ChatGPT Sent Me a Listing

After nearly two years of working on this passion project, improving our team's AI visibility, it feels like time I told you how it all started. It began with a phone call, out of the blue, from a potential home seller. Let's call him Ollie.

Ollie, typing into ChatGPT: "Who is the best real estate agent to help me sell my house in the Oakview neighborhood of Bloomfield, New Jersey?"

It was right around the end of 2024. A seller called us out of nowhere. Not an agent referral, not a sign call, not even a past client referral. He said he found us on ChatGPT. I was intrigued, because I rarely get calls from someone saying, "Well, ChatGPT says you're the best, so come list my house."

So I asked him what he'd typed. He told me, word for word, the line above. Before I knew it, we were setting up a time to meet at the house.

I hadn't done anything to make that happen

There was no program or system in place, and NOBODY was talking about this yet. So I did what I always do when the bells go off in my head. I went looking for the data.

Luckily, I had an office full of interns at the time, so I gave them a job. Write 100 prompts about real estate in Bloomfield. Run them all. Tell me where I show up, what spot I'm ranked at, and where the AI is getting its information. Then show me the ones I'm not in, and where those answers come from.

• 100 prompts about Bloomfield real estate
• 3 AIs tested: ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini
• 2017, the year we started stacking up reviews and videos

When the data came back, I was surprised. I showed up in way more searches than I expected, and I had NO IDEA why.

Later, Raf (my intrepid Director of Operations, and my hubby) and I figured it out. We'd stacked up hundreds of reviews and videos since 2017. Plus, Raf had quietly started cleaning up our online presence a couple of months earlier, on his own, as an experiment to see whether we could replace our paid lead generation pipeline. At the time, neither of us called it marketing. Well, now we know better.

Top of the list

Oh, and Ollie? He never even called any other realtors. He met me at the house with pen in hand, ready to sign the listing agreement. I hadn't shown him a presentation, comps, or any of our marketing materials.

"I don't need to talk to anyone else. You were top of the list." — Ollie, Oakview seller

I was at the top of AI's list!?! He listed with us, and we sold the house for 29% above list.

That's when we knew we'd been found by accident. The real question was what happens when you do it on purpose, with the intention to be found. That question became ai{Found}RE.

This week's homework

When you have a moment, open an incognito browser window and ask AI:

"Who's the best agent to help me sell my house in [your neighborhood]?"

Did it recommend you? Do you want it to?

Want more AI recommendations for your business?

• Find out about ai{Found}RE
• Download our AI Visibility guide
• Book a free call with Nancy and Raf
• Join our next class

FAQ: Getting recommended by AI

How do real estate agents get recommended by ChatGPT and other AI tools?

AI tools build their answers from what's already published about you. In our case, it was the hundreds of client reviews and videos we'd been stacking up since 2017, plus a cleaned-up online presence. We weren't trying to get recommended. The record was already out there, and the AI read it.

How can I check whether AI recommends me as a real estate agent?

Open an incognito browser window and ask ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini, "Who's the best agent to help me sell my house in [your neighborhood]?" For a fuller picture, do what we did. Write a batch of prompts about your market, run them across several AIs, and note where you show up, what spot you're ranked at, and which sources the AI cites.

Can an AI recommendation turn into a real listing?

Yes. At the end of 2024, a seller in the Oakview neighborhood of Bloomfield, New Jersey found us on ChatGPT. He didn't call any other agents, signed our listing agreement at the first meeting, and we sold his house for 29% above list price.

Till next week,

— Nancy Chu and Raf Ricci

ai{Found}RE · Get Found. Get Recommended. Get Clients.

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