Real estate agents can expand their client base with the help of chatbots. They don't replace personal communication with active clients and buyers, but they're valuable in bringing in prospects. They're most useful at the top of the sales funnel, where people are shopping around but may not be ready for a commitment.
Chatbot Uses
Uses for brokers include:
- Helping prospective customers to find suitable properties
- Informing sellers about real estate and loan market conditions
- Presenting pictures and information about specific properties
- Answering questions about the process
- Providing contact information
- Taking requests for a personal call
Who Can Use Them
Target audiences are as varied as the range of people an agent deals with:
- Residential buyers
- Residential sellers
- Commercial buyers
- Commercial sellers
- Remodelers and resellers
- Property managers
- Other real estate agents
The bots are most useful when integrated with customer and property information. A bot can extract criteria such as location, size, and price range from a query. If necessary, it can ask the customer questions to narrow the search down. It can then search a property database built on MLS to find available places that meet the buyer's requirements. For presenting them, it can sort the results by those which are most clearly in the buyer's range, or it can prioritize properties according to the agent's preferences.
Buyers in regular contact will find a chatbot an attractive option for periodic market updates. The bot can save their criteria and then tell them what's newly available each time they check in. Buyers can update their acceptable range if they're having trouble finding a home that suits them.
On many platforms, chatbots aren't limited to text. They can present images, videos, and virtual tours of a property. Multiple views can be available, so the user can make requests such as "Show me the living room." Seeing a property which really grabs the user's interest can turn a casual shopper into a serious buyer.
Related: Chatbot Use Cases in Industries
