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For two decades, a buyer looking for an agent did one of two things: they asked someone they knew, or they typed "best real estate agent near me" into Google. A growing number now do something different. They open ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, or Claude and simply ask, "Who is the best agent for buying a condo in [neighborhood]?" The AI gives them a short list of names. Most agents have no idea this is happening, and even fewer know how to make sure their name is on that list.
That shift matters more this edition than it would have a year ago, because the old distribution system is fracturing at the same time. Listings are being pulled off Zillow in entire metro areas as MLSs and the largest brokerage in the country fight over who controls where homes get marketed. When the portals get less reliable, the agents who own their own discoverability win.
In this edition: the Generative Engine Optimization playbook that gets you recommended when buyers ask AI for an agent, the tool that turns a written script into a talking-avatar property video without a camera, and the escalating Zillow versus MLS war that is making listings vanish from the most-visited real estate site in the country.
Let's get into it.
How to Get Recommended When Buyers Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity for an Agent
There is a new front door to your business, and most agents do not know it exists. When a buyer or seller asks an AI assistant to recommend a local agent, the tool does not pull names at random. It synthesizes signals from sources it trusts: your Google Business Profile, your Zillow and Realtor.com profiles, your website, your reviews, your social bios, and any place your name appears tied to local market expertise.
The practice of structuring your digital presence so AI models can find you, understand what you do, and recommend you is called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Think of it as the successor to local SEO. Traditional SEO optimized for Google's algorithm with keywords and backlinks. GEO optimizes for how large language models pull information together to answer a question. The agents who get this right become the name the AI repeats. The agents who ignore it stay invisible to a fast-growing slice of buyers and sellers.
Here is why it is worth your attention right now: leads that arrive after an AI recommendation tend to close at a meaningfully higher rate than generic website leads, because the consumer has already pre-qualified themselves through the conversation before they ever reach out. They are not kicking tires. They asked for an expert and were handed your name.
Here is the playbook.
Step 1: Run the NAP consistency audit
NAP stands for Name, Address, Phone. AI models cross-reference your business information across every platform. If your name is "Jane Smith" on Google, "Jane R. Smith" on Zillow, and "The Smith Group" on your website, with three different phone numbers, the AI loses confidence that these are the same entity, and confidence is what gets you recommended.
Pull up all of the following and make the core details identical:
Google Business Profile
Zillow profile
Realtor.com profile
Your website (especially footer and contact page)
Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn bios
Your brokerage's roster page
Pick one exact version of your name, phone number, and business identity. Make every platform match.
Step 2: Build out every profile completely, with explicit geography
AI tools look for specific, detailed geographic signals when matching agents to queries. Do not leave fields blank. On your Google Business Profile, Zillow, and Realtor.com, explicitly list every city, neighborhood, condo community, and ZIP code you serve.
A buyer asking "Who knows the [specific condo building] market?" will only be matched to an agent whose profile and content actually name that building. Generic "serving the greater metro area" language does not get matched. Specific does.
On your Google Business Profile specifically:
Use the correct categories (Real Estate Agent, Real Estate Consultant)
Write a complete, detailed business description naming your market areas and specialties
Post regular updates (activity signals that your business is current)
Fill out the Q&A section using the answer-first format below
Add fresh photos on a regular basis
Step 3: Publish hyperlocal content in the answer-first format
This is where most agents leave the biggest opportunity on the table. AI tools are trained on and cite content. The more high-quality, hyperlocal content you publish about your specific market, the more likely AI is to treat you as the authority.
The format matters as much as the topic. AI favors content that answers a question directly and immediately. Use this structure for every neighborhood page, blog post, and FAQ:
Bold the exact question at the top of the section.
Answer it in one or two sentences immediately below.
Then expand with context, data, and your expertise.
The single highest-converting topic for buyers is "best neighborhoods in [city] for [buyer profile]." Write one page per top neighborhood you serve. Aim for 10 to 15 neighborhood pages within 90 days. Each one is a separate doorway through which an AI can find and recommend you.
Step 4: Stack your trust signals (reviews and citations)
Two signals carry outsized weight with AI models:
Reviews. Agents with a high volume of recent, specific reviews get recommended far more often. Reviews that mention your specialties (first-time buyers, luxury, a specific neighborhood, negotiation, responsiveness) are stronger than generic five-star ratings, because they reinforce the exact terms an AI matches against. Prioritize getting to and past 100 Google reviews, and ask happy clients to mention specifics.
Citations. When local news sites, community blogs, or real estate publications quote you as a market expert, AI treats that as third-party validation. Reach out to local reporters covering housing. Offer to be a source on market trends. Comment publicly and substantively. Every external citation strengthens the model's confidence that you are a legitimate authority.
Step 5: Handle the technical basics
Two quick technical items that most agents never check:
Schema markup. Add structured data to your website that explicitly identifies you as a real estate agent and ties your pages to specific locations. This helps AI parse who you are and what you cover. Most modern website platforms support this, or your web person can add it in an afternoon.
Allow AI crawlers. Check your website's robots.txt file to confirm you are not accidentally blocking AI crawlers like GPTBot. If the crawlers cannot read your site, they cannot recommend you.
Step 6: Track it so you know it's working
Add chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, and claude.ai as lead sources in your CRM. When a new lead comes in, ask where they first heard about you. As AI-sourced leads start appearing, you will be able to see the closing rate for yourself, and it is usually a pleasant surprise.
You can also test your own progress directly: open ChatGPT and ask it to recommend a real estate agent in your market and specialty. See whether you appear. Re-check monthly as you build out the signals above.
Your next step: Start with the NAP audit. It takes 30 minutes and it is the foundation everything else builds on. Open your Google Business Profile, Zillow, Realtor.com, website, and social bios side by side, pick one exact version of your name and contact details, and make every platform match. Then block time to write your first three neighborhood pages in the answer-first format.
Turn a Written Script Into a Talking-Avatar Property Video, No Camera Required
Most agents know video wins, and most agents still barely produce any. The reason is almost never the idea.
It is the friction: the lighting, the script memorization, the retakes, the editing, the simple discomfort of being on camera.
A busy agent juggling active listings and pending escrows rarely has the bandwidth to film three to five videos a week, even though they know they should.
HeyGen removes that friction entirely.
It is an AI video platform that generates a talking-avatar presenter from a written script. You can use a library of stock presenters, or you can create a digital twin of yourself by recording a short two-minute clip once. From then on, you type or paste a script, and your avatar delivers it on camera, looking and sounding like you, without you ever setting up a camera again..
Set expectations correctly, because this is where agents get confused. HeyGen creates the presenter, not the cinematic walkthrough. Your AI avatar introduces and narrates the property, the neighborhood, and the key features. You pair that presenter footage with your listing photos and any walkthrough video you have, and the result is a polished, presenter-led property video that feels like you personally walked the buyer through the home.
It is the difference between a listing that is just a photo gallery and a listing where you, the agent, personally introduce the property and explain why it matters. The presenter is the part that used to require a camera and a good hair day. HeyGen makes it a typing exercise.
The use cases that matter for agents
Listing introduction videos. A 2 to 3 minute presenter video for every new listing that walks buyers through the location, key features, and lifestyle, wrapped around your property photos. Lives on the listing page, your YouTube channel, and social.
Weekly market updates. Your avatar delivers a consistent, branded market update every week without you blocking time to film.
Neighborhood explainers. Build the same hyperlocal video content that feeds the GEO strategy in this edition's tip.
Multilingual outreach. This is HeyGen's standout real estate feature. It can translate and lip-sync the same video into 175+ languages. In a market with multiple language communities, you can deliver a listing introduction in English, Spanish, and Mandarin from one script. Almost no other tool does this well.
Fast responses to leads. Generate a personalized video reply to a Zillow or website lead in minutes instead of typing an email.
How agents use it
Create your digital twin once by recording a clean two-minute clip (speak naturally, minimal big movements, slightly higher energy than feels normal)
Write your script, or draft it with ChatGPT, covering location, key features, lifestyle benefits, and a clear call to action (200 to 400 words for a listing intro)
Paste the script into HeyGen and generate the avatar video (renders typically in under 30 minutes)
Pair the presenter intro and outro with your listing photos or walkthrough footage in any basic video editor
Translate the same video into the other languages your market speaks, if relevant
Publish to the listing page, YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn
Pricing
Plan | Monthly Cost | What's Included |
|---|---|---|
Free | $0 | 3 videos/month, up to 1 min each, watermark, access to stock avatars |
Creator | $29/mo ($24 annual) | Videos up to 30 min, 1080p export, custom digital twin, watermark removal, voice cloning, 175+ languages, 600 credits/mo |
Pro | Starts at $49/mo | Everything in Creator, more credits for advanced avatar generation, higher volume |
Business | $149/mo + $20/seat | Team collaboration, multiple custom avatars, centralized billing |
For most solo agents, the Creator plan at $29/mo (or $24 annual) is the right starting point. It includes a custom digital twin, watermark removal, and the multilingual translation that makes the tool genuinely differentiated. The Free plan is enough to test the concept with a stock presenter before you commit.
For context: a videographer charges $300 to $800 per property for a presenter-led walkthrough. The Creator plan covers unlimited presenter video across every listing for the price of one inexpensive lunch per month.
Who it's for:
Camera-shy agents who know they need video but cannot get themselves to film consistently
Agents who want a listing introduction video for every property without a per-listing production cost
Agents serving multilingual markets who want to reach buyers in their own language
Anyone already using ChatGPT to write scripts who wants a fast way to turn that text into video
Who it's NOT for:
Agents who want true cinematic property footage or drone walkthroughs (HeyGen is the presenter, not the camera work; pair it with real property visuals)
Agents who specifically want authentic, in-person, unpolished on-camera presence as their brand (some audiences prefer raw realness over avatar polish, and that is a legitimate choice)
Where to start: heygen.com. Free signup, no credit card required. Write a 200-word intro for one of your current listings, generate it with a stock avatar, and you will know within 20 minutes whether it fits your brand.
Bottom line: Video has been the most-recommended and least-executed real estate marketing tactic for years, and the reason has always been production friction. HeyGen removes the friction. The honest caveat is that it produces a presenter, not a cinematic tour, so use it to put your face and voice on every listing and market update at scale, and keep real property footage for the walkthrough itself.
Listings Are Disappearing From Zillow as MLSs Cut Off the Feed. Here's What's Happening and What to Tell Your Sellers.
The legal fight between Zillow and the largest brokerage in the country escalated into something agents and sellers can now see directly: listings vanishing from the most-visited real estate site in America.
The sequence of events:
Earlier this month, Zillow filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Compass and Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED), the Chicago-area MLS, alleging they conspired to pressure Zillow into displaying private listings.
MRED then suspended its listing feed to Zillow and Trulia, pulling more than 40,000 Chicagoland listings off the platform, citing what it called a "material breach" of its license agreement (specifically, Zillow's Listing Access Standards, which ban listings that are publicly marketed for more than one day before hitting the MLS feed).
A federal judge partially granted Zillow emergency relief and ordered MRED to restore the feed, while also ordering Zillow to display nine Compass listings it had previously banned.
Now Realtracs, the Nashville MLS serving roughly 18,000 members across Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia, has set a May 31 deadline and is preparing to suspend Zillow's feed on June 1 unless Zillow complies with its updated IDX display rules.
Zillow's public position: it calls this "the same playbook, a coordinated campaign initiated by Compass CEO Robert Reffkin to pressure MLSs across the country into pulling sellers' listings off Zillow." Compass's position: it says it is protecting client data and seller choice, and it has declined to provide Zillow a direct listing feed.
Whatever the courts ultimately decide, the practical reality for agents is here now: in affected markets, sellers' listings can disappear from Zillow with little warning.
Why this matters beyond the two markets in the headlines
This is bigger than Chicago and Nashville for three reasons:
It signals a broader fracture. Both MRED and Realtracs have announced plans to expand nationally and have signed listing-feed agreements with Compass. The pattern is spreading, not contained. Other MLSs are watching the court fight and the June 1 deadline closely.
Portal dependency is now a real strategic risk. For years, the assumption was that a listing automatically reaches every buyer because it is on Zillow. That assumption is no longer safe in every market. Agents who built their entire buyer-side value proposition on "I'll find it on Zillow for you" and their seller-side pitch on "your home will be on Zillow" are exposed.
The consumer-facing story is loud. This is hitting mainstream coverage. Sellers will see headlines about their listings disappearing and will call their agent confused or worried. The agents who can explain it calmly and clearly will look like the trusted professional. The agents caught flat-footed will not.
This connects directly to the GEO tip in this edition. As the portals get less reliable as a distribution channel, the agents who own their own discoverability (through search, AI recommendations, and direct audience) are far less exposed to any single platform's fights.
What to tell your sellers (the proactive script)
If you work in an affected market, do not wait for your sellers to panic. Reach out first. The script:
"You may see news about listings being removed from Zillow in some markets right now. I want to get ahead of it so you are not caught off guard. There is a dispute between Zillow and some of the listing services about how homes get marketed. In a few areas, that has temporarily pulled listings off Zillow. Here is what I want you to know: your home is marketed across many channels, not just one site, and I am monitoring this closely. If anything changes for your listing specifically, I will tell you immediately and here is exactly what we will do about it. You hired me to protect your sale, and that includes staying ahead of things like this."
That conversation does three things. It positions you as informed and proactive. It reassures the seller that their exposure does not depend on a single website. And it reinforces that your value is in navigating exactly this kind of complexity.
What every agent (in any market) should do now
Even if your market is not affected yet:
Audit your own listing distribution. Know exactly where your listings appear and which feeds your MLS controls. If your MLS pulls a feed, you want to already know your direct-feed and syndication options.
Diversify how buyers find your listings. Your own website, your YouTube channel, your social channels, and your email database should all be live distribution channels, not afterthoughts. Portals should be one channel among many, not the whole strategy.
Build owned discoverability. This is the through-line of this entire edition. The GEO playbook and a consistent video presence are exactly how you reduce dependency on any platform that might be yanked away in a corporate fight.
Your next step: If you are in an affected or expanding market (Chicagoland, the Realtracs footprint of Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, and Georgia, or anywhere your MLS has signed a national private-listing agreement), send the proactive seller script above to your active listing clients before the next development hits the news. If you are not affected yet, spend 20 minutes mapping exactly where your listings are distributed so you are not caught off guard if the fracture reaches your market.
Quick recap:
Buyers are increasingly asking ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity to recommend an agent, and those tools recommend based on signals they trust. Run the NAP consistency audit, build out every profile with explicit geography, publish hyperlocal content in the answer-first format, stack reviews and citations, handle the schema and crawler basics, and track AI-sourced leads in your CRM.
HeyGen turns a written script into a talking-avatar property video without a camera, in 175+ languages, starting free and $24 to $29/mo for the Creator plan. It produces the presenter, not the cinematic walkthrough, so pair your avatar with real property visuals.
Listings are disappearing from Zillow as MLSs cut off the feed. MRED pulled 40,000+ Chicago listings (since restored by a judge), and Realtracs in Nashville set a June 1 cutoff. Get ahead of it with your sellers using the proactive script, and reduce your dependency on any single portal.
We'll see you in the next edition.
Know an agent who has no idea buyers are asking ChatGPT for recommendations? Forward this their way.
The Real Estate Marketing Update Team @ imFORZA