How to spot when AI has written a property brochure - Tim Waring
I am often asked how AI is influencing the estate agency world and even when you put the same question into the likes of ChatGPT, the answer is very mixed.
Like many businesses standard operating procedures have become simplified and quicker, and one area where AI has been increasing influential is property marketing material, be that traditional sale brochures, web listings or social media content.
However as with any AI generated information anomalies do arise, it is not full proof and indeed can be factually wrong. The glowing reference to village facilities including an award-winning pub that has sadly recently closed is a common example. Likewise, the open views over farmland on the edge of a town that is now subject to a planning application for 150 new houses. Estate agents using AI extensively must be on their guard.
I am all for embracing the benefits of new technology in all its guises, but I fear our industry could fall foul of the foibles of the digital world. You might think this is the view of a traditionalist, but I prefer to think I am being realistic especially when there is so much human emotion involved.
Until the process of buying and selling property in England and Wales, changes, only then might the real benefits of AI bring meaningful change to residential property sales by finding ways to speed up what continues to be a laborious and frustrating process.
That said whether any computer system will ever understand how buyers and sellers alike can be logical one moment, but who then make a decision which seems illogical is another matter. But at least by speeding up the process, AI will reduce the time for decisions to change.
Through the use of CGIs (computer generated images), AI can produce some spectacularly realistic aspects of what are in fact empty rooms. But again, estate agents need to on their guard and not fall foul of Trading Standards who then consider them to be misleading, as a number of London agents can readily testify.
When you look at property particulars from years past, as compared to the present day, the similarities are clearly apparent. AI has a remarkable ability to write long and free flowing prose that some might consider to be estate agency at its best. Full of the superlatives for which the industry is known but so often using generic terms that could describe many properties.
Sadly, there is little mention of the genuinely distinctive features and facts that buyers are seeking to entice them to view. In many instances, I even find the wording distinctly retro to the point that I am reminded of my formative days as a trainee when deceptively spacious, a wealth of original features, and early viewing recommended were all considered the norm.
And who doesn’t love being conveniently located? There is some consolation, as it does seem AI prefers fine to elegant, lovely to stylish but then I have seen the wonderfully traditional twixt used in one agent’s online listing recently.
I am tempted to write a light-hearted dictionary of AI estate agency jargon for home buyers. Rather than blandly stating in need of modernisation, surely elegantly tired has much more meaning.
Tim Waring, prime residential, GSC Grays estate agents, gscgrays.co.uk