The Artificial Intelligence Estate Agent

February 10, 2022

Can we really progress past the conventional high street estate agency practise with their senior valuators and negotiators, listing loaded window displays and present on Rightmove or Zoopla – Each and all today are of “Have mobile phone will travel” material.

Despite attempts from sell it yourself to online estate agency concepts the industry remains relatively unscathed, a trade dating back to at least the early 1800’s and going strong still today. Progress is slowly filtering through, especially since the invention of the internet and mobile gadgets so that systems are streamlined and innovation embraced.

Is it though possible that the conventional Mr or Mrs Estate Agent could be replaced anytime soon?

As the estate agency industry embraces more #proptech then the overall management of the practice is reduced. The more investment in to, at times costly, systems enables estate agents more time to put towards building their brands / business over the day to day management of the sales / lettings process – bookings, repairs and maintenance, tenant screening, valuations all become automated processes. I am not saying that this is a simple process to become automated, it takes a good deal of research, time and money so to get in to order and in to practise the varied offerings to make things tick over nicely.

A recent few articles I read up on include the talk of AI (Artificial Intelligence) coming in to parts of estate agency, namely the viewing process. Whereas a mini robotic vacuum cleaner making its way across your living room or that of a robot mower covering the garden lawn, are we about to go from human to a robotic negotiator, or more precisely a fully automatic team colleague Sam?

 

“Sam is the first sightseeing robot to be used in Germany. It turns viewings into a time-saving computer game: you can send Sam live through all the rooms of a property from your PC, smartphone or tablet and take a close look at everything without being there yourself. Evaluate with Sam if the property suits you.”

So an negotiator can take people on a face to face tour of a property or get themselves innovative and provide a live tour and stream it via their video taken on their mobile phone. It could be soon stand aside dear negotiator and make way for Sam where clients can book in a live slots for a virtual tour remotely remoting the robot around rooms to make it feel as if you were there in person.

Is this just a step too far though, are we creating solutions for problems that aren’t really needed? Are we taking away the charm and the comfort of dealing with estate agents face to face? Are we soon to progress to AI within actual estate agency offices, meeting a robot at the door to take down your details and booking you in to see Sam?

Christopher Walkey

Founder of Estate Agent Networking. Internationally invited speaker on how to build online target audiences using Social Media. Writes about UK property prices, housing, politics and affordable homes.

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