In this article: How real estate agents and brokers can use ChatGPT for writing and marketing tasks, including blog posts, social media, property listings and more!
If you read, watch or follow the news in any form, you’ve probably already heard about ChatGPT. This is the artificial intelligence (A.I.) program that can generate content based on user input. You might’ve also heard that many real estate agents are now using ChatGPT for marketing, writing, and other business-related tasks.
And that brings us to the subject of today’s article. I’ve spent the past two weeks experimenting with ChatGPT, to see how it might help real estate agents and brokers with routine marketing and writing tasks. The bottom line is that it’s very good at some things, while mediocre at others.
In this article, I’ll explain some of the ways real estate agents can use ChatGPT for writing, marketing and other day-to-day business tasks. I’ll also provide some tips and best practices based on my actual experience.
What Is ChatGPT, Anyway?
ChatGPT is a computer program designed to help people with a variety of tasks. You can communicate with it as if it were another person. It uses a type of artificial intelligence called “natural language processing.” The A.I. helps it understand what people say to it, and respond in a way that makes sense.
ChatGPT has been trained on a huge amount of text from the internet. So it knows a lot of things about a wide variety of subjects. Interacting with people allows it to continuously learn and improve.
How Real Estate Agents Can Use It for Marketing
Note: In this article, I’ll focus on the ways that ChatGPT can help individual real estate agents, brokers, and small to mid-sized brokerages. Larger companies with dedicated IT staff could use this A.I. tool in other ways, as well (like a custom chatbot or virtual assistant). But those kinds of enterprise-level projects are beyond the scope of this article.
Here are some of the ways real estate agents and brokers can use ChatGPT:
1. Writing property listing descriptions
As a freelance content creator, I’ve worked with a lot of real estate agents over the years. And I know many of them struggle to write eloquent and effective descriptions for property listings.
This is one of the areas where ChatGPT can give you a major head start. In fact, it can actually write your property descriptions for you, based on whatever data you provide. I asked the A.I. if it could help with these types of tasks.
My prompt: “Are you able to write property listing descriptions for real estate agents? And if so, how does the process work?”
ChatGPT’s response (shortened):
“As a language model, I can generate unique and compelling property descriptions based on the information you provide. To get started, you would need to provide me with some basic information about the property, such as the location, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, and any unique features or amenities … Based on this information, I can generate a descriptive and engaging property listing description that highlights the property’s best features and selling points.”
To put this capability to the test, I gave ChatGPT a few bullet points for a fictitious property located in La Jolla, California (size, unique features, etc.). I then asked it to write a real estate property listing description based on those details.
The results were pleasantly surprising. It was able to generate a well-written, four paragraph property description based on just a handful of details.
This is what it produced:
ChatGPT can help real estate agents create property listings, but it needs some solid input from you. Try to provide as many property details as possible. Point out anything that makes the home special, including nearby amenities, size, and unique features. A few bullet points is all you need. You can also ask ChatGPT to use a certain type of writing style or tone, such as casual, breezy, occasional humor, etc.
2. Writing real estate blog posts
Let me start by saying you probably shouldn’t let ChatGPT write your real estate blog posts from start to finish. One thing I’ve learned is that this A.I. loves to use the passive voice, repetitive phrases, and stiff and professorial phrases like “in conclusion.”
Having said that, ChatGPT can clearly help real estate agents write blog posts and other website content, and in a number of ways. It can help you choose a topic, outline your article, and even give you a head start with the actual content creation.
Yes, it will actually write the blog post if you ask it to. But again, you will need to give the content a thorough round of editing prior to publication.
While ChatGPT can help you write blog posts, don’t expect it to provide up-to-the-minute market data and reports. It has a time lag with regard to the information it can access. So it probably won’t be able to help you provide current real estate market assessments. At least not in its current form.
As it states in the FAQs: “It has limited knowledge of world and events after 2021.”
Even so, it can give you a major head start when it comes to creating blog content.
For example, I told it that I was a real estate agent in Austin, and I needed help coming up with topics for blog posts. Here’s how that unfolded…
My prompt: “I’m a real estate agent in Austin, Texas. Can you brainstorm some real estate blog topics to help me attract local home buyers and sellers via the search engines?”
Within seconds, ChatGPT provided me with the following topic suggestions:
- “The Ultimate Guide to Buying a Home in Austin, Texas”
- “10 Up-and-Coming Neighborhoods to Watch in Austin”
- “Why Now is the Perfect Time to Sell Your Home in Austin”
- “A Local’s Guide to the Best Restaurants and Attractions in Austin”
- “How to Get Top Dollar for Your Home in a Competitive Austin Market”
- “The Best School Districts in Austin: A Guide for Parents”
- “How to Navigate the Austin Real Estate Market as a First-Time Buyer”
- “5 Must-See Open Houses in Austin This Weekend”
- “How to Stage Your Home for a Quick Sale in Austin”
- “What to Expect When Moving to Austin: Tips from Locals”
I then asked ChatGPT to create a detailed article outline for one of these topics, and once again it delivered. Finally, I asked it to write a real estate blog post based on the outline it created. It did this as well, but the article was too short to deliver value and perform well in search engines.
The bottom line: ChatGPT can help real estate agents generate blog content, by handling everything from idea generation to outlining and beyond. You can even ask it you to write the content for you. But chances are, you’ll find that you need to do some editing and tweaking prior to publishing.
Related article: Creating great blog content
3. Creating e-books and reports
Many real estate agents create comprehensive e-books and reports to help generate leads. For example, you could create a 20-page buyer’s guide specific to your local real estate market, and offer it to people who subscribe to your newsletter or follow you on social media.
This is another way real estate professionals can use ChatGPT. In fact, the A.I. can help you with every step of the content creation process. It can create a detailed outline for your report or e-book, gather information, and even write some of the content for you.
But the same caveat applies. You’ll still need to give it a thorough review.
You can then copy the content into a Word document, for careful editing and formatting. Use a free graphic program (like Canva.com) to create a cover, and compile it all into a PDF document. Real estate agents who use ChatGPT for this purpose will find it can save them hours of time.
4. Creating social media content
ChatGPT can also help real estate professionals create content for social media posts. In fact, that’s only scratching the surface. If you experiment with this artificial intelligence program, you’ll find that it can support your social media strategy in other ways as well.
For instance, it can help you identify topics for social media posts, create a content calendar, and even create a script to help you reach out to influencers. Real estate agents who are completely new to the world of social media can ask ChatGPT how to get started with a social media campaign. Here’s an example…
My prompt: ” I am a real estate agent with very little social media experience. What are some of the things you can do to help me start a social media marketing campaign?”
ChatGPT told me it could help with everything from defining my goals to creating a content strategy. I then asked it for some interesting and unique ideas for social media posts. It provided a solid list of 10 ideas. ChatGPT suggested I use social media to provide expert tips, to showcase individual properties, to share client success stories and testimonials, and to host real estate Q&A sessions.
I then asked it to “offer a few more suggestions.” And off it went, providing more social media post topics and ideas. The second batch was even better. ChatGPT suggested that I use social media to share real estate market news, infographics, fun facts about my city, neighborhood tours and more. These ideas really got my wheels turning.
Lastly, I gave it a few details and asked it to create some social media posts for me. And once again, the artificial intelligence delivered.
Use Your Imagination and Experiment
To be clear, these are not the only ways real estate agents and brokers can use ChatGPT for writing, marketing and business management. Far from it! We’ve really only scratched the surface here.
ChatGPT can help you generate content ideas for blogging and other marketing channels. It can offer business and marketing tips and strategies. It can help you create content for your blog, social media, email newsletters, etc. — while saving you a tremendous amount of time in the process.
The only real limit I can see is the user’s imagination. So I would encourage you to experiment with ChatGPT, to see how it might be useful within your real estate business.