While artificial intelligence (AI) takes the world by storm in new ways seemingly every day, many real estate agents in Delaware have worked to use the new technology to their advantage.
Walter Taraila, a broker at Keller Williams in the Maryland and Delaware coastal markets and real estate veteran with 40 years of experience, told the Delaware Business Times that the newer AI technology has changed his business in ways he never imagined.
“We used to be the data keepers with notebooks. Now, we have AI for that and so much more,” he said.
With his smart phone ready to project any number of data points on a large flatscreen television affixed to the wall in the Keller William office in Bethany Beach, he can now pull up real estate reports or social media scripts within minutes, filled with data and comparative analysis of local properties and market insights.
“It’s crazy, really, it is. But AI is just a massaging of data, right? It’s a giant database that is pulling from multiple sources and putting it together in a nice package. This took us hours to complete before AI,” Taraila told DBT.
The new technology also had another time-saving benefit waiting for agents like Taraila – marketing opportunities. He said he has been exploring AI-driven scripts for both social media and videos, as well as email campaigns and other virtual marketing tools, combining data with a touch of personality for current and future clients alike.
While AI works to bring available data to the fingertips of real estate agents, he said he’s not afraid of the technology putting him out of business because he has something AI will never be able to replicate – personal communication and connection.
“It’s evolving but it will never replace us, only enhance us because people crave that personal connection. They want to know that you have their best interest in mind to help them find their next home,” Taraila said.
Fellow realtor Allison Stine agreed, calling AI a game changer for the industry. With 20 years of experience under her belt, she now leads a team of 18 real estate agents and staff members at Northrop Realty and uses the technology to enhance her business and personal life daily.
“You can also virtually stage a home with AI or have it write training classes. We also use ChatBox quite a bit so it responds to requests when we aren’t available and clients can be automatically engaged,” she told DBT. “It’s a game changer for real estate agents.”
While she increasingly uses AI to support her business strategies, Stine said there are some elements she isn’t using yet, such as voice cloning and a tool that can fix eye contact in videos. In the meantime, she says the tools she has started using saves time and helps generate more business in the long run.
“Time is money. The one thing we can’t get is more time. Every successful agent will tell you that they’ve found a way to leverage systems, processes and people in order to get back more time,” she said. “We need to spend our time working on relationships and business development, not writing descriptions for houses or bringing in furniture for staging.”
As agents like Stine and Taraila improve their AI use, Taraila warned of a darker side agents should consider in the future.
“We have noticed an increase in fraud attempts, somebody trying to sell a property that doesn’t belong to them. But we’ve also found ways, using AI, to safeguard ourselves and the true property owners against that situation,” Taraila said while quickly pulling up an app on his phone he uses to help authenticate a person’s identity. “So we just have to be careful and make sure we’re checking everything when we get those calls in now.”
Delaware Association of Realtors President George Thomasson told DBT in an email that AI has worked to benefit the industry, but emphasized caution.
“AI enhances Delaware real estate by creating a faster, more efficient experience for agents, buyers and sellers, customer interactions and operational efficiency across the industry. Realtors are bound by our code of ethics ensuring honest and accurate information is being generated,” Thomasson said.
