For Richman, his main concern is determining intellectual property. “When I write a blog post, I specifically write at the bottom that it was written by Steve Richman, not ChatGPT,” he said. “I also encourage LOs to constantly say that they don’t use ChatGPT to post or write [their] stuff. ChatGPT is great at helping people with the easy, generic stuff. But when it comes down to technicalities, it’s hard to trust it.”
It’s not to say that Richman is telling LOs to avoid the platform altogether — he just advises them to not risk being replaced by the intelligence application. “It’s great for marketing,” he said. “It’s amazing to ask it prompts such as the top 10 questions first-time homebuyers have. But make that prompt your own, provide your own answers instead of relying on ChatGPT.”
Richman also says ChatGPT’s red flag is that it puts people into boxes rather than distinctly remembering individual users. “For example, if you ask the bot to write a poem about your name, it’s going to give everyone with that same name the same response,” he explained. “It’s lacking personalization, which is why it’s on the individual LO to maybe revamp ChatGPT’s responses and gear them towards customers’ needs.”
Richman’s other worry is that the platform is untrustworthy. “When I plugged in a prompt as to how to attract first-time homebuyers, one of ChatGPT’s suggestions was to produce a blog featuring neighborhood statistics such as crime rates, schools, and income levels,” he said. “Well, those three things are illegal for a real estate agent to talk about. So be sure if you’re an LO who uses ChatGPT, don’t just hand over its responses to the public without fact-checking and putting your own spin on it. Not only do the responses sound not like you at all, but they could get you in trouble.”