Vancouver Realtor Richard Morrison spent the last three months with his online team creating a free GPT-4-powered AI tool, called the AI Realtor Assistant, for the Metro Vancouver real estate market.
Just days after launching, hundreds of people have already used it.
“I never envisioned this would be possible,” Morrison told CTV News, adding that the bot uses publicly available information, including the MLS database.
Similar to Chat GPT, users can type out questions about properties listed on his website and the AI will answer instantly, but its knowledge is limited to properties in the Lower Mainland.
“(It knows) things like hospitals, fire stations, schools, daycares, etc. Things that can help the homebuyer or the seller make a decision,” Morrison explained, adding that people can ask very specific questions.
“For example, we’ve had a big interest rate increase recently and a lot of homebuyers are wary of how much that home will cost. So they can ask questions like, ‘What kind of income do I need to qualify for this particular property?’ So it will answer, ‘This is the income you need based on the 5% interest rate,'” he continued.
Morrison, who has worked as a real estate agent in Vancouver for 20 years, hopes the tool empowers prospective homebuyers and sellers.
David Macdonald, a potential homebuyer, is one of the tool’s early users.
“It’s a very cool application,” he said. “I don’t think it replaces human interaction, but it probably makes it more efficient. You can waste less time. You can come better armed with questions than you would without it.”
The AI Realtor Assistant isn’t the only AI tool used in the real estate market.
Many sites allow people to stage their homes virtually now, but Morrison says agents should be transparent when using the software.
“There’s a certain level of responsibility that the Realtor needs to disclose, to mention, ‘Hey, these images are AI-generated and so what you see here is a concept model, and this is a real picture of what the house looks like right now,'” he said.
As sophisticated as these tools are, Morrison also said it’s unlikely they’ll replace human agents anytime soon.