3 Mistakes Every Agent Must Avoid When Using ChatGPT

Are you using ChatGPT yet? With free access to the latest upgrade – ChatGPT 4.0 – it's a powerful content creation assistant (and more). However, even the most advanced tech tools can lead to pitfalls if not used with caution. Research indicates that ChatGPT can have an error rate as high as 40% or more when responding to complex queries, highlighting the potential risks of relying solely on this tool.

Common ChatGPT errors can range from providing outdated information to misinterpreting or fabricating responses. It's crucial to understand that AI LLMs, like ChatGPT, are designed to provide comprehensive answers. However, they may lack the necessary knowledge or data, leading to plausible-sounding but inaccurate responses. Being aware of these limitations is critical to using ChatGPT effectively.

Does that mean you should avoid ChatGPT in helping you create better, engaging content for your clients? Absolutely not. For most uses by a real estate agent, ChatGPT can save you a considerable amount of time, even when used occasionally.

Let's look at the three of the most common mistakes agents could make and how you can avoid them. Understanding these pitfalls upfront can help you harness the full potential of an AI tool like ChatGPT to increase your productivity and help you grow your business.

Mistake number one: Cutting and pasting

Imagine you're drafting a detailed description of a property listing. You ask ChatGPT for help, provide a prompt with all the property details, and hit enter. In seconds, it generates an eloquent paragraph. It might be tempting to copy and paste it directly into your listing. But don't — because this is where a big mistake can happen.

Why should you never cut and paste? First, ChatGPT needs to be an educated and licensed agent like you. The AI-generated description might accidentally insert a word or phrase – like "exclusive neighborhood" – a potentially discriminatory phrase. Even when you instruct ChatGPT to follow HUD Fair Housing Guidelines, it could suggest phrases that are best to avoid.

Second, as with any writing assistant, you should personalize the content and ensure it reflects your brand and voice. It's your hard-earned expertise that sets you apart from other agents. If you rely solely on AI-generated content, you risk sounding generic and impersonal, reducing your ability to engage clients and prospects better. By making AI-generated content your own, you infuse it with your unique style and local knowledge, making it more appealing to your target audience.

Personalizing content also helps build trust with your clients. When they read a property description or a blog post, they should feel like it's coming directly from you, not an algorithm.

Also, keep in mind that generative AI can be detected. It often repeats certain words and phrases. Astute AI users and many AI detection tools can frequently recognize 100% AI-created content instantly.

Pro tip: Consider adding information to AI-generated content based on your local market knowledge and insight, mainly information that cannot be found online.

Mistake number two: Not verifying the facts

After using ChatGPT for a while, you might become comfortable with its accuracy. After all, it provided sources and links to the facts it used for the social post or blog content it created for you, right? Think again.

The downside of being seemingly so clever is that ChatGPT can often be entirely convincing about something it made up. Because it tries to provide the complete story, it may cite a statistic or study in an entirely credible way. If it is part of your prompt, it will give the corresponding URL for the stat or source. However, when you click on the URL provided, it goes to the home page of the cited source, and not anything that verifies the statistic is real, or it will give a dead link.

What should you do? To paraphrase a famous past U.S. President, you can only trust if you verify.

One of the fastest ways to see if a ChatGPT source, study, or statistic is accurate is to ensure it provides the source and the URL. If the URL fails, ask ChatGPT if the source is accurate, and guess what? If it made the statistic up, it would confess, often explaining it was providing an example of a possible statistic, not something that can be documented. This can be especially problematic in real estate, where accuracy and compliance are critical to protecting the trust you have established with your clients.

Does this mean ChatGPT makes up every fact? Hardly, and often, the statistic or study cited is verified by the URL it provides. But you still must ask ChatGPT to give the link and the source for every fact it mentions so you can verify.

Pro tip: If ChatGPT provides you with a lousy statistic, the best workaround is to do a Google search related to the fact you need, find a verifiable source and statistic, and use that. ChatGPT still saves you time by constructing content that shows where the correct facts are required.

Mistake number three: Using the first version

The first version of anything is rarely the best. This is true for AI-generated content as well. The key to getting the most out of ChatGPT is iteration. Don't be satisfied with the first draft—push back and refine it until it meets your standards – and, most importantly, sounds like you.

After your first response, use ChatGPT to rephrase, expand, or add detail to the initial output. For example, ask ChatGPT to rewrite five different versions of just the introductory paragraph or lead and five different conclusions.

Add specific instructions beyond your original prompt, such as, "Can you redraft the lead by starting it with a provocative question related to the topic that will immediately engage readers?" Or ask ChatGPT to "create an analogy that makes this topic easier to understand."

Each iteration can improve clarity, engagement, and accuracy. This iterative process helps you create polished, professional content that resonates with your audience.

Additionally, iterative feedback allows you to fine-tune the content to better match your brand voice and client expectations. But always remember that whatever ChatGPT creates should be used as your starting point and not your ending point for content creation.

Pro tip: Be careful not to use the phrases ChatGPT commonly uses to describe the real estate industry: "dynamic and ever-changing," "ever-evolving real estate market," and "fast-paced world of real estate."

Working with ChatGPT

Using ChatGPT in your real estate practice can be an enormous time saver, especially when creating content. Need help figuring out what to write about for a blog or post on social media? Ask ChatGPT for assistance – it can be one of the best brainstorming partners you will ever meet.

But when creating content, think of ChatGPT not as your ghostwriter but as your writing assistant. It's the best way to avoid the most common mistakes agents make. By making the content you create with ChatGPT your own, verifying every fact and link, and understanding that iterating leads to the best results, your final work product will be more engaging and compelling, helping you stand out from the competition and make you more memorable and top-of-mind with your entire sphere.