Nod if you can relate. Most times, it’s just easier to ask an awkward or deeply personal question to a chatbot than to a person you just met.
Turns out buyers are doing exactly that, weeks before they ever pick up the phone to call a real estate agent.
New consumer data shows those questions rarely have anything to do with finding a house. Buyers are asking about financing, zoning, school districts, guest houses, you name it. One buyer wanted to know where their dog could go to the bathroom.
During a fireside chat at BAM BBQ, Realtor.com‘s Chief Consumer and Marketing Officer Mickey Neuberger joined Shilo CEO Justin Benson and BAM co-founder Byron Lazine to talk about how AI is shaping real estate conversations.
And he shared a jaw-dropping stat about AI and home search.
Think of it as a preview of what buyers are thinking before they say a word to an agent, as well as a roadmap for the content you should be creating and the questions you should be asking.
Here’s what buyers are really asking AI and what this means for your business.
80% of Buyer Questions Aren’t About Finding a Home
Realtor.com recently analyzed conversations happening inside its AI-powered home search assistant. Executives expected questions similar to what buyers already type into search filters.
Instead, roughly 80% of conversations had nothing to do with finding a listing. Neuberger explained:
“We launched our Real Assist AI engine, which is a conversational home search experience. So it was meant to make search easier, and it’s an AI chat interface much like ChatGPT or Gemini. And I was shocked…80% of questions in our conversational search platform had nothing to do with search.”
It sounds counter-intuitive, but it’s not. The AI chat feels like a safe space to ask anything. AI doesn’t judge. Doesn’t flinch. Doesn’t launch into a monologue.
No matter the question, AI just finds an answer.
So, it’s not that surprising most of the conversations happening on Realtor.com’s AI tool are about something other than finding a listing. People ask the most pressing questions on their minds, and those often go deeper than just “what homes are for sale in my area?”
If you want buyers to trust you to have their best interests at heart, you need to know what they’re asking AI, even if those questions don’t come up in your first conversation with them.
What Buyers Are Actually Asking
If the questions aren’t about square footage and bedroom count, what are people actually asking? Realtor.com pulled a sample of real questions coming through Real Assist, and the range shows exactly where buyers’ heads are before they ever call an agent.
Lifestyle and land use:
- “I’m looking for a house with a lot of land where I can garden, raise chickens etc. Must be in Clermont or in the area.”
Property details beyond the listing sheet:
- “Which direction is this house facing?”
- “Is the land buildable? Can this property be split into two parcels?”
Local regulation:
- “What are the Mansfield zoning rules?”
Process and paperwork:
- “How is title insurance purchased?”
Financing math:
- “How much would I save in interest for a 15 year vs 30 year loan?”
These are people working through real decisions, the kind that used to surface in a first phone call with an agent. Neuberger connected these questions to what buyers are really looking for:
“Consumers are looking for a lot more than ‘Help me find the three-bedroom, two-bath in San Francisco.’ That’s easy. But it’s the finance-related questions. It’s the advice- seeking. It’s the ‘Does it fit my lifestyle?’ We get a ton of questions around nearby nightlife, nearby parks, really trying to understand the neighborhood, and is this home going to fit what I’m looking for for my family?”
Why Buyers Tell AI Things They Won’t Tell an Agent
Why are buyers sharing all of this with a chatbot instead of an agent? Typing a question into an AI feels lower stakes than saying it out loud to someone you just met, even a licensed professional.
Neuberger explained what that comfort level unlocks:
“AI is capturing so much context about the consumer. Stuff you would never get through filters. We reveal so much to the AI in terms of what our anxieties are, what our fears are, personal info.”
He pointed to specific examples showing up in those conversations:
“We’re finding out if a person’s a veteran, if they need medical attention and are looking for a unit that accommodates them, if they’re interested in nightlife, if they have a dog. My favorite is ‘I need some place where my dog can relieve itself close to the home.’”
This is the same ground discovery questions have always covered, the real reasons behind a move. Buyers are just handing that information to a chatbot first, before an agent ever gets the chance to ask.
Benson framed this same behavior from the agent’s side of the conversation:
“If you just walk up to somebody in Target, the Target employee goes, ‘Hey, can I help you find anything?’ You just say, ‘No, I’m good.’ That’s what it is. But if they walk up and they say, ‘Hey, I see you’re looking at towels. Can I help you find a specific one?’ Guess what? You are probably going to give them more information. So it’s still your job to ask these discovery questions to people. They’re not going to voluntarily tell that to you, a stranger from the internet. That’s just not going to happen.”
How Agents Should Use This
Consumers are getting a full consult on where to live and why, straight from a chatbot. Those conversations reveal exactly where buyers need guidance, and that’s exactly where a good agent creates value.
Here are four ways to put that insight to work.
1. Create content that answers real buyer questions
Buyers are already telling you what to write about. They’re asking AI about:
- Zoning
- Financing
- Neighborhood lifestyle
- Title insurance
- Commute times
- Whether a property can support an ADU
Every one of those questions is content waiting to be made. And by content, we mean everything from blog posts to newsletters to videos and other social media content.
2. Strengthen your local knowledge
Knowing your inventory is useful, but knowing your market is what actually builds trust with potential buyer clients.
Buyer questions point to the knowledge gaps they need you to fill. Can you confidently explain the following?
- Local zoning rules
- Whether specific lots can be subdivided
- Typical title insurance practices in your state
- The financing differences between a 15 year and 30 year mortgage
- Which neighborhoods fit which lifestyles
Answers like those build trust faster than another listing alert.
3. Use AI to improve your discovery process
Take the questions buyers are asking AI and turn them into your own discovery questions. Instead of asking “What are you looking for?” try asking things like:
- What do you want your weekends to look like?
- Are there any lifestyle needs you’ve been struggling to find a home for?
- Is there anything you’ve been researching that you still don’t have a clear answer on?
Questions like those uncover far more than a basic wish list.
4. Remember where human expertise still wins
Benson sees this as agents’ biggest opportunity right now.
“Knowing your craft, knowing it in and out and being smarter than the ChatGPT machine because again, it is confidently wrong [much] of the time, it has the wrong context, and it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy just like a Google search.”
AI can generate information. You, as the experienced and prepared human agent, provide context. That’s what helps buyers make confident decisions.
Every AI Conversation Is Free Market Research
The questions from Real Assist AI are a gift to real estate agents, but only if you use this as your cue to look deeper into what your local buyers are asking AI right now, before they even think about calling an agent.
And when they’re ready, if AI can pull up content from you answering those questions, you rise to the top of their best local options.
The better you understand what matters to them and why, the more likely you are to stand out as someone they can see themselves working with.
