AI and Technology

Does NotebookLM Make The Grade For Real Estate?

Every First National agent knows that time is money. If there’s one thing we could all use more of, it’s time - preferably spent sealing deals rather than drowning in admin. Enter NotebookLM, Google’s AI-powered note-taking and research assistant, which promises to sift through mountains of information and deliver easy-to-digest insights. Sounds good, right? But does it pass the test in the property game?

What is NotebookLM?

Google’s NotebookLM is a tool that lets users upload various content - web pages, PDFs, YouTube videos, and even audio files - before magically (or algorithmically) generating summaries, insights, and key takeaways. Unlike the chatbots of the world, NotebookLM only works with the content you provide, making it less prone to fabricating facts or just hallucinating. We love this, and you will too!

In short, it’s designed to make sense of complicated material without making things up. For real estate agents, that means less time trawling through reports and more time engaging with clients.

How Can Real Estate Agents Use It?

Property Reports Without the Pain 

Tired of skimming through suburb reports, market analyses, or economic outlooks? Upload them to NotebookLM and ask for a summary. It will highlight trends and key data, saving you precious hours.

Deciphering Legislative Legalese 

Contracts, disclosure documents, tenancy legislation - agents often have to navigate a minefield of legal jargon. NotebookLM acts as your personal interpreter, offering plain-English explanations of key clauses. (It’s still not a lawyer, but it does provide attribution to specific parts of legislation when it answers your questions.)

Client FAQs on Demand 

How many times have you typed the same response to, ‘What’s the market doing?’ or ‘How much stamp duty will I pay?’ NotebookLM compiles a personalised Q&A document using your uploaded resources, so you have quick, consistent answers ready to go.

Social Media & Content Ideas 

Run out of blog ideas? Upload a few industry reports or trending articles, and let NotebookLM suggest topics, captions, or even rough drafts for you. Content marketing, made easy!

Where It Falls Short

Data Input Dependency 

Unlike some AI tools that scour the internet for answers, NotebookLM can only work with what you give it. That means you’ll still need to find and upload your sources.

Formatting Fumbles 

If your PDFs have complex layouts (think spreadsheets in property valuation reports), the AI may struggle to extract the right information. Remember the old Russian proverb – trust but verify!

No Real-Time Market Updates 

If you're after the latest sales data or property price trends, you’re better off sticking with CoreLogic, REA, or Domain reports. It works really well with those.

What Do We Think?

For ease of use - B+

It’s relatively straightforward but requires good source material to work effectively. Great for admin and content but doesn’t replace industry-specific tools. The user interface seems a little clunky at first.

On time-saving potential it’s a straight A

Ideal for summarising long reports and documents quickly.

On accuracy and reliability, another straight A

It sticks exactly to the content provided - no hallucinations or made-up facts.

Final Verdict

For real estate professionals drowning in documents, NotebookLM is like a diligent PA - quick, reliable, and helpful, but only as good as the information it is given. 

While it won’t replace property data platforms or CRM systems, it can certainly streamline admin, content creation, and research. 

We LOVE its ability to answer questions reliably about rental legislation, property law, and privacy legislation. The ‘Deep Dive’ AI hosted chat is also an interesting, if somewhat porous, feature that enables agents to listen to avatars chatting about the content of your uploaded document.

Worth trying? Absolutely. Just don’t expect it to do your prospecting for you.

DeepSeek: A New Contender in the AI Arena for Real Estate Agents

You’d have to have been living under a rock to not have noticed the earthquake DeepSeek sent through both the stock market and AI community last week. The Chinese upstart claims to use less energy than other LLMs like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and critically, cost less than US$6 million to produce – barely a fraction of the investment in most US equivalents. That shocked the pants off the industry, but the jury is still out on the initial claims.

So, what is it, is it any good, and should you be concerned about data security? On the last part of the question, yes, but tread very carefully.

What is DeepSeek?

Developed by a Chinese AI firm, DeepSeek is a large language model (LLM) designed to understand and generate human-like text. It has been lauded for its impressive performance, rivalling established models like OpenAI's ChatGPT, but at a fraction of the development cost.

Potential Applications for Real Estate Agents

Market Analysis Simplified

DeepSeek can assist in analysing market trends by processing vast amounts of data to provide concise summaries. This could help agents stay informed about the latest developments in property markets without sifting through numerous reports.

Client Communication Enhancement 

Crafting personalised emails or messages can be time-consuming. DeepSeek's language generation capabilities might aid in drafting client communications, ensuring clarity and professionalism.

Contract and Document Clarification

Real estate transactions involve complex legal documents. While not a substitute for legal advice, DeepSeek could potentially help in breaking down intricate terms into more understandable language, aiding agents in better explaining details to clients.

Considerations and Limitations

Data Privacy Concerns

DeepSeek stores information on servers located in China, which may raise data privacy issues for some users. The company has confirmed it will release data to the China Communist Party (CCP) if requested. It's crucial to assess the implications of this storage policy against your Australian Privacy Principles compliance obligations. For this reason alone, we’d recommend caution for the time being.

Content Sensitivity

The model has been noted to avoid or censor topics deemed sensitive by the Chinese government. While this may not directly affect real estate discussions, it's a factor to be aware of. For example, where US based LLMs will provide answers to questions about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, DeepSeek suffers complete amnesia.

Language and Cultural Nuances

As with any AI model, understanding local dialects, slang, or cultural references can be challenging. DeepSeek may require customization to align with specific regional communication styles.

What Do We Think?

For ease of use - B+

The interface is user-friendly but requires some familiarisation.

On time-saving potential it’s an A-

Works as quickly as other LLMs but there’s increased fact-checking workload.

On accuracy and reliability - C+

Seems generally reliable but extra time needed for fact verification at this point.

On data privacy, that’s a hard F

Would you risk your client’s data potentially being shared with a foreign government? 

While we’re talking about that, have you adjusted your ChatGPT settings to the safer setting? We recommend you turn off the feature that enables ChatGPT 'to improve the model for everyone'.

1. Click the icon on the top right of your screen that shows your profile

2. Go to settings

3. Select 'Data Controls'

4. Turn off 'improve the model for everyone'

Final Thoughts

DeepSeek presents a promising tool for real estate agents seeking to leverage AI in their daily operations. Its capabilities in data analysis and language generation can offer tangible benefits. However, it's essential to remain mindful of data privacy considerations and to use the tool as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, professional expertise.

OpenAI almost certainly pulled the ‘fire handle’ last week so don’t rush into an upgrade to your ChatGPT subscription at this stage. We fully expect the US$20 per month (and US$200 per month upgrade) will be adjusted southwards in short order! Watch this space.