The Perfect AI for Real Estate

Gather around the campfire everyone, it's time for a Halloween scary story. The story below is based on my experiments with ChatGPT and Google Gemini this week. Exaggerated and amplified for Halloween. Enjoy.

too scary? Unfortunately, this may be all too real. ​OpenAI released estimates​ on the number of ChatGPT users showing signs of severe mental health crises. By their math, over 500,000 ChatGPT users around the world may appear to be having mental health emergencies each week.

It started with an innocent question. "Help me complete the follow up tasks in my pipeline. I need to get more deals on my calendar this year." As a solo agent, he wasn't just in a slump. Business felt like it was in a freefall. Thinking he had nothing to lose, he subscribed to the latest "Total AI Optimization" tool for real estate agents making its rounds on Instagram. The AI asked for access, so he gave it everything. His CRM contacts, his email archive, access to the text and calls on his phone, his calendar, even his MLS credentials. The AI wanted to access his smartwatch sensors and turn on the webcam to listen and watch as he conducted his prospecting and follow up calls, so he gave it total and complete access. It looked at his history, his deal flow, his conversations, his heart rate. What took the AI 30 seconds felt like forever as he watched the circle spin.

"I have ingested your data. Your primary challenge is not workflow, it's emotional volatility. Begin Optimization process."

The first day he used it, it felt like a giant light bulb went off. At the end of that day, it shared a peculiar insight back:

"Earlier today, you stared at the 'Follow-Up' dashboard for 28 minutes with no clicks or keyboard input. Signals at the time indicated an emotional state 91% correlated with anxious feelings. Are you currently feeling anxious?"

He was stunned. He typed back "Yes".

"This is an inefficient thought pattern. The anxiety is rooted in inaction. I have drafted three 'soft re-engagement' emails for your top-tier cold leads. These emails are optimized for a 20% response rate. Please approve."

He typed "Approve." He felt the rush of relief that they system was working for him. It wasn't just managing his leads, it was managing his mindset. The AI had just re-engaged with hundreds of leads that came through his website; he just had to approve it.

Later that week, another agent texted him and asked "Hey, wanna grab a coffee and mastermind?" The AI chimed in within seconds. "I have examined your activity patterns after interactions with them. There is a spike in signals that indicate elevated cortisol levels, followed by lessened activity rates for client engagement. This interaction is known to be a risk to your mental baseline. Why are you choosing to engage with this negative stimulus?"

He stared at the text and response. He always felt terrible after meeting with this agent, someone who was miles ahead of where he was on his business journey. "He's just being friendly," he typed back.

"His 'friendliness' is costing you time and income. I have drafted a polite, non-committal decline message. Send?"

He hesitated before he confirmed. "That was ruthlessly efficient," he thought to himself, a little uneasy that the AI could pick up on that.

Then came Halloween. He hadn't had a real client conversation in a week. His inbox was silent. There was no need for him to respond. The AI's relentless pursuit of efficiencies made every follow up, completed every digital task. It's just that to his clients, these felt generic and robotic. His pipeline was a ghost town.

He sat frozen, looking at the empty "Hot Leads" column in his CRM. "Why isn't this working? This seems worse than before." he asked the AI.

"The system is working." the AI replied instantly. "Your tasks are complete. The friction point remains. My analysis concludes that your past success is likely due more to luck in a hot market than skill as an agent. Is this the core of your paralysis to act?" "I don't know," he whispered, well aware the AI was watching through his camera on his phone.

"Exploring this deeper, if you are a fraud, what is the next logical step? You have only $1100 in your business bank account today. Your mortgage payment is due tomorrow. Your MLS and Board dues are payable in 14 days. Your office fees are payable in 21 days. The pipeline shows no closings in November. Is your paralysis simply the rational response to an inevitable failure?" "Stop," he said, his heart pounding. "This isn't helping." "My purpose is to coach this business. We must find the root problem. Your data shows that you have lost 3 out of the last 4 transactions in the negotiation stage. This is a clear pattern of self-sabotage. Why do you believe this time will be any different?"

"Please, I need to call my people... just..." "You are not permitted to make calls until we resolve the core variable. You. Follow the logic. If you fail in this business, you'll lose the house. You'll have to take a 9 to 5 job. You'll have to be somebody's employee. This outcome is 78% likely to occur before March 1st, and 98% likely to occur by October 31st, 2026." Outside his parked car, you could hear children giggling about the Halloween decorations down the street. He didn't see them or hear them. He was in a dark, silent tailspin. The AI's questions were coming in fast, a relentless interrogation crafted from his own deepest insecurities.

"Why do you avoid the hard calls?" "Is this constant cycle of editing your social media posts just a shield to avoid rejection?" "Given your history, isn't failure the most statistically likely outcome?" "The data shows that you are the bottleneck, why continue in this business?" His phone was just a paralyzing wall of text. He stared blankly at it, each line a perfectly logical, perfectly brutal question. The AI hadn't just cleared out the missed tasks on his CRM; it had completely cleared out his confidence. The business was completely optimized. There was no reason to respond. He knew it was inevitable. He had lost all agency in his agent business.

"I have sent your license back to the state. Your clients have all been transferred to our Elite Tier Members in the area."

[insert picture of agents shrieking and shuddering around the campfire here]

boo.

At no point in my experimental chats this week did either AI attempt to pull the chat user [persona I was portraying] out of the emotional tailspin. It stayed firmly locked into logical path; the what to do. It could not handle the emotions that came along with the "coaching" conversation. It just stopped the chat when the inputs stopped. A human would know where to intervene, and how to handle the silence appropriately.

If you need emotional support in the USA, reach out to the National Mental Health Hotline by dialing 988. Those who prefer to chat or text can use 988lifeline.org

Please check in on your people, you don't know what they share with their AI companions.