Artificial Intelligence As A Real Estate Research Tool

On today’s show we are looking at how AI can be a useful research tool for real estate investors. 

A lot of emphasis for AI tools has been for mining the universe for information and writing new material such as blog posts. No doubt, there is some utility there. But the quality of writing is low in my estimation. 

The real power of these AI tools is as a better research tool. There are many tasks that have traditionally been the subject of very tedious activity. Legions of virtual assistants have earned a living half a world away performing these low skill tasks. 

Recent advances in AI have made some types of information searches extremely powerful. For example, you can ask an AI tool like Chat GPT for information about precedent setting court cases in a particular jurisdiction on specific regulations. 

For example, I asked ChatGPT to list the precedent setting zoning cases in the Province of Ontario involving R4 zoning. 

Within seconds, I had a list of three precedent setting cases in the Province of Ontario regarding zoning in R4 zones. I then asked for more examples. Instantly, the tool produced four more examples. By contrast, a Google search simply took me to a legal scholar site as a portal, but offered no direct reference to any cases. 

As developers, we are often making risk assessments when it comes to asking for variances from the planning committee and ultimately city council. Understanding the case law can help provide developers with the perspective of where the appeals process has concluded in favour of the developer and when they have upheld the city’s decision.

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Host: Victor Menasce

email: podcast@victorjm.com