Unlocking the Power of ChatGPT: How Agents Can Work Smarter, Not Harder

Why is everyone talking about ChatGPT all of a sudden?

From relative obscurity, ChatGPT was thrust into the spotlight when it was unveiled last November. Pundits say it’s the next major leap in tech — major enough to apparently send Google, one of the world’s highest-profile companies, into a fit of panic (it recently rolled out its own chatbot called Bard). Nowadays, every agent and their mother is hyped up about this chatbot.

Of course, chatbots and natural language processing aren’t anything new. Most experts say the earliest iteration of this technology dates back to 1966 with ELIZA. And you and your clients have probably interacted with a chatbot already through platforms like Facebook. You’ve likely asked Siri to set an alarm for you or asked Alexa to play your favorite music at home. So what’s all the chatter about ChatGPT?

Simple: it’s the most human-like chatbot we have to date. “Human-like” is the operative phrase here, allowing ChatGPT to do things that would leave other chatbots… well, speechless.

Things like write court decisions, pen novels, and debug code. You could even ask it to write poetry about the Florida real estate market if you’re so inclined.

How can an algorithm write unbelievably complex things even people would find hard to do?

A deeper look at ChatGPT

Well, developing ChatGPT wasn’t exactly easy or fast. OpenAI, the startup behind it, began work on the chatbot way back in 2015. It’s part of what’s called the generative pre-trained transformer language model, hence the “GPT” in the name.

Generative means it can be used to generate a wide variety of outputs. And it’s only able to do that because it was pre-trained on a massive corpus of raw text, both labeled and unlabeled. It uses what’s called a Transformer Model to derive context and meaning from texts by looking at a sequence of data, such as the string of words in a sentence. It’s through these methods that ChatGPT is able to spit out uncannily human-like responses in seconds.

If all of this sounds complicated, that’s because it is. The good news is that with a cutting-edge algorithm behind it, ChatGPT can make your life as an agent easier.

How can ChatGPT help agents like you?

As an agent, you likely have the gift of gab. Of course, being eloquent doesn’t always mean you’re a regular Shakespeare — and that’s where ChatGPT truly shines. Here are some use cases where the chatbot can be an invaluable writing partner:

• Content topics — Stumped about what to discuss next on your blog or email blast? You can ask ChatGPT to help you come up with topics that interest your target audience.

• Nurture emails — Emails can be a very effective tool for nurturing leads from one end of the sales funnel to the other. That said, that also means creating several sets of emails depending on where a prospect is on their home selling or buying journey. ChatGPT can help you write an entire series of emails in a flash, from welcome messages, to new listing bulletins, to market updates.

• Social media captions — Need a quick caption for today’s Facebook and Instagram posts? ChatGPT has you covered! You can even ask the chatbot to mimic your brand voice when you input your prompts.

• Property descriptions — Property descriptions are where function and poetry intersect. After all, you want the description to sell the lifestyle, not just the listing. If writing isn’t your strong suit, however, the chatbot can provide a much-needed helping hand.

• Agent bios — Does writing about yourself in the third-person feel… weird? Give ChatGPT the details of your credentials and achievements and leave it to do the wordsmithing for you.

• Text messages — No need to manually type out SMS replies to prospects. Just ask ChatGPT to create a series of set responses and copy-paste away. You can even load the responses into your preferred CRM platform to automate send-outs.

• Video scripts — No, you don’t need screenwriting experience to write compelling video scripts for YouTube or TikTok. ChatGPT can whip up scripts for video materials like home tours in no time at all.

• Community pages — When people buy homes, they’re not just looking at a property — they’re also assessing the lifestyle a neighborhood offers. You can use ChatGPT to come up with neighborhood guides that give prospects a sneak peek into a certain locale.

Best practices when using ChatGPT

There’s no denying that ChatGPT can be a powerful tool for real estate agents. But that’s exactly what it is: a tool. Sure, it can make your job easier but it won’t do 100% of the work for you.

In practice, ChatGPT is closer to a highly capable intern than a seasoned executive assistant. You need to give quality instructions if you want it to generate quality output.

How do you go about that? Well, who better to ask than ChatGPT itself?

Of course, there are a few best practices worth heeding, too.

1. Tell ChatGPT what role it needs to play — Try to lead off conversations with a prompt like: “I need you to act as a _____.” A social post for a new listing requires a very different writing style than a press release announcing a landmark property sale. The latter prompt makes it very clear what mode ChatGPT should be in when generating text for you.

2. Try tweaking your prompts — Not getting the results you want? Modify your prompts and see if you get better output. Even a slight wording change can make a world of a difference.

3. Review and tweak the output — If ChatGPT is the writer, then you’re the editor. Look over the generated text to see if it suits your needs and aligns with your brand voice. Chances are you’ll only need to make minor edits, but it never hurts to check all the same.

4. Fact check! — ChatGPT was pre-trained on data from 2021 and earlier. Furthermore, it doesn’t have access to the corpus of knowledge available on the World Wide Web. This means that facts and figures, such as real estate market data, will most definitely be outdated or sometimes flat-out wrong – hence the need for fact-checking.

5. Don’t share private information — All your conversations with ChatGPT will be saved and analyzed as further “learning material” for the chatbot. As such, never share confidential or personally identifiable information when using the chatbot, such as your non-business mobile number.

6. Give feedback after each conversation — At the bottom right of each conversation, you’ll find a thumbs up and thumbs down button. Rating the generated text helps ChatGPT know if it’s on the right track and allows it to generate similar-quality output in succeeding conversations.

7. Be realistic with your expectations — To reiterate our earlier point, allow us to quote ChatGPT again:

Give ChatGPT a try!

It’s amazing how far artificial intelligence has come in the span of less than a decade. ChatGPT offers exciting new opportunities and there’s no reason why you shouldn’t leverage its human-like language model to make your hectic day that much more manageable. We’re confident the tips and tricks above will set you up for success when using this powerful chatbot.

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