Latest / Dishin' Dirt with Gary Pickren / AI Is About to Change How Buyers Find Homes — And Real Estate Agents

Transcript

AI Is About to Change How Buyers Find Homes — And Real Estate Agents · Dishin' Dirt with Gary Pickren

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Today, I'm going to make a prediction.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_01: And some people in this real estate industry are probably going to think that I've lost my mind, I've gone crazy.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: But I do think that the real estate industry has spent millions, if not billions, of dollars fighting the entirely wrong war.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_01: And for years, everybody's been fighting over real estate portals.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Zillow wants the consumer, realtor.com wants the consumer, Compass certainly wants the consumer, brokerages want to build their own portals, everybody wants listings.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: They want the data from the listings, and they want every consumer to start their home search on their website.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because the theory has been pretty simple.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you control where you search for the house, then you can control the consumer.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: And if you get to control the consumer, then you get to control the transaction, the mortgage, the title, the insurance, the real estate agent, everything related.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I've spent the better part of this year talking about this battle on dish and dirt.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm beginning to think this entire battle may ultimately become secondary and irrelevant because I don't think the future consumer is necessarily going to start their home search at Zillow.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think they're necessarily going to go to realtor.com, and I certainly don't think they're going to go to compass.com.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't even think they're going to go to your brokerage's shiny new website that somebody spent tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars developing it.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're simply going to ask AI.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: And when that happens, the entire concept of the home search completely changes and changes forever.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: The consumer isn't going to want to search through 437 houses.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to want AI to tell them which five houses they should look at, which ones meet their criteria.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the part that should really get your attention and the attention of every real estate agent who's listening to this podcast today.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_01: After AI identifies the five houses for the consumer, the consumer may then ask the next question, which is who is the best real estate agent to help me buy one of these five houses?
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: And suddenly we're not talking about the future of Zillow, we're talking about the future of you.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: So today I want to talk about what I believe is coming, why the real estate portal may already be an outdated concept before it's even fully developed, and why Google itself is becoming an AI search engine, why ChatGPT and other artificial intelligence systems could completely change how consumers find houses, and why I absolutely do not believe this means that real estate agents will go away.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: But most importantly, what you should be doing right now so that five years from now, when somebody asks AI for the best real estate agent for this particular situation, that AI actually recommends you.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because a new real estate marketing battle may not be can the consumer find your website or your portal?
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: It may be, does artificial intelligence know who you are?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: And even more importantly, does artificial intelligence trust you enough to recommend you?
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about that and a whole lot more on this episode of Dish and Dirt.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: This is Dish and Dirt with Gary Pickering, South Carolina's only podcast dedicated to the real estate agent craft.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And now the host of Dish and Dirt, Gary Pickering.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your often opinionated but rarely wrong host, Gary Pickerin, coming to you from the beautiful downtown Columbia, South Carolina offices of Blair, Kato, Picker, and Castroline this, the third week of September 2026.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now, before we begin, I want to introduce you to my brand new series on YouTube.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Before You Sign.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: Up until now, all the series that I've been doing on YouTube or through podcasts has been directly related to real estate agents, how to grow your business, protect yourself, and become the best real estate agent you possibly can be.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: This is my first foray into consumer-facing education.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: What I'm going to do is I'm going to go through the most important documents that a real estate agent asks the buyer or seller to sign throughout the transaction, whether it's a listing agreement, biorepresentation agreement, contract, whatever.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm going to explain those documents in plain English.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'll have several online shorts that answers short questions that consumers have, such as, can I fire my real estate agent?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: What happens if I find the perfect house myself without going through my agent?
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: What happens if I have two real estate agents?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_01: So, first, you need to watch these videos so that you learn all the information about what's legally in these documents and what you need to be aware of when you're having conversations with your consumer.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: The second thing I think you should do is recommend these documents to your consumer before you meet with them the first time.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: Have them spend time watching these videos, understanding the documents, so that when you meet with them, you can talk about how wonderful your services are and all the things you're going to do and not spend a lot of time having to talk about legal matters that I will fully explain in these videos.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Renee, one of my top agents and friends, has been providing my South Carolina seller disclosure guide that I wrote, which you can find on BlairKeto.com for many years to her sellers.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Every time she has a seller, she's like, look at this book and it'll explain everything you need to know about seller disclosure.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: And it takes all of that off of her so that she can concentrate on selling the person's house.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: This is something I think should become one of the resources that you could provide for your client and show a value add.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully you'll enjoy it.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: Take a look at it.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: It is on YouTube, and I'll put a link to it in our show notes here today.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_01: So let's start with where has real estate been?
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: For the last decade or more, there's been an enormous battle over one thing: who controls the consumer in the real estate transaction?
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: And that answer has increasingly become who controls the search.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Think about how people traditionally look for houses back in the day.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: 25 years ago, the real estate agent had all the information.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: You needed the agent because the agent essentially had access to the inventory and changed everything.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: Listings moved online.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: Consumers suddenly had access to information that previously belonged primarily to the industry.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: And companies like Zillow recognized something incredibly valuable.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: It could become the place where consumers went to look for houses.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: And you didn't necessarily have to own the listings to create the information.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: You had to own something that was a lot more valuable.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Attention.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: You own the consumer's attention.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And once you own the consumer's attention, then you could monetize it just like Zillow's done.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's an extraordinarily powerful business model.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: So everybody started chasing it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: Brokerages created websites.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Franchises created websites, teams created websites, portals became increasingly powerful.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody wanted the IDX feed, everybody wanted consumer registrations, consumer creating accounts.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody wanted the save searches, the email addresses.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Whoever had the consumer could sell something to that consumer.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're seeing the next generation of this fight.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: Brokerages are investing enormous amounts of money into technology and portals because they don't want Zillow and other third parties between them and the consumer.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I understand that strategy.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: In today's world, it makes complete sense.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: But here's my question: What if the consumer stops going to the portals?
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Not tomorrow, maybe not this year, but what if the entire behavior changes?
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because technology has a very funny way of doing that.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Industries have spent enormous amounts of money perfecting yesterday's technology right before the consumers move on to something different.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: I wonder whether that is exactly what is happening today in our real estate industry.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: So think about how we search for real estate today.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: You pull up Zillow or realtor.com, or you maybe go to a brokerage website, and what do you do?
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: You put in the city, price range, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, maybe square footage, maybe school districts, maybe you get to draw a little circle around a map.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Then the computer gives you a bunch of houses.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's certainly better than the old days of having to look through 437 houses.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: But let's think about this logically.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: Is that really what the consumer wants?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: Does the consumer actually want to look through 178 listings in their little circle?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Or does the consumer want to only look at the right house?
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Those are very different things.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And this is where I think AI is going to change everything.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine if I'm moving from Chicago to Columbia, South Carolina.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of going to a portal, checking a bunch of boxes, why don't I just go to AI and tell my AI assistants?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm 42 years old, I'm married, I have two children who are 8 and 11, taking a job downtown, my wife's going to work remotely.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm looking for a four-bedroom house.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: She needs a home office.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: We'd like a neighborhood with mature trees.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: We'd like restaurants within 10 to 15 minutes.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: We don't want more than a 25-minute commute to downtown.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: We'd like a neighborhood where kids can ride their bikes.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: We prefer an established house over brand new.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: Our budget is 700 grand and we're coming to Columbia this weekend.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: Please find me five houses I should look at.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: Think how radically different that is.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't have to check any boxes.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: I simply described what my life was.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this is what artificial intelligence is really good at.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_01: It understands context.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: It understands relationships between information and it understands what I mean rather than simply matching what I clicked.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: AI can answer me back.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: Gary, how important is the school district?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: Would you consider living in Lexington?
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: Would you rather have a 20-minute commute or a smaller yard?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Would you rather have a 30-minute commute and more land?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: How important is walkability?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: Have you considered HOA rules?
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want a swimming pool in your yard?
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're not just using a search engine.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: We're having a conversation with an advisor, and that's very fundamentally different.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: So now let's take it to another step.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Suppose AI gives me 10 houses.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: I can then say, compare these 10 houses.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Eliminate the ones you don't think fits best for me.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're down to six.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: Well, which ones of these appear to be overpriced compared to recent sales?
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're maybe down to five.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Which ones have price reductions?
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_01: Which ones have been sitting on the market the longest?
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: Which ones are closest to the restaurants I prefer?
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: Which houses appear to have the best resale potential?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Which are likely to have higher maintenance costs?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Suddenly the AI isn't just giving me inventory, it's helping me make decisions.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: That's an enormous distinction.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: The traditional portal says, here are the houses you go figure it out.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: But the AI model is very different.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me what you're trying to accomplish and I'll figure it out for you.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that is why I think the portal battle could eventually become secondary.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: The portals become infrastructure.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: The consumer may not care where the information lists, the consumer simply cares about getting the right answer.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: And this isn't just about chat GPT.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: This is where I think real estate professionals need to pay very close attention to Google.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Because what's happening at Google tells us something about the future of real estate and of searching real estate in itself.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: For most of our lives, we have understood Google basically the same way.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: You type something into Google, Google gives you a ton of web pages, and then you go to work.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Click website number one and you go back.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: Then you click website number two and go back.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Then you click number three and go back.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: You compare the information, you try to determine which website looks credible, you synthesize it, and eventually you come away with an answer you think's right.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: But artificial intelligence has turned that process completely upside down.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Google now has AI overviews and AI mode built straight into the Google search.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: Google describes AI mode as the experience where you can ask complex questions, receive an AI-powered response, and then continue asking follow-up questions.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: Google has also been combining AI overviews with AI mode into an increasingly seamless conversation search experience.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: So think about what's happening.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Google isn't merely improving the traditional search engine.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: Google's changing what it means to search.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: Instead of here are 10 websites that might contain your answer, have at it.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: We're moving more toward here's the answer I developed from the information across the web, and here are the sources you can explore if you want to go deeper.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: The websites aren't necessarily disappearing.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_01: Google continues to emphasize links and original sources, but the orders change.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: For many of these searches, the AI answer comes first.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: The website becomes a supporting material.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: That's a massive behavioral change from what we've been experiencing from the years in the past.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_01: And Google says AI mode has already surpassed one billion monthly users globally.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: And Google has also said that AI mode queries have been more than doubling every quarter since its launch.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: So this isn't some theoretical technology we're talking about for 2035 or 2040.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: The behavior is developing right now.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: And that brings me back to real estate.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_01: For years, every agent has been told you need to get ranked on Google.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: Get on page one of the SEO, optimize your website, buy the keywords, write the blogs, improve your SEO.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Why?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: Because we wanted the consumer to click our website first.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: We had to be at the top of the list.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: But what happens when the consumer doesn't need to click 10 websites anymore?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: What happens when the consumer asks, who are the three best real estate agents for buying a lake house on Lake Murray?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: And AI simply gives them three names.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now the game has completely changed.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: The question isn't, did I rank number one or two or three on Google?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: The question becomes, did Google AI include me in their answer?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that is a radically different marketing problem altogether.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_01: And here's why I don't think I'm completely crazy about this.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_01: Zillow already sees this.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: See, Zillow has already moved into conversational AI.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: It has developed an AI experience that allows consumers to describe what they're looking for using natural language and comparing properties and asking questions.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: So think about that.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: One of the most powerful real estate portals in the world is effectively acknowledging filters aren't enough anymore.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Consumers increasingly want to talk to technology.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: They want to say, find me a house like this, not check 14 boxes.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I think Zillow deserves some credit for seeing this.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: But there's another piece of this that's even more interesting.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: Zillow has also put its real estate experience into Chat GPT.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now stop and think about the strategic significance of that.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: Zillow isn't simply saying come to Zillow.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: Zillow is effectively saying if customers are going to start their journey with AI, we need Zillow's information to be available there.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: That's an enormous change because I don't think people will go to Zillow in the future.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think they'll go straight to chat.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it leads me to what I believe may be the real battle for the next decade.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: The battle may not be who owns the best portal.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: The battle may be whose information does AI trust and use the most.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's a completely different battle.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Let me clarify something.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not predicting that Zillow completely disappears or realtor.com disappears or your brokerage website disappears.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_01: Nor am I saying that the portals won't continue to be built.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: What I'm saying is that the data can be collected straight from the MLS.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I think there's a real possibility that these portals and these websites cease being the front door for a growing number of consumers.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: And that's a big distinction.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: I think the consumer may enter through Chat GPT or Gemini or Google's AI search or whatever AI assistant that ultimately winds up dominating the marketplace.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Underneath that, AI may be able to go to Zillow or the MLS or realtor.com or maybe even your brokerage page to get that information, maybe dozens of sources simultaneously.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: The consumer may not know where the information is coming from.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: And frankly, I don't think the consumer will even care.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: They got their answer, and that's what's going to matter to them.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: So while the real estate industry is sitting over here fighting over portals and creating separate portals and keeping things off of Zillow and so forth, I simply don't think it's going to matter because AI may simply build its own front door in front of everybody's portal.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now we get to the part of this episode that really matters because everything we've discussed so far is interesting technology.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: But now let's talk about your business.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Suppose our relocating buyer has narrowed their search to five houses.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: What's the next question?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Probably it's going to be something like this.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: I need somebody to show me these houses.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Find me a good real estate agent.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe the question is who's the best buyer agent in Columbia for somebody relocating from Chicago?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it's is there somebody who specializes in Forest Acres?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Or find me an agent who has experience in selling properties at Lake Murray?
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Who is the best realtor for luxury homes in Lexington?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: Or I wanted somebody who works primarily with first-time homebuyers and who has excellent reviews.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: What does AI say?
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's the billion-dollar question because artificial intelligence has to choose somebody.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: And here's a statistic that every real estate agent listening to this podcast should hear.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: Local Falcon recently conducted 37,500 AI searches across the 100 largest U.S.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: cities.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: They looked at recommendations across Chat, Google, Gemini, and Grok.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_01: And according to that research, 91.5% of the established agents they evaluated were never cited once.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: More than nine out of 10 were essentially invisible in those AI searches.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: Even being a top producer didn't guarantee visibility.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_01: Only about 21% of the highest volume individual agents in the study were even cited by any AI platform.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: So your production does not automatically teach artificial intelligence who you are.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: Your brokerage doesn't automatically do it.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: Your awards don't automatically do it.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: Your 20 years of experience in the business doesn't do it.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: You can be an extremely successful real estate agent and effectively not even exist in the AI ecosystem.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_01: And that should get your attention because for years we've talked about SEO, search engine optimization.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're going to hear increasingly about AEO, answer engine optimization.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: And there are other terms floating around in this area as well.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: But don't get hung up on the terminology.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: The concepts are actually what matters.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: You want artificial intelligence systems to understand who you are, where you work, what you do, and what you're particularly good at.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_01: And what evidence exists to support your claims.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: Because an AI system isn't sitting across the table from you at your listing presentation.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can't tell it I've been doing this for 20 years.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: It has to be able to discover evidence of that expertise.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that brings us to something that I've preached about on this podcast forever.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: Create content.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: But now there's another reason to create it.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're not simply creating content so somebody watches your YouTube video today.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: You're creating a body of evidence about who you are.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And here's where agents are going to get this wrong.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to hear this podcast and say, Gary says I need content, so they're going to get AI to generate some content for them.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Five tips for first-time home buyers.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Please don't do that.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: The internet already has 400 million versions of that one article.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: Why would that establish that you're an expert over anybody else in the business?
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: You need content that demonstrates actual expertise, specific expertise, local expertise, useful expertise.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you're the Lake Murray agent, teach people about Lake Murray.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: Not once, repeatedly.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: Five things you need to understand before buying waterfront property on Lake Murray, dock permits on Lake Murray.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_01: What's the difference between big water and a cove?
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: What should buyers know about shoreline restrictions?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Which Lake Murray communities have the easiest access to Columbia?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: Buying an older lake house versus buying new construction on the lake.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're building a body of knowledge around an identifiable subject.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_01: If you're in downtown Greenville and a Greenville condo specialist, do the same thing.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: If you're the new construction specialist in Blythwood, do the same thing.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a relocation expert for Spartanburg, do the same thing.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_01: If you're the person who understands historic homes in downtown Camden, demonstrate it.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Don't just say you're the expert.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Create the evidence that makes the conclusion reasonable for AI.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: And here's another thing I think AI is going to change.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Agents have traditionally wanted to be everything to everybody.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: I sell South Carolina real estate.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's almost meaningless to an AI recommendation engine.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Think about the consumer's question.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_01: They're unlikely to ask, find me somebody who sells real estate in South Carolina.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to provide context.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: The more context they provide, the more specialized the recommendations can become.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So when they ask, find me an agent who specializes in lakefront homes around a million dollars on Lake Murray, that's quite different.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: How about find me a real estate agent who works with retirees moving from the Northeast to Greenville?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: Very different.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_01: Find me an agent experienced with VA buyers around Fort Jackson.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_01: Find me somebody who understands historic properties in Camden.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Very different.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: Specificity gives artificial intelligence something to associate with you.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: And this is one of those themes coming out of the recent discussions about AI visibility to agents.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: Broad keywords are incredibly difficult.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: Specific, hyperlocal expertise gives you a much clearer identity.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe the future isn't, I'm Gary, and I'm a real estate agent.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's I'm Gary, and this is the problem that I solve better than almost everybody else in the entire market.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: Now AI has something to understand.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: And here's how I want you to think about this.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: Everything you publish publicly is potentially part of your digital reputation, your website, your bio, YouTube videos, podcast appearance, Google business profiles, reviews, neighborhood guides, market reports, articles, social media, interviews, your transaction history where publicly available, mentions of you in other credible websites, professional organizations, wars, testimonials, your brokerage profile, all of these things can contribute to broader information environment from which AI systems and search engines attempt to understand entities and expertise.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: So here's the question: What story does the internet tell about you?
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: Because you may believe you're the Lake Murray expert, but if your website doesn't say it, your videos don't demonstrate it, nobody writes about it, your reviews don't mention it, and there's virtually no publicly accessible evidence connecting your name with Lake Murray, why should an AI system conclude that you're a Lake Murray expert?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because you put it on your business card?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: AI can't read your business card sitting in your desk drawer.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: Your expertise has to leave a trail, a digital trail.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: And this brings me to another major point.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: Agents need to think very seriously about owning their content.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: Social media is wonderful Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all of it.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: But don't build your entire intellectual identity on rented land.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Create a website, create substantive pages, write articles, create YouTube videos, create neighborhood guides, frequently asked questions, create market analysis, build a library of knowledge associated directly with your name.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Social media can distribute it, but you need a permanent digital body of work.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because the goal isn't simply can I get 5,000 views this week?
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: The longer term goal has to become can technology clearly understand what I know?
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: Very different strategy.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Reviews also become interesting in this new world because there's a major difference between saying I'm the best agent in Columbia and 200 consumers independently and 200 customers independently describing what I actually did for them.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Think about the information contained inside a detailed review.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Jennifer helped me relocate from New Jersey to Columbia.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's the signal.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: She knew every neighborhood, or she knew every neighborhood in the Forest Acres area.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's another signal.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: She helped us negotiate repairs on an older home.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Another.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: We bought a house on Lake Murray and she helped us understand the docking permit process.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Another.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Now we're creating context around what this professional real estate agent actually does.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is why I think agents who win the AI era will pay attention not only to the quantity of reviews, but also to whether their digital presence actually reflects the work they actually perform.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Non-manufactured, not fake, authentic evidence of expertise.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now, somebody listening is probably thinking, Gary, you're telling me AI is going to pick the houses, so why do we need realtors?
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: Because finding a listing was never the highest value thing a great real estate agent did.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_01: And if your entire value proposition has been, I can find houses on the MLS, then yes, you have a massive marketing problem.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: A great agent does much more than that.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: They can identify a house, sure.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: AI can identify the house, sure it can.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: But AI can't walk through the house the same way an experienced local agent can.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: AI can't smell for moisture.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: AI doesn't notice that the floors feel slightly off.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: AI doesn't know from years of experience that this particular street has a traffic issue at 5.15 in the afternoon.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: AI doesn't necessarily understand why buyers in this particular neighborhood value one section over the other.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's not standing in the kitchen watching the buyer's reaction.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_01: It isn't managing the emotions when the inspection comes back bad with 47 items that need to repair.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: It isn't negotiating with other agents at 9.30 at night or trying to calm down your seller.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: It isn't meeting with inspectors.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's not coordinating between lenders and closing attorneys and contractors and the clients when things go sideways two days before the closing.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: AI can make professionals dramatically more efficient, but real estate remains a physical, an emotional, and a local transaction that has to involve human beings and a tremendous amount of judgment.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: That agent doesn't disappear.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: The agent's value proposition simply changes.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually think really good agents could become even more valuable in the AI world.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: So here's the distinction: AI doesn't necessarily replace the agent.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_01: AI may replace part of the lead generation system that determines which agent gets the consumer.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: That's the piece agents need to understand.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: For years, Zillow gets the consumer, Zillow sells the lead, agents buy the lead, agents call the consumer.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: But what happens if instead consumers ask AI?
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_01: AI identifies the houses, consumers ask AI for the agent, AI recommends three agents, consumers select one.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: Who now controlled the lead?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: AI did, not Zillow, not your brokerage.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: And did you have to pay for that lead?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Nope.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what did you have to do beforehand?
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: Build enough authority so that AI believed you belonged on the short list.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why this matters so much.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: I think we've been heading toward an entirely different marketing funnel.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: The old model was advertising, leads to website, leads to lead form, leads to agent.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think the portal model was portal, leads to property search, leads to lead, leads to agent.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: But the AI question is question leads to recommendation, leads to agent.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: Think about how much gets removed and why being the answer now becomes more valuable.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: The consumer doesn't necessarily want 75 choices.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: They want confidence.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Give me the best three.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: Which one would you choose and why?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: AI potentially compresses the entire discovery process.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're not in the answer, you may never know the consumer even existed.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that's very different from being number seven on Google.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: There may not be a page two.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: There may be just three names.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: So let me give you an action plan.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Number one, decide what you want to be known for.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: You can't optimize for everything.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: What is your geography?
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: What's your property type, your consumer, your problem, your expertise?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: Number two, create original content around that expertise.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: Videos, written articles, frequently asked questions, market analysis, neighborhood guides, case studies, podcast appearances.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Answer real questions.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, be consistent.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: One article does not establish expertise.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: One video does not establish expertise.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_01: You have to build a body of work.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: Number four, make sure your identity is consistent across the internet.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Your name, your company, your location, specialties, your profiles, your websites, your Google profiles, your YouTube.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: You want machines and humans to understand, easily understand that these references relate to the same professional.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_01: Number five, get legitimate reviews, not fake reviews, not purchase reviews, real customers describing real experiences.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Number six, get hyperlocal.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: You don't have to beat Zillow for real estate.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: You need to become highly relevant for specific questions your ideal client asks.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: And number seven, test yourself.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Go ask the AI system.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Ask chat, who are the top agents in my market for the things I specialize in?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Ask Gemini, ask Google, change the question, make it more specific.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: See what happens.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Don't get upset if you're not in there.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: You most likely won't be.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: But you use it as information because we're just at the beginning of this transition.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: And that means you still got a lot of time.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_01: And this brings us back to where we started.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: The real estate industry is spending tremendous amounts of money trying to control the portal.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe they're right.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe owning the underlying consumer experience and data becomes extraordinarily valuable.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I think there's a great irony developing.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody is fighting to own the website.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: At the exact moment, the consumer may be becoming less interested in visiting your crappy ass website.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: That's simple.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's fighting over searches while technology is moving toward answers.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody wants to own the consumer clicks, and AI is trying to eliminate the consumer clicks.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody wants consumers scrolling through hundreds of listings while the consumer may be saying, I don't have time for that.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: Just give me five, I want to see.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's a market disruption.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: And this connects directly to another issue we've discussed on this podcast: who controls the real estate data?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: Talked about Compass and Zillow, their arguments, their fights, the MLSs, private listings, brokerage portals.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's fighting over data.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I still think data is incredibly important, but AI adds another layer to this entire conversation.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the ultimate winner isn't simply who owns the data.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe the winner is whoever AI systems can reliably access, understand, and trust.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Accurate information, current information, structured information, authoritative information, that could become extraordinarily valuable.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the exact same concepts apply to the individual agents.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: AI needs information about you that is understandable, credible, and consistent.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: So there's the parallel here.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: These companies are fighting to make their property data indispensable to AI.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: You should be thinking about how to make your expertise understandable to AI.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: So here's my challenge to every real estate professional listening.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Spend the next 12 months teaching the internet and the extension, and by extension, the AI ecosystem who you are.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: Not through tricks, keyword shuffling, any of that crap, not by publishing 10,000 garbage AI-generated articles, by demonstrating actual expertise.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: If you know Lake Murray, prove it.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you know Greenville condos, prove it.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you understand military relocation, prove it.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you worked with the historic houses, prove it.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a new construction expert, prove it.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Create videos, write articles, answer questions, build guides, earn the reviews, talk about the transactions, become the source.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because here's what I believe the real estate agents of the future isn't going to win simply because they purchase more leads.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: They're going to win because the consumer asked technology, who can help me, and the technology knows your name.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's that simple.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: 25 years ago, the real estate agent controlled everything.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: They controlled the listings.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: Then the internet democratized the listings.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_01: Then Zillow and the portals learned how to control consumer attention.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Then brokers began fighting back by building their own portals and trying to control the consumers themselves.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: And now we have to be, and now we may be entering the next phase.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: Artificial intelligence.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_01: The consumer doesn't necessarily need another portal.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: They need an answer.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_01: They don't want 400 answers.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: They want five.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: They don't necessarily want 200 real estate agents recommended to them.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: They want one.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_01: Google sees where this is going.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Zillow sees where this is going.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: The technology company certainly sees where this is going.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: The question is, do the real estate brokerage see where it's going?
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: And the fact that they're out there building all these portals tell me they don't.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Your brokerage doesn't have a damn clue what they're doing.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because if I'm right, the biggest real estate marketing question of the next decade isn't going to be what's my Zillow spin going to be.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: It isn't going to be about how much traffic does my brokerage portal have.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_01: And it might not even be as where do I rank on Google?
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: The question may simply become when AI is asked who the expert is, does it say my name?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I think every agent needs to start thinking differently about content.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: Don't create content, it's just because they told you you need to post three times a week.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: Create content that demonstrates what you actually know.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: Create something useful, original, local, authoritative, something with your name attached to it, your digital body of work, because the future of real estate marketing may ultimately come down to one very simple idea.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_01: Stop trying to own the search, become the answer.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: Become the answer.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: All right, that's all the time we have for our show this week.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: Hope everybody enjoyed it.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Please like us, share us, and subscribe to it.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: And don't forget to check out our new series before you sign on YouTube.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Y'all have a great weekend and we'll see you again next week on Dish and Dirt.