain tangible results when using these products and services.

• Automate Listings First: Use AI to write compelling property descriptions, ad copy, and social media posts in minutes, not hours. That is one of the simplest steps you can take.
• Speed-to-Lead is Everything A chatbot using AI technology will take seconds to minutes to engage with a lead. Traditional sales teams will take minutes, sometimes hours, to contact a lead. A lead is 21 times more likely to qualify if the sales team contacts the lead in 5 minutes versus 30 minutes.
• Start with Off-the-Shelf Tools: You don’t need a custom-built system on day one. Start with tools like ChatGPT and AI features in your existing CRM before exploring more advanced options.

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The 80/20 of Real Estate Automation: Where AI Delivers Actual ROI

The Pareto Principle (aka the 80/20 rule) holds that 80% of your results come from just 20% of your efforts. This also holds for automated tasks and workflows, and it holds even for businesses making a $1 Million GC revenue, rather than a few hundred K. So here is the key point: you don’t have to automate half your business processes to “win” by being highly automated overall. You could waste a full year determining, implementing and testing automated workflows for several very low-impact tasks and activities — or instead, decide to automate just the 3 most important areas for the bulk of your business and enjoy significantly higher GCI for “free” as a byproduct of your small amount of work and effort, all via fully automated systems and flows.

The global AI in real estate market is forecast to grow at an impressive CAGR of 34.7% during the forecast period 2023 to 2030. The AI in real estate market will experience tremendous growth in the years to come and it is a matter of time when all the players will shift towards the use of modern technology such as AI. Your competitors are already using these solutions or very soon will be, making the early adoption not only beneficial, but also a prerequisite for survival.

Forget about the AI-powered virtual tours and the predictive analytics that will turn your city into a high performance organ. For the working agent, the 20% of tasks which provide 80% of the opportunities for automation are:

1. Property Listing Creation: This is a chore that can literally take up hours of your time for a single property, and it’s something you’ve got to do again and again. Save hours for every listing created!
2. Lead Follow-up & Nurturing What’s the #1 obstacle for the average agent? It’s lead follow-up and nurturing. Humans aren’t always punctual, consistently communicating with leads. This lack of timely communication leads to lost opportunities and negative outcomes. AI provides the perfect solution to address this challenge.
3. Real Estate Worksheet 3: Market Analysis & CMAs This section of our Real Estate Worksheet is arguably one of the most time-consuming when it comes to completing market analyses and Comparative Market Analyses (CMAs) to win listings and help clients purchase properties. This section is chock-full of data. An AI-powered tool can help you to better summarize this information and create an amazing report that’s easily digestible to your clients.

If you could learn to master these three systems, you’d essentially buy back hundreds of hours of your time each year, and be able to focus more on your marketing, sales and advisory work.

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System 1: Automating Property Listings from Photos to Persuasive Copy

Real estate listings: the ultimate marketing tool for your home. Not always the easiest to get done, but worth it when you do. Creating a great listing involves countless hours scrolling through photos and trying to craft the perfect ad to sell the home. Manually posting a listing on Zillow, Instagram and Facebook? That’s hours of additional work. Thankfully, there is an easier way to share listings with the world. New tools using Artificial Intelligence can now reduce this painstaking work into a matter of minutes – 15 minutes or less to be exact.

Step 1: Automated Photo Curation & Enhancement

Once your photographer shares your media (as always they will give you a link), I see here that they’ve given me 150 brand new raw files. If my workflow stayed as it was, I’d just have to click this link, download each photo by mass downloading them and then browse through them all in Quick Look in order to pick out the 25 photos I like most for review to our clients, then having to physically drag each of those 25 photo files into another folder on my computer.

I recently learned about a new method that uses AI technology and there are several different tools you can use. I have used PhotoUp and also have the AI tools in BoxBrownie. No matter which one you choose, the results are the same. They will take a few seconds to look at all of the photos in your gallery and will give you a list of the ones that are the best based on lighting, focus and composition. They will also do a basic edit of your photos, which will include color correction and making them more straight. This way all of your “hero” photos will be ready to go and you don’t have to do a thing.

Hiring a Photographer: Your Agent’s Huge Time-Saving Opportunity

If the Agent or their assistant were to manually go through every photo to decide which are relevant and beautiful, they’d likely spend at least 45-60 minutes weeding out bad shots. Instead, the burden of work is handed off to the home owner. They can simply upload the entire library of photos to an AI-powered photo editing service. Within minutes the service returns a much smaller, highly-edited library of photos that will look far more appealing for posting to the MLS. Time saved: 45-60 minutes per listing.

Step 2: AI-Generated Listing Descriptions

Struggling to describe the rooms as charming or large is a bad use of your talent. Get a Large Language Model (LLM) like GPT-4 to be your copywriter. We’re talking about a whole content generation robot at your fingertips. Give the robot a good prompt.

Don’t just say, “Write a description for 123 Main St.” Be specific.

A Better Prompt:

“You are an expert real estate copywriter specializing in mid-century modern homes. Write a 300-word MLS property description for the home at 123 Main St.

Key Details:
— 3 bed, 2 bath, 1,800 sqft
— Built in 1962, classic Eichler-style
— Features: floor-to-ceiling windows, an open-air atrium, original terrazzo flooring, newly renovated kitchen with quartz countertops.
— Neighborhood: Quiet, tree-lined street, 5-minute walk to Northwood Elementary.

Tone: Evocative, sophisticated, and focused on architectural details.

Who will love this one? Young families, design enthusiasts — really anyone looking for that perfect, fully-furnished, totally move-in-ready home.

Call to Action: End with ‘Schedule your private showing today to experience this architectural gem.’”

An exciting tool for copywriters. The tool generates compelling content that the copywriter can modify and tweak. AI structures and phrases the content and then the copywriter does the remaining 10% to tweak the work to be commercially relevant.

Step 3: Generating Social Media & Ad Copy in Seconds

So you have a great MLS description, now what? You’re going to need a version for Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, etc. Well, that’s where AI comes in. You can actually take the MLS description and feed it right back into the AI.

A Repurposing Prompt:

“Using the property description above, generate the following:
1. An Instagram Post: Keep it concise. No more than a few words. Use no more than 3 emojis. Choose from the trending real estate hashtags in your area. Limit these to 10 at most.
2. A Facebook Ad: A bit longer description with a Call To Action (CTA) and a title. We should try to focus the family friendly part of VPK in here.
3. A Zillow Summary: Write a brief, 50-word summary that highlights at least the top 3 features of the home and keep it proportionate to the length and significant of the number of features.

In less than a minute, you’ll have professional looking copy to fit all your marketing needs. From start to finish, in under a minute you’ll have gone from having just plain photos, to being able to launch a multi-channel marketing campaign.

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System 2: Building an Unbeatable AI Follow-up and Lead Nurturing Machine

If your response time to online leads is greater than 5 minutes, you may as well not respond at all. The numbers speak for themselves – responding in 30 minutes versus 5 minutes reduces the chances of qualifying a lead 21 times. No matter the dedication of the team, there are only so many hours in a day. An AI can be awake and ready to respond to every online lead within 5 minutes, all day, every day.

Most marketing automation systems are just lead spamming tools disguised as marketing automation software, and that is not what this system is about. It’s about using the latest in Artificial Intelligence so that you can be faster, more efficient and more personal in your marketing efforts then would ever be possible on your own.

The Instant-Response AI Chatbot

Where the leads are coming in is often a great discussion to have with your tech team but the where is really irrelevant when you have leads coming in at all hours of the day and night. So, if your website starts lighting up with leads and they’re coming in at 10 PM on a Tuesday, the first response should be from your AI. Whether it’s Structurely or an AI assistant built into your CRM such as Ylopo or Follow Up Boss, your AI should be the first to respond to that new lead coming in from your website or the Zillow portal.

The AI’s job is simple:

Respond Instantly The fastest response times pay off: — Send a text or email within 1 minute of initial inquiry with a response similar to the following: “ Hi [Name], thanks for your interest in 123 Main St. I’m the AI assistant for [Your Name]’s team. Are you free for a quick chat about the property?”

• Ask Qualifying Questions: The tool can be used in conjunction with a script that asks a series of qualifying questions to determine the buyer’s intended move-in date, if they have worked with another agent, and if they are pre-approved for a mortgage.
• Book the Appointment If the lead has qualified themselves and expressed interest in your property the AI can get a read on their availability and thereby obtain access to your calendar in order to schedule the call or showing.

Instead of waking up to a cold lead you wake up to a calendar appointment for a qualified buyer that you’ve already engaged.

AI-Drafted Follow-up Sequences

The first response is the first response, but the real money in real estate is made in the long term nurturing of a lead. The average real estate agent will try 2 or 3 times in the first week before giving up on a lead. An automated lead nurturing system never gets tired or bored.

No, this isn’t about a generic, “how are you?” email campaign. We can actually train an AI to learn your users’ specific behaviors, and craft a series of more targeted messages as a result. Your CRM is going to be the basis of this whole operation. Are you confident that your CRM is up to snuff? Start here: choosing the right CRM for growth.

A lead that has searched for 4-bedroom homes and clicked on 3 different properties in a particular school district. Your AI will do the rest:

“Subject: Another 4-bedroom in the Northwood district?

Hi [Name],

You were taking a look at some of the larger homes in our area near Northwood Elementary. Well I just wanted to let you know that I came across a new listing that fits in to the homes we have been looking at. This home not only has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 baths on the 2nd floor but it also has a finished basement with a couple rooms in it as well.

Would you like me to send over the details?”

This feels personable and relevant rather than automated. You’d have to be sitting there staring at the activities of every single lead for hours on end for it to look this in depth.

Sentiment Analysis: Knowing Who’s Hot and Who’s Not

In our previous lessons, we’ve seen how to use AI to open and even populate the body of the lead’s email. We’re ready to take it to the next level. What’s the most advanced step we can do to help automate the lead nurturing process? Here’s a hint: it’s located after the lead actually replies to the email. For those who care about the nuance, the answer is that we’d like to use the AI to do sentiment analysis on the email responses they send to you, and flow them accordingly to your CRM using tags like: High Intent, Needs More Info, Uninterested.

The first way to use your CRM for time management is to determine your priority activities for the day. Currently, your options are to spend some time reviewing your list of open follow-up activities or open a bunch of activities in a new window trying to decide who to call based on their sales status in your CRM. A CRM with this capability organizes your CRM activities in priority order by estimating the greatest chance of a positive response for the top 3 to 5 activities for each day, allowing you to focus your time by making phone calls based on who has the greatest probability of conversion, at the right time. While many CRM systems now incorporate this type of feature, I think this could also be a good candidate for a custom AI solution for very active teams.

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System 3: Market Analysis on Autopilot with AI-Powered CMAs

Making a good Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) is an art and a science. The science part is the fairly mechanical work of gathering the right comparable homes, adjusting for the features of the home in question, and calculating the price per square foot of each. But the science part can be done with the aid of technology, like an artificial intelligence system, so that you can devote your time and energy to the art of presenting the data and telling the right story to get the listing.

Sourcing Comps with Smarter Algorithms

A standard MLS search for comps uses a set of inflexible criteria: 10% or less variation in square footage, and that the property sold no more than 6 months ago. Too blunt an instrument.

AI-powered analysis tools like Plunk and HouseCanary go much deeper. They can analyze thousands of data points to find truer comparables, weighing factors that the MLS can’t, such as:

• Staging 101 – Home Staging 101 for Beginners – Part 1
• Q&A – What Style Is This House?
• Surface Analysis Using Deep Learning: Quality of Finishes It can use image recognition to tell if a kitchen was a high-end remodel or a 10-year-old builder-grade special.
• Market Velocity This measure indicates whether a particular block or micro-neighborhood is appreciating or depreciating at a faster rate compared to the broader market surrounding it.

This provides a more detailed, accurate and defensible valuation. Which will give you more certainty and confidence in your negotiations at the listing presentation.

From Data Dump to Client-Ready Report

The low-hanging fruit isn’t necessarily finding better comps – it’s turning your data into a compelling story for your client. Once you’ve got the data from an AI tool like HouseCanary, you can get some assistance from an LLM to draft your report.

A CMA Summary Prompt:

“I’m a real estate agent preparing a CMA for my client. My opinion of the suggested list price for the property is $850,000. Would it be appropriate to include a recent unreported $550,000 sale in the area for the CMA? Any other suggestions for additional comparable sales would be appreciated. Thanks. “

Here are the 3 main comps:
1. 110 Oak St: Sold for $875k. Good newer kitchen but on a very busy street.
2. 205 Pine St: Sold for $830k. Same size and layout, but original 1990s bathrooms.
3. 150 Maple Ave: Sold for $845k. Slightly smaller yard.

We took the information you provided and crafted a 3 paragraph response for you to explain our $850,000 pricing recommendation along with a little explanation on how we determined this price. We also address your concern that your home cannot get the $875,000 price like the home on Oak St and why. Lastly, we give a little explanation on the price of your home as a pricing strategy to get the best possible buyer response.

This AI will create a compelling argument for you from a list of numbers that the homeowner can actually disprove if they don’t agree with your appraisal. It is a preemptive strike against common counter arguments and positions you as the market authority.

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The Agent’s AI Tech Stack: When to Use Off-the-Shelf vs. Custom AI

You don’t need to be a programmer to use AI. The market is full of tools you can start using today. The key is knowing which type of tool is right for your stage of business.

Off-the-Shelf Tools: Your Starting Point

For 90% of agents and small teams, off-the-shelf AI is the perfect solution. These are plug-and-play tools that solve a specific problem.

• Examples: ChatGPT for copywriting, the AI assistant in your Follow Up Boss CRM, a listing description generator like Listing AI.
• Pros: Low cost (or even free), easy to set up, no technical expertise required. You can get started in a single afternoon.
• Cons: They are one-size-fits-all. They can’t adapt to your unique local market, your specific client niche, or your brokerage’s proprietary workflow.

These tools are fantastic for implementing the systems we’ve discussed. They repres

Ready to build your own AI-powered systems and take your real estate business to the next level? Contact our team of experts to get started.