How would you go about buying a new home right now? Likely, you would start by meeting with a real estate agent, look over home listings in your price range, and go out to visit a few. Eventually, you’d find one you like, put in a bid, and hopefully buy it.
The internet has made these steps quite a bit quicker and easier, but the process has been the same for decades. Buying and selling a home on your own is possible, but extremely difficult to do.
How we buy and sell homes, though, could go through a major upheaval thanks to artificial intelligence. The role of real estate agents could change dramatically, and the ability to buy and sell your own home is growing significantly.
Monitoring All Parts of a Real Estate Market
The reasons behind selling and buying a home are wide and varied. Common reasons include:
- Needing a larger home for a growing family
- Wanting a nicer or updated home
- Relocating for a new job or to be closer to current job
- Buy a home with wanted amenities (like a larger yard or extra rooms)
- Financial hardships requiring lower home payments
- Tired of home improvements or maintenance
A big part of being successful in the real estate industry is knowing why people want to buy or sell when they want to do it, and being there when they are ready. Being at the right place at the right time is huge, which is why real estate agents do things like host open houses, pay for tons of advertising, and rely heavily on word-of-mouth marketing. AI, backed up with data, could help real estate agents identify where they need to focus more, especially with emerging and new markets.
By combining different data sets in conjunction with real estate trends, an AI could identify potential markets looking to buy or sell homes. For example, let’s say there is an upward trend of younger families having their first child in a city with a growing economy. AI could help identify a need for more starter homes, help pick out places that could match a standard income for a young family, and encourage real estate agents to pursue that market. That means agents could specialize more in specific markets, and their needs, instead of being a jack of all trades.
With how much data the world creates, there is no way a real estate agent could keep up on the latest trends, but AI can. They could even find new signals and emerging trends to help others in the industry like construction companies and more.
Helping Buyers Find Their Dream Home
House hunting is a tiring thing. You have to look through hundreds of listing, just to find a dozen you think you like, only to visit the dozen and find out you hate them and then go back to step one. For people working a full-time job, this could mean multiple weekends wasted hunting.
AI though could help cut out a lot of the work in house hunting. First, an AI could learn what a home hunter likes and dislikes in a home. A little bit of looking at homes could accomplish this, along with some search parameters. Then, using that info, the AI can start searching through all of the listings available and send relevant listings to the buyer. The buyer could give feedback to the AI about the listings presented, about what they like and dislike, and help the program improve.
AI could even help identify potential problems with the home that homeowners wouldn’t notice in the listings or even after a visit. AI could look at the weather history in the area and see if there is the likelihood of damages not fixed or listed on the home. Things like roof damage from hail, mold damage from a flood, and lawn issues are all things an AI could warn a buyer of early on.
Making it Easier to Buy and Sell On Your Own
Buying and selling a home can be a complicated process. It’s why real estate agents exist and can make good money doing their job. People can sell their own home, but many choose not to put the work in. AI could take the burden off of people wanting to avoid real estate agents and do the work themselves.
First off, a properly trained AI could help buyers find their home, but taking that a step further, could connect buyers and sellers. The AI replaces the third party of real estate agents and does the connecting instead.
Another way AI could help out is working with legal documents. With enough training, an AI program could look over the paperwork for selling a home and highlight areas both the buyer and seller need to be aware of. That can include deviations from standard contracts, requests from either party for the sale to go through (such as fixing up something, paying specific closing costs, or extra circumstances) and make sure both parties are protected.
For more complicated circumstances, like buying a short sale or foreclosed home, AI could help a person successfully navigate the situation without getting a real estate agent involved. With more training, it could learn how to better advise users on these situations and avoid pitfalls in non-typical home buying situations.
Death of the Real Estate Agent?
There will always be real estate agents unless we fully enter the world of science fiction and we have AI-powered robots to show off homes like agents do now. Some people want that second opinion from a real person when touring a home, or that personal touch that comes from working with a human.
But if real estate agents want to stay around for the long run, they need to adapt and incorporate AI into their business. That way, they can better identify emerging market trends, help buyers find their dream home, and give people a reason to work with them instead of just using an AI to buy or sell their home.
