SoCal Agents Look for Homes to Sell Through Robocalls

New real estate agents desperate for leads in the slumping Southern California market have turned to last-ditch ploys to find a listing: artificial intelligence and state-of-the-art robocalls.

With single-family home sales across L.A. County plunging 73 percent to 11,539 last year from 42,000 in 2022, noobie agents are using automation to pinpoint sellers, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Because cold calling burns up time and piles on stress, some agents are tossing the thankless job to machines. An agent can spend eight hours a day dialing every home in a neighborhood to ask whether they want to sell their home. Or they can crank out 500 ringless voicemails simultaneously.

Those who call back have a better chance of employing a real estate agent to sell their home.

“I don’t have time to cold call all day,” one real estate agent who asked to remain anonymous because of the potential taboo of using the technology, told the Times. “I have to find clients somehow, and in a market like this, you have to get creative.”

That may mean breaking the law while resorting to a few voicemail hacks.

Companies such as Slybroadcast and Salesmsg offer “ringless voicemail,” a robocall-adjacent tool allowing agents to send pre-recorded messages straight to voicemail before a phone starts ringing.

Messages can trick recipients into thinking they missed a call, saying, “Sorry I missed you! Give me a call back whenever you get a chance.”

Two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission declared the technique a form of robocalling and said it’s illegal if the caller doesn’t have the recipient’s prior consent.

As a response to thousands of unwanted call complaints, the FCC has created a Robocall Response Team to combat robocalls, many of which are targeted toward homeowners.

But that hasn’t stopped agents from cranking out automated voicemails to potential clients. Or using auto-dialing software such as VoiceSpin — which uses AI and machine learning to enable agents to drop voicemails straight into inboxes, record calls and hide behind local area codes.

One platform allows agents to hide behind an AI robot.

The tech company Ylopo recently uploaded a video showing an AI assistant talking with a potential home buyer planning a move to the Carolina coast — “one of thousands of AI calls being made daily already for Ylopo clients,” the company said.

Cinc, a real estate lead generation platform, offers agents an AI-powered digital assistant that deliberately misspells words and uses emojis to make parlays with potential leads seem human.

The National Association of Realtors offers an AI scriptwriter, powered by ChatGPT,that crunches housing trends so that agents can appear more knowledgeable about the market. Agents can even choose the tone: professional, engaging or conversational, according to the Times.

Most agents in Southern California still do business the old-fashioned way. But agents on the cutting edge often do so just to make a living.

In 2022, Realtors with 16 or more years of experience made a median gross income of $80,700, according to the NAR. Those with two years or less experience made $9,600. Meanwhile, 31 percent of real estate firms struggled to pay their office rent last month, according to a report from Alignable.

— Dana Bartholomew