Hiring A Real Estate Writer vs. Creating Real Estate Content With AI

At this point ChatGPT and its competing bots have become the go-to way for people to search online, surpassing Google. It is also now the default way to create content. This has lowered the cost of entry for many real estate professionals trying to DIY their marketing and branding.

In fact, many of the agents and brokers that were once working with real estate content writers like me starting relying very heavily on these bots the last couple of years.

Then BAM!

Google bitch-slapped everyone with a major algo switch at the beginning of the year and now everyone that was regularly publishing AI slop to their real estate websites saw tens of thousands of site visitors per day simply disappear.

Poof - gone overnight.

Now real estate companies are scrambling and wondering what is the best approach moving forward to create real estate content that will get you found and hired?

In this post, we will take an honest look at the perks and problems you can expect from relying on AI for your real estate content and some cost-friendly alternatives if you decide you can't trust robot with your legacy.

The Pros & Cons of Working With A Real Estate Writer

I'm not going to pretend there are no risks of working with an actual human being to create your content because there absolutely are cons. That said, there are some worthwhile benefits to hiring a professional vs. the DIY route you may have never considered.

The Benefits Of Hiring A Real Estate Writer

• Relieves Creative Burden for better focus and clarity

• Saves Time & Energy - my clients save an average of 20 hours per week!

• Relieves Cognitive Burden for better quality decision-making

• Makes Consistent Posting Seamless and stress-free

• Post content that converts consumers vs. entertaining other agents

• Legal Compliance is paramount, and AI content is very dangerous

The Cons of Working With A Real Estate Writer vs. Creating It Yourself With Chat-GPT

• No matter what, the bots are faster than humans could ever be. I can write 10-20K words per day of real estate content purely because of my extensive knowledge and experience doing so but a bot can pump out unlimited amounts of content in a day.

• It can be less expensive (financially) to use a bot vs. hiring a professional writer and strategist like myself but not always. Just remember, because of SEO and legal compliance, you will still be REQUIRED to proofread and edit everything you create with Chat-GPT before using it so you have to weigh out the cost of your time to prompt, read, and edit the content.

• Reliability is another factor you need to consider. Real human writers have real life things like illness or natural disasters or family emergencies pop-up in the middle of a project all the time. Unlike a bot, you need to know your writer has a contingency plan for something like this and that you trust you will get what was promised to you.

The Risks & Benefits Of Using AI Bots Like ChatGPT For Real Estate Content

Before we dive into the objective pros and cons of relying on AI chat bots to create your real estate content let's review how these bots actually work. Bots like ChatGPT are built on language learning so although it can feel like the bot is "thinking" and replying it is actually just using an algorithm to predict the next most likely word in the sentence you're looking for.

There is a really, really big difference there.

These bots aren't thinking, strategizing, conversing critically analyzing anything.

They're predicting the next most likely word in the sentence based on all of the data is was fed. This is why it is referred to as a language learning model.

Now that you understand how they work at their core, here are some undeniable benefits of working with ChatGPT to create your content.

Risks of Using ChatGPT for your Real Estate Content

• By far the biggest risk is compliance. It's too easy to lose a license over ChatGPT violating laws and regulations around advertising in real estate.

• People are becoming increasingly skeptical readers, and they tend not to trust brands that use content that has obvious signs of being generated by a bot.

• Search engines punish websites that publish AI slop that hasn't been heavily edited by a human to incorporate original thoughts, opinions and experiences

• Cringe-worthy cliches like "embark on your homeownership journey" or "quaint and cozy" regularly appear

• Did you know that the more you rely on AI for tasks you're talented with, the more insecure you will become about your ability to complete those tasks? The more you use AI to write, the more you will doubt your own ability to communicate in everyday situations and the more you will feel the weight of imposter syndrome. This is because using AI in this way actually creates cognitive dissonance that tricks you into thinking your own thoughts and ideas are not as good as the bot's and it compounds into a confidence crisis.

Whatever you do, please do not hire a virtual assistant with limited real estate knowledge and tell them to create content with Chat-GPT and a Canva account and just "human it up a bit" before posting.

This is a recipe for inevitable disaster.

You would be better off not having an online presence at all than risking your license and reputation this way.

VAs are great for repetitive, simple tasks and armed with an SOP but don't ever use them for strategy, SEO, design or branding I beg of you! It will cost a fortune to undo the damage. When it comes to things like your website it is always less expensive to do it right the first time than to have to pay someone like me to come in and put out a dumpster fire.

How To Hire The Best Real Estate Writer For You

Obviously, not all real estate writers are the same, so it is important that you hire the one that is the most aligned with your values, goals, tech capabilities/limitations and budget. Beyond that, you need to be very careful to hire someone that truly understands:

• the nuances of the real estate industry

• the contracts and the closing process

• marketing laws specific to the real estate industry

• the psychology of your target audience (more niche that just buyers or sellers)

• If getting found in organic search is important to you as it is to many of my clients, you also want a real estate content writer that has expertise and experience with Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

For these reasons I strongly urge you to look for a real estate writer with their own website as well.

Going to sites like Upwork are not only unethical for the freelancers but the content writers available won't meet those above guidelines. I can't tell you how many discovery calls I have been on with Realtors and brokers and coaches trying to fix what freelancers from sites like Upwork have done to their brand.

The real estate niche is by far one of the most technical and nuanced in its legal requirements. For those reasons and many more, you don't want to work with a newbie freelance writer or one that doesn't specialize in the real estate niche.

Am I The Best Real Estate Writer For You?

I am not for everyone.

When we mutually decide to work together, I won't sit around and tell you what you want to hear all day. I'm going to give it to you straight and tell you what is in your best interest before guiding you through your best options for moving forward.

I always have my eyes on the big picture and I am always going to challenge you to push the envelope so we can create standout content that lands lifelong clients rather than just checking a box.

If you're ready to step fully into your potential, book a quick discovery call with me and we can see if it's a match.

No sales script.

No pressure.

Just light, open, honest conversation that might just lead to your best real estate clients ever.