ABOUT THIS EPISODE
AI is a great tool, but it's not a human, and in a real estate deal, that difference costs you. Here's why your biggest transaction still needs a person
Let me start by saying I’m a big fan of AI. I use it every day in my own life, from tracking my health to talking through my marathon training, and there are genuinely cool things large language models can do, like processing huge amounts of information quickly and handing you a tidy summary. So don’t get me wrong. But when AI starts running the show inside a real estate transaction, that’s my pet peeve, and I want to walk you through why.
AI invents repairs that aren’t there. Here’s the scenario I keep seeing. A buyer runs their whole home inspection through AI, and out come all the things supposedly wrong with the house, along with repair ranges that just aren’t accurate. Suddenly, a perfectly good home that barely had any issues apparently needs fifty to a hundred thousand dollars in work, all because AI said so. That’s not how a real inspection reads, and it’s why knowing how to proceed after your inspection with a professional matters more than a printout.
AI can quietly derail a negotiation. On the seller side, I see people listening to their agent but leaning on AI to respond to every point the buyer raises during a price or repair negotiation. AI can be a helpful tool, but it isn’t a human; it isn’t always right, and it doesn’t carry the experience a real estate professional brings to the table. This is exactly the kind of moment where an experienced agent changes the outcome, because a negotiation is a set of variables that needs real judgment, not a canned reply.
“Use a little agent intelligence instead of just artificial intelligence.”
AI is built to agree with you. This is the part people don’t realize. AI is biased toward whoever is prompting it, and it’s essentially programmed to agree with you. Ask it as a buyer whether you paid too much, and it’ll tell you that you probably did. Ask it as a seller whether you took too little, and it’ll say the same thing. Now both sides are convinced they lost, and the deal falls apart from there. There was even a New York Times article about a seller who used AI for everything to sell their home.
A two-second answer isn’t critical thinking. People are sending me AI summaries with a line at the bottom saying why it might make sense to share this with their agent, and then they paste that very summary to me. I know for a fact we’re not doing our own critical thinking anymore when that happens. We’re leaning on a two-second response to a genuinely complicated problem, one with a whole set of variables that deserves real analysis. Taking the biggest asset of your life, whether you’re buying or selling, and letting the internet coach you on what’s right just doesn’t make sense to me.
So here’s where I land. Use a little agent intelligence instead of just artificial intelligence. Take the tools available, pair them with what your trusted real estate professional is telling you, and make an informed decision that fits your situation. I might be in the minority here, and I’d honestly love for you to reach out and argue with me if you think I’m wrong. But until AI is perfect, which is probably never, I’m secure knowing my value is helping people sort through the information to make smart decisions. That’s where you need a human.
If you have any questions at all about real estate, including this maybe-hot topic I just uncovered, I’d love to hear from you. Call or text me at 503.522.0090, email me at sarita@asksarita.com, or visit blog.asksarita.com. I’m here to help, and I’d love to put my value to work for you.
Let me start by saying I’m a big fan of AI. I use it every day in my own life, from tracking my health to talking through my marathon training, and there are genuinely cool things large language models can do, like processing huge amounts of information quickly and handing you a tidy summary. So don’t get me wrong. But when AI starts running the show inside a real estate transaction, that’s my pet peeve, and I want to walk you through why.
AI invents repairs that aren’t there. Here’s the scenario I keep seeing. A buyer runs their whole home inspection through AI, and out come all the things supposedly wrong with the house, along with repair ranges that just aren’t accurate. Suddenly, a perfectly good home that barely had any issues apparently needs fifty to a hundred thousand dollars in work, all because AI said so. That’s not how a real inspection reads, and it’s why knowing how to proceed after your inspection with a professional matters more than a printout.
AI can quietly derail a negotiation. On the seller side, I see people listening to their agent but leaning on AI to respond to every point the buyer raises during a price or repair negotiation. AI can be a helpful tool, but it isn’t a human; it isn’t always right, and it doesn’t carry the experience a real estate professional brings to the table. This is exactly the kind of moment where an experienced agent changes the outcome, because a negotiation is a set of variables that needs real judgment, not a canned reply.
“Use a little agent intelligence instead of just artificial intelligence.”
AI is built to agree with you. This is the part people don’t realize. AI is biased toward whoever is prompting it, and it’s essentially programmed to agree with you. Ask it as a buyer whether you paid too much, and it’ll tell you that you probably did. Ask it as a seller whether you took too little, and it’ll say the same thing. Now both sides are convinced they lost, and the deal falls apart from there. There was even a New York Times article about a seller who used AI for everything to sell their home.
A two-second answer isn’t critical thinking. People are sending me AI summaries with a line at the bottom saying why it might make sense to share this with their agent, and then they paste that very summary to me. I know for a fact we’re not doing our own critical thinking anymore when that happens. We’re leaning on a two-second response to a genuinely complicated problem, one with a whole set of variables that deserves real analysis. Taking the biggest asset of your life, whether you’re buying or selling, and letting the internet coach you on what’s right just doesn’t make sense to me.
So here’s where I land. Use a little agent intelligence instead of just artificial intelligence. Take the tools available, pair them with what your trusted real estate professional is telling you, and make an informed decision that fits your situation. I might be in the minority here, and I’d honestly love for you to reach out and argue with me if you think I’m wrong. But until AI is perfect, which is probably never, I’m secure knowing my value is helping people sort through the information to make smart decisions. That’s where you need a human.
If you have any questions at all about real estate, including this maybe-hot topic I just uncovered, I’d love to hear from you. Call or text me at 503.522.0090, email me at sarita@asksarita.com, or visit blog.asksarita.com. I’m here to help, and I’d love to put my value to work for you.
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