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The real estate market has been full of twists and turns over the past several years, with 2023 ushering in a dramatic drop in consumer sentiment and sales activity that has stoked fears about an impending recession or another housing bust.
While some people are feverishly attempting to control an unpredictable future, Inman founder Brad Inman challenged the Inman Connect Las Vegas audience to do something else — surrender to the up-and-downs of a shifting industry and world.
“The market is a little like a 15-year-old,” he said while pacing the conference’s main stage. “Imagine trying to wake that kid up to go to school. You turn up the music and you have the alarms going. You slam the door, you clank the pots and pans. They will not get out of bed, and then somehow on their own clock, they get to school.”
“I used to always scratch my head. How did that happen? I couldn’t drag him out of bed, but somehow they get to school on time, and that’s like the market,” he added. “It will get better. But it’s going to do it on its own clock.”
Despite current struggles, Inman said the market is poised to open up as mortgage rate volatility eases and generational life cycles push baby boomers toward downsizing or embracing multigenerational housing, and Gen Xers, millennials and Gen Zers take their place as the leaders in homebuying and selling activity.
“Everyone wants to buy a house. It’s not an American dream, it’s everybody’s dream. No matter where you go, people want to own a home. Even my 10-year-old grandson Landon talks to me. He says, ‘Papa Brad, I want to buy a house,'” he said. “But as you all know, these dreams are in a little bit of a deep freeze.”
“Dreams are frozen right now — high-interest rates, lack of supply and affordability — and we need to thaw the deep freeze because what’s building, which is good news, is pent-up demand,” he added. “We have four generations just waiting to move. The Gen Xers who probably already have a house, want to move up or they want to buy a second home.”
“The millennials, if they haven’t bought, they want to buy their first home or they possibly want to move out and buy somewhere else,” he continued. “And Gen Z. They’re like the boomers, they love real estate. They’re more conservative and they’re more optimistic, and then you got the boomers like me — We’re either going to die off and create some supply or we’re going to do what we’ve done our whole lives and we’re gonna keep buying real estate because we love it.”
While the industry is waiting for the market to straighten up, Inman said agents, brokers and leaders would be smart to focus their attention on the artificial intelligence revolution, which has hit warp speed this year with the emergence of ChatGPT and other similar tools and platforms.
While the guise of an AI-powered world stokes fears of robot overlords and other dystopian sci-fi storylines, Inman said humans have the choice to wield this technology to our advantage.
“Now what’s gonna happen in the future, is our voice, our image, our biometrics our fingerprints are going to jumpstart an army of AI assistants and bots that are going to be there to service,” he said. “There’s going to be an AI coronary artery scan, so you know if you have heart disease long before you have it. Feeling lonely? An AI companion will keep you company.”
“Every person will have an AI coach, trainer, adviser and therapist. Every realtor and every mortgage broker will have an AI assistant… Every homeseller and every homebuyer will have an AI copilot,” he added. “There’s a lot of stuff that’s strange about this. That is scary, but I don’t want you to be intimidated.”
Inman said now is the time to learn how to leverage AI and think of it as an extra brain or set of hands that help us streamline and optimize what we do. “AI is the best thing human beings have ever created,” he said. “I believe that, and you cannot stop human progress.”
AI will enable us to do a litany of things from the profound to the mundane, Inman said, and the real estate industry is rife with opportunities to finally free professionals and consumers from the rigamarole that makes the homebuying and homeselling process much harder than it should be.
“Biometrics will prompt us to auto-fill loan applications, purchase contracts and closing documents,” he said. “We’ll also be enhanced by synthetic data. Synthetic data is data created by machines. It’s hard to get your head around it. It’s like GPS, but the amount of data that’s useful and relevant instantly, just by the look of your eyes will be overwhelming.”
“Take your contact database, name, address vitals, write, how many times you contacted them, etc. Imagine that data being enhanced by all the data in the world and synthetic data,” he added. “So you’ll know your clients’ inclinations — not just their history, their preferences, their tastes, and their exact desires for having a home. You’ll know exactly when to contact them and you’ll know exactly what they want.”
Inman said AI will also make homeownership easier, with algorithms alerting us to when appliances and water systems will break and creating a plan to easily make repairs.
“Homes will be easier to own and it will supercharge sales,” he said. “AI will reinvent home search, reimagine productivity tools, rethink the MLS and smash the political and bureaucratic obstacles to doing the MLS right.”
“It will unlock inventory and it will be easier to sell,” he added. “AI is this amazing problem solver. That’s what it’s in motion to do, which means it’ll be a boon to real estate and a boon to the economy.”
Although AI will bring about short-term losses as certain parts of our economy and world are automated, Inman said he believes in humans’ abilities to learn, grow, adapt and change — something that will be of the essence as we barrel forward into a technologically advanced world.
“AI plus humans is the future. Humans plus AI is the future,” he said. “So my message to you is don’t wait for the world to come to you. Meet it head-on.”
“Elon Musk said it well — You have two choices. Be a spectator or be a participant,” he added. “It’s your choice, but I would argue you have no choice. My message to you is do not be left behind. Do not be afraid. Jump on board and our future will be bright.”
