Focus your time on what matters the most, selling property. AI and Automation can be used to fill in the gaps that would normally take your team’s time. Our guide explains which tools are best for real estate agents, how effective those tools are and ultimately, the sooner you find out about how you can take advantage of these tools, the sooner you will be on the way to generating and nurturing more clients and ultimately, more revenue.
By James Sheldon
Back in 2018, we wrote a blog discussing how best to Optimise a Property Listing Page. While we gave some good advice back then, the way in which Agents are maintaining their listings and website, in general, is very much changing.
Similarly, this year, we shared our Top 5 ChatGPT Prompts for Estate Agents which gained a lot of traction.
AI is already playing an increasingly important role in our lives and is expected to continue to do so in 2023 and beyond. Here are a few areas where AI is likely to make an impact:
AI can help businesses optimize their operations, reduce costs, and improve customer experiences. For example, AI-powered chatbots can help customers find what they need quickly and efficiently. Property Webmasters have been embracing the use of AI both internally and for clients around the world.
In this article, we will run through some AI tools that can improve your website and marketing capacity for you and your team.
It is really important to consider Estate Agent Website Design when making website changes. However, by incorporating AI algorithms, the user experience can be personalized through tailored recommendations based on user behavior and preferences. Advanced property search capabilities powered by AI can enable users to find properties using natural language queries, simplifying the search process. Automation through AI-driven chatbots and virtual assistants facilitates lead generation and management, while virtual reality and augmented reality technology allow for immersive virtual property tours and staging experiences.
Just take a look at American Giant, Zillow – free to use on any of their listings is the Zillow Surfing 2.0 – Zillow uses machine learning to not only generate floor plans but also import each listing photo and place it on the floor plan, giving shoppers an in-person perspective of a home’s shape and flow that simply scrolling through static images can never do.
More recently, Zillow announced an AI-Powered natural-language search, that allows users to enter phrases like “New $300k homes in Utah with 4 bedrooms” and the dynamic listings will appear.
We can all agree that for Estate Agents, the images of a property are absolutely crucial to attracting interested parties, grabbing their attention and then an enquiry. High-quality property images can instantly grab the attention of potential buyers and create a positive first impression. The better the images, the more likely a buyer will feel attracted to the property and consider making an appointment to view it.
Property images are an essential marketing tool for estate agents. They can use images to showcase the property’s unique features, highlight its best aspects, and create an emotional connection with potential buyers.
Now, accurate representation is absolutely the most important part of all of this, but what if we told you that Estate Agents could and have been taking advantage of AI when it comes to imagery to give them the edge?
On the topic of AI imagery, for landing pages and website pages, Shutterstock is now offering AI-generated imagery which is perfect for estate agents and realtors who are selling a lifestyle or focused on one location in particular.
Shutterstock AI offers several benefits for estate agents. Firstly, its image recognition and tagging capabilities automate the categorization and tagging of property images, saving agents valuable time when searching for relevant visuals.
Secondly, the visual search feature allows agents to find similar images based on a specific property photo or design inspiration, aiding in finding similar properties or gathering ideas for interior design and staging. This helps agents create visually appealing listings that attract potential buyers.
See the image below which we used for a client of ours in Spain, The perfect, green golf course was used to assist their efforts to attract users to the coast.
Not every photo will have the perfect lighting, weather and shadows however, with the use of AI, that can be achieved and generated in a matter of seconds.
ChatGPT also offers several advantages for writing website content and property descriptions…
Its language generation capabilities enable the creation of engaging and descriptive content, using appropriate vocabulary and varied sentence structures.
When facing writer’s block, AI provides creative ideas and new perspectives to inspire unique property descriptions. It can tailor descriptions to different target audiences, whether it’s a luxury home, family-friendly property, or investment opportunity.
ChatGPT ensures clarity and conciseness in descriptions by eliminating jargon and redundant information and focusing on the key features.
Additionally, it can assist with SEO optimization by suggesting relevant keywords and phrases. streamline the writing process, and save time and effort, while human oversight and editing remain crucial for accuracy and compliance with any real estate regulations.
Something that we previously found tiresome to deal with was AI chatbots, but with the advancements in technology, chatbots that can be integrated 24/7 and actually helpful for customer service, improving the user experience of your website are a necessity.
AI chatbots can provide immediate assistance to website visitors by understanding their queries and offering personalized responses. This instant support improves the overall user experience. Alongside this, they can also handle multiple conversations simultaneously and respond instantly. Users don’t have to wait long for answers, leading to a faster and more efficient user experience.
And finally, chatbots can guide users through the website, helping them find the information or services they need. By providing intuitive suggestions and step-by-step assistance, chatbots simplify navigation, reducing user frustration and making your properties even easier to find.
Venturing into a bracket slightly outside website and marketing, but more internal lead follow-up process. Around a year ago we wrote a guide outlining the Best & Worst Ways to Handle Real Estate Leads, one thing that was not as prominent within that article was automation or AI.
Email flows have always been a thing, however, with the help of AI tools, it has never been easier to enter a new lead into a flow that automatically sends emails, SMS follow-ups and more.
An example of a product you can use to make this happen is Zapier, we use it here at Property Webmasters. By leveraging Zapier’s automation capabilities and integrating with a CRM, you can streamline and automate the lead follow-up process for your real estate business. This saves time, ensures prompt responses, and helps nurture leads effectively.
Choose a CRM platform that integrates with Zapier. Popular options include Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoho CRM, or Pipedrive. Create necessary custom fields to store lead information, such as name, contact details, property preferences, and any other relevant data.
Sign up for Zapier and connect your CRM account. Determine the trigger that initiates the lead follow-up. For example, you can set the trigger as a new lead submission on your website’s contact form or a lead capture from a landing page. Configure the trigger in Zapier to detect new lead entries.
Based on your business rules, automatically assign the lead to the appropriate sales representative. This can be done by mapping the lead data to the corresponding fields in your CRM. Set up an action in Zapier to send an automated email or SMS to the assigned sales representative, notifying them of the new lead. Include relevant lead details, such as name, contact information, and property preferences, to provide the salesperson with the necessary context.
Create a task or reminder in your CRM for the sales representative to follow up with the lead.
Finally, Create automated follow-up sequences or drip campaigns using your CRM’s features or integrations with email marketing tools. Customize the sequences based on lead behaviour, preferences, or stage in the sales funnel.
Price (Monthly): Free Trial (1 Zap) / $29.99 – $1,198.50 depending on usage
Ease of Use: 6/10
Potential Effectiveness: 8/10
Effective marketing efforts lead to lead generation and customer acquisition. By implementing targeted campaigns, capturing leads through various mechanisms, and establishing effective communication, you can attract individuals actively seeking real estate services and convert them into valuable clients. This, in turn, contributes to the growth of your agency.
There are multiple ways to attract leads and grow your real estate agency’s brand and we are going to discuss three main AI tools that can help you to do so…
Opus Clip is a generative AI tool that allows real estate agents to cut down long videos into 10 bitesize clips, ideal for TikTok and Instagram Reels.
At Property Webmasters, our Beyond the Sale Podcasts can be anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour so we use this tool to get bitesize snippets.
As well as cutting out the interesting clips, it layers text subtitles on top of the clip and also gives the clip a virality score out of 100, the below being 99/100.
Price (Monthly): Free Trial (6 hours worth of footage) / $19 – $76 depending on usage
Ease of Use: 10/10
Potential Effectiveness: 10/10
Another way of generating leads with the use of AI is to set up an automated email sequence for cold outreach. This is more business-to-business and would be ideal for real estate agents interested in landlords, commercial properties and more B2B style models.
Property Webmasters use this tool to send out sequences and follow-ups to real estate agents all over the world, showcasing our products, services, case studies and more.
Start off by importing your contacts, warm or cold, we use cold email lists and this is our way of reaching out for the first time. Once imported, you can set up your sequences.
As your emails start to send you can track the open rate, number of people contacts, replies and more… Perfect for reaching out to a list of landlords that you would like to collaborate with or perhaps a list of contacts that enquired to get a valuation from your real estate agency but didn’t choose to list with you.
Instantly AI also offers a free trial which your estate agency could also take part in, see HERE
Price (Monthly): 14-day trial / $37 Growth / $97 Hyper Growth
Ease of Use: 8/10
Potential Effectiveness: 9/10
Matterport is a technology company that specializes in creating 3D virtual tours and immersive experiences for real estate properties. Its platform enables users to capture, edit, and share interactive 3D models of physical spaces using its proprietary camera and software.
Real estate agents can benefit greatly from Matterport’s services. One of the key advantages is the ability to provide virtual property tours. By creating realistic and immersive virtual tours, agents can offer potential buyers the opportunity to explore properties remotely, as if they were physically present. This not only saves time and effort for both the agent and the buyer but also offers a more engaging and interactive experience compared to traditional photos or videos.
Property Webmasters house this feature upon our AgentPlus website platform as we understand the importance of a virtual property walkthrough.
An example of a clients website using the Matterport Showcase can be seen here…
AI is something that Property Webmasters are very much embracing and we feel like our clients can too. As technology evolves, it is going to become more and more common to be using automation and OpenAI software to complete mindnumbing tasks, as well as showcase the future of real estate websites and marketing as we know it.
We highly suggest getting involved with some of the tools we are promoting, especially if you are looking for a way to push your brand with minimal effort after the initial setup.
By Ben Spowart
By Ben Spowart
