It used to cost an arm and a leg — not to mention the hassle of moving furniture in and out of homes all the time — to stage a house being prepared for sale.
These days, Alec Miles pays about $40 a picture and the staging is done virtually, showing buyers what a living room or den could look like without all the actual heavy lifting.
“I pay a professional photographer to take the pictures and then outsource the digital staging to another company,” said Miles, a salesperson with EXP Realty in London, Ont.
“Actual staging is so expensive that it’s almost cost prohibitive, whereas the turnaround for virtual staging is 12 hours and I know it’ll look great.”
That’s just one type of artificial intelligence (AI) that is changing how real estate is done in London and beyond.
Osman Omar has been a Realtor in the city for five years. ChatGPT, an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI that was released in November, has started helping him come up with ideas about how to describe listings and acts as a “sounding board” for ideas.
Osman Omar uses AI as a sounding board or to rewrite copy to give him ideas about how to sell a home. (Supplied by Osman Omar)
“It helps put together a skeleton of information,” Omar said. “If a client wants a write-up that is more professional, or something more upbeat and funny, I can ask it to do that and I get ideas. From a social media perspective, you can take your public remarks [from a listing] and then help condense that for different social media platforms.”
Realtors wear a lot of hats, so taking work off their plates so they can focus on marketing a property can be beneficial, Omar said.
“If you’re savvy, it can really help give the property the exposure it deserves. AI can help you with [search engine optimization], social — it’s a good sounding board.”
Some buyers looking for homes have also been using AI, Miles said.
“You can ask OpenAI or ChatGPT about the best neighbourhoods in London, or the worst neighbourhoods, or neighbourhoods close to schools or parks. It gives you a starting point.”
‘It’s not personal’
“The more in-depth understanding of the real estate market — that comes from someone like me,” said Miles. “I’m the one who will tell you if that house caught fire because of a meth lab — that’s not going to come up on ChatGPT.”
Some Realtors use AI to write listings for them, though that takes away from the personal touch, Miles said.
“It’s not personal if you have an AI doing that,” he said. “But asking for the Top 10 or Top 5 neighbourhoods in London is a great learning tool for someone who is a new agent or anyone trying to provide extra value in the industry.”
But AI won’t replace actual human beings in the industry anytime soon, Omar said.
Talking to an agent that knows what is happening in the market is the best way to get the best sale.– Osman Omar, Realtor
“Talking to an agent that knows what is happening in the market is the best way to get the best sale.”
The next evolution will be virtual reality tours of properties, Omar added.
“I think we’ll get to a place where people will view homes virtually. You put on your VR headset, get a feel for the place before driving down to see it. Nothing replaces in person, but it would be a preliminary screening.”
A home for sale that has been virtually staged. (Supplied by Alec Miles)
In the United States, appraisers use AI to value properties based on data and images. Mortgage lenders can make decisions based on an AI-generated calculation of risk, and developers can select construction sites based on platforms that specialize in zoning regulations.
AI-powered platforms can generate property recommendations tailored to a homebuyer’s desires, and bots will alert you if the house of your dreams comes up for sale.
CBC News asked ChatGPT about the most affordable neighbourhoods in London. It listed White Oaks, Argyle, East London, Pond Mills and Southcrest.
We also asked ChatGPT about the best neighbourhoods for families in the city. Here’s what the bot came up with:
A list of AI-generated neighbhourhoods in London. (Supplied by ChatGPT)
TORONTO – One expert predicts Ottawa‘s changes to mortgage rules will help spur demand among potential homebuyers but says policies aimed at driving new supply are needed to address the “core issues” facing the market.
The federal government’s changes, set to come into force mid-December, include a higher price cap for insured mortgages to allow more people to qualify for a mortgage with less than a 20 per cent down payment.
The government will also expand its 30-year mortgage amortization to include first-time homebuyers buying any type of home, as well as anybody buying a newly built home.
CIBC Capital Markets deputy chief economist Benjamin Tal calls it a “significant” move likely to accelerate the recovery of the housing market, a process already underway as interest rates have begun to fall.
However, he says in a note that policymakers should aim to “prevent that from becoming too much of a good thing” through policies geared toward the supply side.
Tal says the main issue is the lack of supply available to respond to Canada’s rapidly increasing population, particularly in major cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17,2024.
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
