Would you be happy to greet this Tesla robot at an open home? Source: Tesla.
A top eastern suburbs agent has big plans to transform the open home experience for buyers: robots greeting you at the front door.
“I’m looking to buy a robot,” says the Raine and Horne Double Bay principal Ric Serrao.
“They’’ll just be greeting buyers at the door, taking down names and numbers.
“And that will free up agents to do the serious talking with buyers and the negotiating.”
Serrao says he hasn’t discussed the possibilities with the Department of Fair Trading — “would they need to be certified as real estate agents?” he wonders — but he insists he’s quite serious about the idea.
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Ric Serrao is heading overseas later in the year, shopping for a robot.
“I’m planning to go overseas later in the year to the various trade shows to look at what’s available,” he said.
“I think there’s definitely room for AI and aero robotics to help with minor tasks and collecting data.
“But I won’t be cloning myself though — someone that’s a lot younger with more hair!”.
Real estate agencies have been looking at ways to deal with the labour-intensive job of showing properties to potential buyers and particularly tenants for some time, with some already outsourcing those tasks to separate companies.
Tesla is currently developing “Optimus”, or Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot designed to handle dangerous, repetitive, or boring tasks.
Tesla is currently developing “Optimus”, or Tesla Bot, a humanoid robot designed to handle dangerous, repetitive, or boring tasks.
And at a media event at San Jose Mineta International Airport in California this week, an AI-powered robot named Jose greeted travellers, answered questions and provided real-time information in more than 50 languages.
But despite Serrao’s enthusiasm, other agents aren’t sure robots greeting potential buyers at open homes is the way to go.
“I’ll be interested to see how it goes, but I don’t want robots at my opens,” says Biller principal Paul Biller.
“It’s a cool gimmick, but it takes 10 seconds to say hi to a buyer and human interaction is important.”
He does agree though that change is on the way in real estate.
“A lot of things are going to be automated and big changes are definitely on the way over the next five to 10 years with AI.”
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