First — What Exactly Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence (AI) computer program. It’s a chatbot — it conducts back-and-forth conversation with a human user on the other end. 

Chatbots aren’t entirely new. But the artificial intelligence that powers ChatGPT makes it much more impressive than other AI chatbots we’ve seen before. 

It’s been trained using a huge wealth of data, which gives the tool the ability to understand, interpret and respond to human language in a richer, more conversational way.

It can fairly quickly pull information it’s been asked for, review and understand text it’s been fed, and create original content based on guidelines it’s been given.

This isn’t a simple customer service chatbot that knows where to direct your complaint or query. ChatGPT, in the words of its creators, can “answer follow-up questions, admit its mistakes, challenge incorrect premises, and reject inappropriate requests.”

ChatGPT was developed by OpenAI, a U.S.-based AI research and deployment company. Anyone can use ChatGPT — click here to give it a go.

What Can ChatGPT Do?

In the most basic of terms, you have a conversation with ChatGPT. You speak to it by entering text and it responds.

But ChatGPT isn’t just for fun. It’s how you use the conversation that makes it so remarkable. 

Once ChatGPT is asked to do something, it uses the models and datasets it’s been trained on to return a response. 

You can ask ChatGPT to…

• Create a job description
• Edit a cover letter
• Explain a complex theory
• Find errors in computer code
• Write content
• Craft poems
• Source information on a topic

A very important note: ChatGPT is amazing, but it isn’t always perfect. It can sometimes return inaccurate responses to fact-seeking questions, for instance. Here’s what OpenAI has to say about the tool’s fallibility:

“ChatGPT sometimes writes plausible-sounding but incorrect or nonsensical answers.

Fixing this issue is challenging, as:

(1) during RL training, there’s currently no source of truth;

(2) training the model to be more cautious causes it to decline questions that it can answer correctly; and

(3) supervised training misleads the model because the ideal answer depends on what the model knows, rather than what the human demonstrator knows.”

Should the Real Estate Industry Care About ChatGPT?

AI tools are here to stay. ChatGPT is the latest in a fast-growing pool of highly innovative, publicly accessible tools powered by AI.

Every industry should be paying attention to ChatGPT and assessing what the implications and opportunities might be. Real estate is no exception.

Tools like ChatGPT scare many professionals. Will they make me less valuable? Will they replace me entirely?

The concern is understandable. How AI transforms the world remains to be fully seen. What we do know is that figuring out how to best work with AI is key to staying relevant.

Which brings us to the most important question for real estate agents…

How Can Real Estate Agents Use ChatGPT to Grow Their Business?

Real estate agents should be looking at ChatGPT as a tool to make their jobs easier.

There are already plenty of real estate agents using ChatGPT to save time, labour and money.

Here are the most powerful ways that agents can make use of ChatGPT for real estate.

Crafting listing descriptions 

This is by far the most popular use for ChatGPT in the real estate industry so far. 

You can give ChatGPT the facts about a home and ask it to write a listing description for the property. 

That’s a huge time savings!

Real estate agents who use ChatGPT to write listing descriptions shouldn’t simply copy and paste the finished product. A ChatGPT description should be considered a strong first draft.

While the tool does a pretty great job, the description can usually benefit from a human pair of eyes and a human touch. Always give a ChatGPT listing description a close read and look for ways to add a little more personality. 

Drafting emails

Canned responses are a time-saver. 

Whether it’s an out-of-office auto-reply or the answer to a question that gets asked over and over and over again, pre-written, standardized answers should be in every real estate agent’s toolbox.

ChatGPT can be used to help build a library of canned responses, so you don’t have to. 

Writing website copy

We don’t recommend having an AI tool write copy as rich and as important as what appears on your website. 

What we do recommend is using ChatGPT as a starting point for your real estate website copy.

By having the tool take the first stab, you can save yourself the frustration of establishing a starting point, staying focused and battling writer’s block. 

Use ChatGPT’s copy as a rough first draft. Edit so that the copy sounds like it’s in your voice and make style changes so that it better matches your brand. 

Doing calculations 

Need to crunch numbers? Compare and contrast stats? Figure out percentages? Ask ChatGPT to do it.

It’s easier than using a calculator because you don’t need to know the method for arriving at the right answer. You simply tell ChatGPT what you need and it does the rest.