As real estate agents, this is a question we get asked more often than we are comfortable with. That said, when considered objectively – the real estate industry is a likely contender for AI replacement.

So why have the taxi, music, healthcare, banking and defence industries all felt the massive impact of AI, and real estate is yet to, in any significant way?

Whilst the real estate agent has not experienced significant disruption, the marketing of property has. We are, of course, talking about online marketing.

The advent of online marketing was the biggest shake-up the real estate industry had ever faced, primarily due to the large media companies’ reliance upon property advertising. Referred to as the ‘rivers of gold’, they were a constant and abundant source of revenue.

When this advertising shifted to a digital landscape, it took the media players a few years to catch up and replace their ‘pay per inch’ model with a new and improved ‘pay per pixel’ model.

Although a separate topic, remarkably real estate agents still sit in lounge rooms and aim to convince sellers to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for online advertising. On real estate websites that are viewed through a filter no less.

These filters ensure buyers are never trawling through hundreds of properties, but rather by selecting a Price Range and Suburb, their options fall to a list of10 – 15 properties, at the most.

It hardly seems necessary for owners to spend thousands trying to stand out in a crowd of a dozen.

A full-page advert in the newspaper may help a property stand out, yet in the digital world, this argument doesn’t hold water.

Yet back to the topic at hand, AI and their replacement of agents.

The role of a real estate agent is often misunderstood by sellers and buyers (and sometimes by agents themselves). Many assume an agent’s job is to introduce buyers to a property. However, this is merely one-half of the equation.

The second half is the critical half. An agent must negotiate a sale at a price where the sellers are happy.

Digging deeper, Johnson Real Estate believes this price should be the highest possible price from the market – a figure that is often much higher than what a seller is simply ‘comfortable’ or ‘happy’ in accepting. The methodology we use to sell property, known as The Smartre Sale always ensures buyers pay this maximum, guaranteeing the seller never misses out.

Within the real estate industry, agents fall into two distinct camps. Those who merely advertise properties, meet buyers at opens, and collect offer forms – this group are the agents likely to see their roles replaced by AI alternatives.

Yet a second group, those skilled agents, using genuine negotiation abilities and marketing strategies to sell property over and above what others could achieve– these agents will never be replaced by AI. The demand for their services will simply be too high.

In the future, sellers will have the choice – an AI alternative that can mediate a sale, or a specialist who can negotiate the best price. The choice will be yours.

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