Before you even think of prompting AI for your business, do this first 

The headlines are awash with all the prompts you need to use to build your real estate business.

• Headlines about Claude are everywhere, all promoting “here’s exactly what you need to do.”
• ChatGPT still reigns supreme in the Large Language Models (LLMs).
• Perplexity is excellent for pulling local comparable sales data.
• Grok is the only LLM that is designed to work with real-time data (think self-driving cars and space travel) and can pull up what’s happening on places like X (Twitter) in real time.

This is all well and good, but it misses what you should be doing before you ever open up any AI application. 

For over 30 years, I’ve been training agents on business planning. At the heart of this training is understanding where your income is really coming from and then creating one to three niches around those proven sources of revenue. 

Ever since I got into the business in my 20s, one fact has never changed: Almost all top producers are niched into a very specific segment of the market where they are the recognized local expert. Trying to be everything to everyone simply doesn’t work, especially when both traditional search and AI search are now being asked, “Who is the best agent in this area?”  

Jimmy Burgess’s recent columns are gold in terms of what you need to do to be found on AI. Before you write that profile or do anything else, however, you must first do a deep dive into your personal business and identify exactly where your transactions are coming from. 

10 questions to answer to find your production niche

1. What are the two top price ranges in which you sell? 
2. What are your top two productive lead generation sources? (Open house, referrals, door knocking, website, social media, video, expireds, FSBOs, etc.)
3. What are the two top age groups that you currently attract? 
4. What two types of households do you normally attract? (Single man, single woman, married with kids, empty nesters. Specify size. )
5. What two types of careers/jobs do most of your clients hold? 
6. Did you represent more buyers or sellers?
7. Where do most of your clients originate? (local, which states, countries?)
8. What are the two top areas where you sell the most property? Be specific.  
9. Name at least three things that you have in common with your clients.
10. Name at least three things that your clients have in common with each other. 

Here’s a sample business planning spreadsheet I’ve used in my training for years. While this may take you some time to complete, it’s essential to your success before you ever open an AI chatbot. The reason? It identifies your greatest strengths based on your production.

This data is your beginning point to share with the LLM of your choice, because it tells the LLM way more than just words alone about who you are and what your business actually is today. (Include your last closed for the past 18 months or your 25 most recent closings).  

Here is an example from one of my past clients. (Please note the abbreviations mean the following: 

Total Volume = $12,356,000

*Lead Source: PCB= Past client buying, PCL= Past client listing, PCR = Past Client referral for new business, Sphere = Referral from SOI  

**Family Type: C-kids = couple with kids at home; Couple = with no kids at home; Single = Never married M or F or Unmarried. M-W Divorce = Represented Man or Woman, in a Divorce

The last two rows show the categories where this agent generated the bulk of her business. Specifically, 

• Her sweet spot for houses (36 percent) was between $500,000-$630,000.
• Her second sweet spot for condos (24 percent) was between $210,000-$295,000. 
• Her greatest source of business (48 percent) was from past clients.
• She has a very clearly defined niche based on the age of her clients — 56 percent were between the ages of 40 and 50.
• Of her total number of transactions, 44 percent were with single women or women going through a divorce, and 56 percent were working in high tech. 
• 60 percent of her business was listings (32 percent houses in Oak Hill and 28 percent from condos in Playa). Note that she had three transactions with people from India. I suggested that she double down on marketing to this group. She did so and got a $2 million listing and a $4 million sale. 

Turning this data into prompts

This is the power of starting with your actual production data instead of guessing what niche you “should” have.

Once the pattern is clear, you can immediately turn those insights into prompts that create “AI-readable trust.” Here are five prompts you can copy and use today:

• Bio prompt: “Write a one-sentence professional bio for me as a real estate agent whose primary niche is high-tech professionals aged 40–50, especially single women and women in transition, in the $210,000-$630,000 range in the Oak Hill and Playa areas.”
• Content prompt: “Create a 30-day content calendar for me as a real estate agent specializing in high-tech professionals and women in life transitions in those neighborhoods, focused on helpful, local, non-salesy posts.”
• Review prompt: “Write a warm email I can send to recent clients asking for a detailed review. I am a real estate agent who specializes in high-tech professionals, single women/women in transition, 40-50 years old, in Oak Hill and Playa.”
• YouTube prompt: “Give me 8-10 YouTube video title and description ideas for me as a real estate agent specializing in high-tech professionals aged 40-50, especially single women and women in transition, in the Oak Hill and Playa areas.”
• India expansion prompt: “Create three sample LinkedIn or email messages to expand my high-tech niche to clients from India. I’ve already closed three transactions with Indian clients and want to build genuine relationships.”

AI is powerful, but it can only amplify what you share with it. Do your homework first by using the production profile above to identify your actual production niches. Once you have those details (and AI can read spreadsheets), you’ll know where the real opportunities are in your business.

When you provide AI that level of clarity, you stop guessing and start building a business that will not only allow search engines to find you, but AI to recommend you as well.