Real estate agents wear a lot of hats. I know – I’m preaching to the choir here. You have to be a sales representative, market your brand and listings, and keep your clients satisfied. And you juggle a whole lot of administrative tasks. You also have to be available to their clients at nearly any time of day to make sure an offer gets in or to close the deal. With the popularity of AI chatbots, many agents are turning to a real estate chatbot to relieve their overwhelming workload, capture leads, and drive efficiency.
A lot of real estate agents believe that a real estate chatbot would drive away clients — or worse — threaten their jobs. But in reality, a real estate chatbot can free agents to spend less time on tedious, time-consuming tasks so they can focus on their clients’ needs. And nearly 40% of internet users worldwide actually prefer interacting with chatbots.
When used wisely, a real estate chatbot can be your best virtual assistant — helping you qualify buyers and sellers, educate potential clients, and drive engagement.
Why do you need a real estate chatbot?
Let’s consider why a real estate chatbot is worth the investment.
With a real estate chatbot, you can:
Resolve faster
A real estate chatbot will make it much easier for you to answer client inquiries faster. Just think: speed and responsiveness are pretty important when your client is searching for housing. If you’re slow to respond, the house of their dreams may go to another buyer. A quick response can make or break a deal. With the help of a real estate chatbot, the bot can answer queries to bring down your average response and resolution time, meeting client needs immediately.
Offer 24/7 help
Real estate agents can only do so much. We get it! You’re human too! You can’t be available at all hours. But with a real estate chatbot, you can offer basic responses and help to clients 24/7. Chatbots can work day and night, weekdays and weekends, to support customers reaching out for immediate answers.
Improve productivity
Chatbots can deflect up to 70% of incoming queries by offering easy access to self-service. With the most common questions handled by a bot, you can focus on finding your clients their perfect home. Chatbots can also help you schedule appointments or book viewings with clients and other agents. Or use a real estate chatbot to collect contact info and send clients recommended listings.
7 use cases for a real estate chatbot
There are loads of use cases for what you can do with a real estate chatbot. Let’s dig into some examples so you can envision how a bot would fit into your business’s strategy.
1. Property inquiries:
When searching for a property, buyers, and renters often have questions that need quick answers. What’s the square footage? Which houses have a garage? What is the neighborhood like? What’s the property history? etc. etc.
You’ve gotten these questions before! Answering questions takes time and energy – and, let’s be real – sometimes you can’t get to them all. A real estate chatbot can tap into your database and help your clients without you. They provide on-demand answers concerning the price, location, size, amenities, and availability of any given home in your system – simplifying the process and helping your clients find their dream house in no time.
2. Create personalized property recommendations and lists:
Buying a house is no small thing. It’s a huge commitment, and each client has unique preferences. It can be challenging to compile a customized list of properties that fit each client’s preferences of location, size, pricing, etc.
With a real estate chatbot, your bot can gather client preferences for you, prompting them with questions to gather which homes will fit their needs. And then, it can search your database to create a custom list of possible available properties to start their search.
3. Schedule property tours and meetings:
Scheduling property tours and meetings with clients takes a lot of extra time. But with a real estate chatbot, connect your personal calendar so the bot can find available dates and times to offer clients only the times you’re free. Once your client decides on a date, your real estate chatbot can book a property viewing or schedule a time for a viewing or meeting. This feature will reduce the number of incoming calls and emails, allowing all parties to focus more on converting prospects into paying clients.
Automate Your Work
Capacity’s enterprise AI chatbot can help:
- Answer FAQs anytime, anywhere
- Find relevant documents within seconds
- Give surveys and collect feedback
4. Lead generation:
A real estate chatbot is an opportunity to collect information on potential clients and connect with prospective buyers and sellers. Chatbots are front and center on your website, popping up as soon as a possible client lands on your home page. Before starting any conversation, have your chatbot collect contact information from the user. That way, the bot can use that data to gather history and context if they’re an existing client. And if they’re a new or prospective client, you’ve just generated a lead!
5. Collect reviews:
As a real estate agent, it’s all about building your reputation. You want to be the real estate agent every local recommends to their friends. So, collecting reviews and customer feedback is vital. Use your real estate chatbot to generate surveys or ask for reviews. You can automate this simple task with your chatbot to take one thing off your to-do list.
6. Loop clients into your newsletter:
It’s a personal hobby of mine to weekly check out the houses that are for sale in my area. (I know, it’s kind of lame.) I’m always creeping on Zillow, daydreaming about finding my dream house right in my price range.
If we’re being honest, though, plenty of people like me are out there. For those of us prospective buyers who are always casually looking, a chatbot can help you get ahead of the competition. Build a community of potential clients with a newsletter. Then, use your chatbot to promote the newsletter and collect subscribers. Capture their information, add them to your email list, or embed a link to your newsletter subscription form in the chatbot and direct them right to it.
7. Promote your social media:
Gaining followers on your social media is low risk and high reward. Your potential clients have nothing to lose by simply hitting that ‘follow’ button. They already know your business and have made a deliberate effort to stay in touch, so they’re noted warm leads. Plus, social media is also an easy way to expand your circle of influence by posting content that touches on reasons why people choose to follow your brand.
And the easiest way to suggest they follow you on social media is through AI chatbots. After a chatbot conversation, give the user a chance to follow your different social media accounts and promote your brand.
Ready to explore a real estate chatbot? Try Capacity for free!
