Top 9 Real Estate Chatbot Use Cases & Best Practices in 2024

Real estate is the top industry benefiting from chatbots, followed by travel, education, and healthcare. Chatbots are available 24/7 for:

• Instant responses, 
• Provide personalized conversations with customers, 
• Schedule and update estate view appointments, 
• And can automate follow-up procedures. 

Additionally, real estate agencies can depend on chatbots to generate leads thanks to the improving capabilities of AI chatbots to recognize user intent and generate meaningful conversations.

In this article we explore  the top 9 use cases of chatbots in real estate to show their full potential for the real estate companies.

Why are chatbots important for real estate?

A survey showed that the first step for a home buyer is to search for properties online, and on average, it takes 10 weeks to settle on a property. 9 out of 10 respondents younger than 62 years old said that the most important feature of online search was the property photos.

From a customer point of view, chatbots are helpful in searching for homes to buy or rent, because they provide:

• 24/7 service: Most people search for properties outside working hours which makes it harder to reach out to a live agent.
• Instant responses: Businesses that implement chatbots in their customer service department save up to 30% of costs by speeding up response times.
• Multiple language options: This is especially important for foreigners moving to a new country where they do not speak the language.
• Interaction capabilities beyond just text: For example, chatbots can help customers navigate pictures or the gallery of a property, especially for properties with numerous pictures. After viewing pictures, they could immediately ask more questions to the bot or skip the property completely.

Allowing chatbots to handle these queries frees up the real estate agents to focus on finding properties and optimizing their marketing strategy. Chatbots can lead to savings of up to $23 billion from annual salaries.

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What are the top use cases of chatbots in real estate?

Here are the top 9 use cases of chatbots in real estate:

1. Generate leads from digital users

Typical chatbots will pop up once a user opens a website. Real estate chatbots can start a conversation with an online user about their purpose for visiting the agency’s website (e.g. are they looking to buy, sell, or rent?) and ask for their contact information. 

Chatbots can then reach out to potential customers, send them emails about properties relevant to their search queries, or text them about promotions and campaigns on rental homes.

2. Build customer profiles

Chatbots can ask users questions to understand users’ preferences in terms of:

• Area, city, town
• Budget
• Requirements (e.g. rent, buy, lease)
• Property type (e.g. apartment, house, condo)
• Number of rooms, bathrooms, backyard options, open or closed garage options

Chatbots can collect these information from users to create a profile for each user and provide them with personalized property options and listings.

3. Answer questions about properties

Users searching for properties to buy or rent may have questions about the properties that are not directly available online, such as the average of monthly bills, the history of the building, and previous owners or tenants.

Chatbots can have access to the agency’s database which holds this information, and can provide prospective customers with the information according to the agency’s third-party privacy policy. Chatbots can also answer FAQs about the agency, working hours, available locations, etc.

4. Provide virtual property tours

If users are interested in a specific property but not ready to schedule a viewing yet, chatbots can provide a link to offer a virtual 360° tour to give them an idea about the exterior and interior of the property. This feature is particularly helpful during the current pandemic, when for respecting health precautions, physically viewing a property could be ill-advised.

Users can also ask the bot to show a specific room or feature in the house, or provide more information about the spaces and measurements.

5. Schedule property viewings

Users can schedule a walkthrough with a live agent via the chatbot. Real estate chatbots can be programmed to search within agents’ calendars and provide customers with available days and slots for them to choose. 

Once users pick a date, the chatbot will automate the scheduling, add the event to the agent’s calendar, and send emails or messages to the customer for confirmation.

6. Follow up after property viewings

Chatbots can directly contact customers via messages or emails after property viewings to ask them if they have decided on the purchase, or provide them with different suggestions if they are still looking. 

Follow up keeps customers engaged with the agency. Texting people after initial contact leads to higher levels of engagement. For example, it is claimed that engagement can be as high as 113% due to follow up texts.

7. Check for mortgage options

Users can check with chatbots to see if they qualify for a mortgage, ask for tips to qualify, and apply for a mortgage via the chatbot . Real estate agencies can connect their chatbots with partner banks or lending institutions to directly notify them about their financing options.

A survey has shown that 16% of buyers look online for more information on how to get a mortgage and general home buyers tips, and 14% apply for a mortgage online.

8. Collect reviews

After completing a purchase, or signing a rental contract, a chatbot can reach out to a customer via personalized emails to ask them to fill a survey about their experience, or via texts to have a conversation and understand their overall satisfaction with the agency.

Collecting customer reviews helps businesses understand the strengths and gaps in their strategies. Customer reviews can also be published on social media or business channels to increase credibility and influence the decision of customers and leads when choosing a real estate agency.

9. Analyze market trends

Chatbots can keep a history of conversations with customers and leads. This data can be imported to analytics tools to understand the current needs in the real estate market, analyze search queries for trends, and make predictions about the market conditions, investment opportunities, property buying, and prices.

To learn more about what AI can do for the real estate industry, feel free to read our in-depth article Real Estate Digital Transformation: Techs & Applications.

What are the real estate chatbot best practices?

To make the best of your real estate chatbot, you might want to consider the following best practices:

1. Integrate the chatbot to the business social media platforms. Statistics show that activity on social media provides 45% more sales opportunities.
2. Add property images and videos to the chatbot database to increase chances of viewings and customer engagement. In a survey, 55% of home buyers said that the most important feature for online search is finding property floor plans.
3. Let the chatbot suggest information about upcoming open houses.
4. Integrate a chat feature to online ads. Once a user clicks on the ad, instead of finding only text about the property, they will chat with your chatbot which will provide them with information while collecting their contact info for further communication.

These tactics suit real estate chatbots as well as different chatbots used for marketing. To explore general best practices, feel free to read our in-depth article about chatbot development best practices.

For more on chatbots

We’ve also investigated chatbot use cases and applications in different industries, such as:

• Insurance
• Retail
• Banking

And if you are interested in investing in an off-the-shelf chatbot or voice bot solution, don’t hesitate to check out our data-driven lists of vendors for chatbots and voice bots.

And we can guide you through the process:

This article was drafted by former AIMultiple industry analyst Alamira Jouman Hajjar.