By Kevin Hawkins with Korey Hawkins | Vol. 2 Post 29
REAL AI is a human-created weekly roundup of all things AI in real estate and emerging AI innovations in other sectors likely to impact real estate. We post a new edition every Friday, and our free newsletter is delivered to your inbox every Monday.
Joining the AI image generator movement
Have you noticed that the photo or image atop your favorite news story or feature often is crediting Midjourney? Chances are it used to say Adobe Stock, Getty Images, or a similar paid licensing image site.
You will still see major stock photo sites listed—especially for photography—but the images created by online image generators are currently free to use. Even with a paid subscription, they are a lot cheaper than paying a stock service licensing fee.
Real estate agents and brokers are embracing the AI image generation movement for reasons beyond the pricing advantage. You can create an image you need for a social or blog post or a promotional brochure about the services you offer buyers and sellers in seconds, and you can do it yourself.
The good news is that because it’s become one of the biggest AI trends, real estate agents will benefit from continued improvement in AI image generation as the space becomes more competitive.
Microsoft Designer, largely ignored until now, just released its latest improvement, giving agents another option, especially if you use other Microsoft products like PowerPoint and Word. If you are a CoPilot subscriber, Designer now integrates with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Microsoft Photos. Designer also supports more than 80 languages and offers a free mobile app and an app for Windows.
The most popular real estate agent design site, Canva, has built-in image generation tools in its Magic Studio. Still, Canva tools are often better at tweaking and refining images than creating new ones. It features tools such as background remover, magic resizing, removing items in an image, enhancing the image resolution, and more. It puts Adobe Photoshop to shame on ease of use, all because of AI.
The image champ continues to be Midjourney, which is worth the $96 yearly for its basic plan. ChatGPT 4o also renders images with text prompts, but creating alike or themed images and refining, tweaking, and iterating what you create is much easier in Midjourney.
A terrific free crowdsourced AI-image generation site is Lexica.art. Its superpower is all the images created by others that you can access and download. Need a shot of new homes from an aerial view? A quick free search will reveal a wide range of options in your search display, ready to download and use.
There are others that real estate agents may find worth checking out, including Fotor and NightCafe.
Finally, selecting which AI-image generation tool works best for you is likely the one you test out and have the quickest success. One caveat: what used to be okay can suddenly become extraordinary, so in the world of AI today, it is essential to return to AI tools you once eliminated to see if they have improved enough to win you over. Canva is a classic case in point. (-Kevin)
5 ways real estate agents can use AI image generators
The core focus of this AI newsletter for real estate is the practical ways you can use AI today. Image and AI-powered design creation are moving more agents to incorporate AI into their daily workflow.
Here are just a few ways agents are using these image-related AI tools every day:
- Social media posts
Create eye-catching images, generate visuals for local event announcements, improve the professional look of your social posts, and stand out from the competition.
Benefits: Professional designs significantly increase engagement and shareability and complement and reinforce your brand image.
- Blog post images
Use key phrases from your post to create Illustrative concepts, just like we do for REAL AI. Also, use them to create not only header images but images throughout your post to emphasize the key takeaways.
Benefits: Enhanced visual appeal of content improves reader retention and understanding of complex topics. It draws readers into your post to read it all rather than skimming.
- Website imagery
Generate lifestyle images or graphics representing your local communities, enhance your website images to improve and modernize them, or change the backgrounds of your existing website photos to make them more interesting.
Benefits: Enhances the visual appeal of your website, making it more attractive to visitors and increasing their time on site. Also, while improving your website aesthetics, you avoid the privacy concerns of using past client property photos, fostering a professional and trustworthy image.
- Promotional materials
Create graphic elements for Buyer and Seller Presentations, enhance CMAs, create images for newsletters and Market Reports, and generate high-resolution images for printed promotional brochures that promote your services.
Benefits: It allows you to quickly produce timely, relevant content, positioning your local brand as helpful and knowledgeable. Better-designed newsletters can also improve your open and click-through rates.
- Educational content
You can also use these new tools to educate and inform prospects, leveraging strong image creation to develop infographics or first-time homebuyer and home-selling guides.
Benefits: Cut down the time it takes to create powerful educational tools like these. Plus, you’ll improve your content’s professional look and appeal. (-Kevin)
AI Fast Facts
- Around 80% of workers using AI say that this technology is already improving their productivity – Slack
- 57% of college graduates surveyed state they interact with AI at least several times a week – Pew Research
- 41% of workers claimed they would consider overstating their generative AI skills to secure a work opportunity – Salesforce
- 66% of business leaders say they wouldn’t hire someone if they don’t have AI skills – Microsoft
- 65% of executives admit they lack the technology expertise required for gen AI-led transformation – Accenture
Source: AOL (-Korey)
AI Headlines
Real estate strategies for an AI-powered world | 7/17/24 Hospitalitynet
A detailed breakdown of the current and coming impact of AI in real estate.
22 Generative AI Workplace Tools And How To Use Them | 7/15/24 Forbes
A quick list of AI tools that can help increase workplace productivity.
What We Know About OpenAI’s Secretive ‘Project Strawberry’ | 7/16/24 Newsweek
ChatGPT’s upcoming update may soon allow it to do research without human prompts.
Scoop: Meta won’t offer future multimodal AI models in EU | 7/17/24 Axios
Tech giants are fighting back against European rules and restrictions by not allowing access to their newest versions.
Bridging the AI trust gap in business | 7/12/24 IT Pro
A clear AI strategy, learning opportunities, and employee involvement are needed to embrace AI assistants.
(-Korey)
AI Quote of the Week
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Content suggestions welcomed: email korey@wavgroup.com.
