AI Can Help Sort Repairs If You Set Boundaries

AI can spit out a polished answer in seconds, but that does not mean it understands your house or your deal. We start with a cautionary story about AI “hallucinations” and how confident mistakes can create real consequences, then bring it straight into real estate: buyers are now feeding home inspection reports into ChatGPT style tools and getting back a massive list of repairs to demand. That sounds helpful until you realise the model treats a $5 cosmetic scuff and a roof leak like they belong in the same bucket. 

We walk through how to use AI responsibly during the home buying process, especially around home inspection negotiations, repair requests, and decision making. The key is setting boundaries before the inspection even happens: what is your tolerance, what is normal maintenance, what is a safety issue, and what price point makes a repair worth requesting. We also share prompt ideas that reduce noise, like asking for items likely to exceed $1,000 or anything safety related, and telling the tool to ask clarifying questions before it decides. 

Then we ground it in building science with a real moisture and mould inspection story. A wet baseboard might be a simple shower splash problem, or it might be an exterior drainage failure that keeps pushing water into the building. That difference is everything, and it is why water intrusion, roof leaks, and other “cause damage” issues usually rise to the top of the priority list. Our takeaway is simple: AI is a great assistant for organising information, but your best source for prioritising repairs is still a trusted, licensed home inspector and an experienced agent you actually trust. 

If this helped you think differently about AI in real estate, subscribe, share it with a buyer or agent friend, and leave a review. What is one repair you would never ignore in a home inspection report?

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Transcript

AI Hallucinations And Real Risks

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Alright, Laura. We AI. A lot of people talk about AI. A lot of people are using it for a variety of things.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Well, because AI knows all.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Some people think, well, it it hallucinates. They're calling it hallucination because what it will do is make up facts. Well, stories, because they're not facts. If they're an error, they're not facts. But there was an attorney who was citing these case studies for his court trial. Well use AI. Unfortunately for him, those court cases did not exist.

SPEAKER_02 0:44

AI pulled it out of its butt.

SPEAKER_01 0:47

AI. Alright. AI butt would be rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Outlet?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

I don't know. No, I don't know what it'd be. But anyway, so AI is very useful. It's a great tool, but you gotta be careful with it. One of our inspectors shared

AI Turns Inspection Into 30 Demands

SPEAKER_01 1:05

with me a post that he saw where this real estate agent was talking about how he had a home inspection done. I don't know what state this was from. It really does not matter. He had a home buyer, the buyer had an inspection done. That buyer then took that report and ran it through some AI, maybe ChatGPT, or maybe Grok, who I call Professor Grok, ran it through that and basically said, Hey, what do I need to do with this? And it came back with a list of 30 items for him to request being repaired. And it sounds like from the story that I read that a lot of things were they're all the agent said everything everything's legit. It didn't it didn't hallucinate, it didn't make up anything that's not an actual issue at some level, but there were levels of issues. Yeah, and the agent was like, some of these things are so little, you're you shouldn't. It's not normal to request little maintenance things. So my whole thought about this is that if you are a real estate agent, listen to this, you need to hedge your client off prep before they do this. With well, we've talked about this for years in some of our CE classes. We talk about or just regular office presentations that we give at real estate offices. Is uh you really need to prep your your client for first of all what to expect from that home inspection so they don't freak out about normal little things, and also prep them for what is normal or what is going to be okay to request to remedy if they have the request to remedy, what is normal to ask.

SPEAKER_02 2:56

I've even had some agents tell me that they sit down with their client and what they do is they come up with the number. Anything over, for example, a thousand dollars that would, you know, require repair on the report would be something that they would ask for. So, you know, specifying that prior. So then that way, let's say they do run it through Chat GPT or Professor Grok or whatever, you're going to have that idea of okay, this item is just cosmetic, it's just a you know, $5 piece of trim, or this is a $10 gallon of paint and some spackling. Whatever, they're gonna they're gonna have a better concept of that when they go to put that into Chat GPT and they can list, they can narrow that list down a little better.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah, because your AI, it doesn't realize it doesn't know the buyer's tolerances, doesn't know the seller's tolerances, or whether it's a seller's market or a buyer's market. Yeah, it's just a here's something it should get fixed. Like automatically, anything that's you know a minor issue or it's cosmetic should not belong on that list. Cosmetic is just cosmetic. You don't

Set Repair Tolerances Before Inspection

SPEAKER_01 4:10

you don't need to worry about that. You need to worry about more like major things like uh a serial foundation issue, roof leak, roof leak. Yeah, even if roof leaks small, you can you need to take care of that because your water is the bane of every property. Even we do you know residential, we do large commercial water causes damage to all these things.

SPEAKER_02 4:33

So you need well the girl today, all right. So we we actually went out to do a mold test and um like a moisture inspection for a young girl who lives in an apartment, and we get there, and the whole trim around the front of her apartment where the balcony was had water damage and paint peeling and swelling and potential mold because we swabbed it.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

We saw some growth there.

SPEAKER_02 5:07

So it's water coming in from the balcony where it stays and it rolls back towards her apartment, and she said she's had water come flooding into her apartment.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Now, now the same issue. So you got it was baseboard.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

You have baseboard that's wet right next to your shower. I mean, all right, that's probably less of an issue uh versus baseboard that's getting damaged and wet due to a balcony that is sloping the wrong direction and bring a water into your into your your place. Because if it's right next to the shower, just caulk it. Well, it it could be a caulking issue, it could be the curtain is was not in the right position, it wasn't long enough. Could be little kids that are in the tub splashing, have a good old time, no, totally unaware of what's going on. Because they're little kids,

Water Damage Example Changes Priorities

SPEAKER_01 6:05

because they're little kids, and and that issue around the tub would disappear as soon as you don't shower, or you change your behavior, or you or you just kind of be more than a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

The kids aren't there.

SPEAKER_01 6:16

But the outside issue, even though the damaged amount of baseboard could be the exact same length, totally different issue level because the outside you cannot stop it from raining. No, you cannot re-slope that balcony easily.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

I had a thought about that actually.

SPEAKER_00 6:36

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SPEAKER_01 7:01

What's your thought? I did also. What was your thought?

SPEAKER_02 7:03

So they have that adhesive that you can lay down on concrete and it helps another layer of concrete adhere to it. Could you do something like that and then raise that up a little bit so that it's not hitting?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

Maybe, but you don't want to raise it so your door, your slime glass door is then lower.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

I didn't I don't remember how much room she had.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Not much. Not much. My one thought for that was if if they could tile it, because tile's not all that thick, tile it and maybe put enough mortar underneath it so it slopes it outward.

SPEAKER_02 7:40

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:40

That might that might work. That way. Because you're not, it's gonna be expensive to tear down that balcon because it's sloping the wrong way. But I mean they could build that up. It would probably be really thin toward the edge, which means it'll probably be fragile and cracking. So you got other issues there, unless you seal it and and maintain the sealant on it.

SPEAKER_02 8:02

They're not gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

But the maintenance guy don't didn't fix that. They because in their attempt to fix the water coming in, they caulked shut the weep holes, which is smart. Wow, yeah, you're not supposed to do that. But I get it, they don't know what the cause is. And so I get it. They're trying, but that's that's the wrong thing. But they didn't accurately diagnose the issue. But anyway, back to the AI, you gotta know as a real estate agent, you need to have a discussion with your buyer about what is a what the level, what your tolerance level is for when a request things to be fixed for cash off, cash.

SPEAKER_02 8:46

You should know that before you even walk into the home inspection.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

And then you should have that done up front. Like you just have that discussion, get everything out of the way so that they're prepped, and then you keep reminding them, like we did with our kids. This is coming up. Do you want to do this or do you want to do this? Oh, it's like either way.

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah, it's like there's all right, hey, it's getting close to bedtime. You want to snack now, then go to bed, or you'll just want to go ahead and go to bed.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Well, snack.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

I want to snack. Okay. Either way, they agree to go to bed. The second option or one of the options give them a little choice to well, you know, stretch it out a little bit, get a little food. That's the one, that's the option I would choose as well. So they they did, you know, that's just the way it would go. But if you you are the buyer, buyer, if you are the buyer, you need to know that AI does not know anything about your tolerances. It's not your friend. You you may or you probably could eventually engineer a prompt that says, hey, I want give me a create me a list of what to ask to be repaired, but limit it to things only gonna cost me a thousand dollars or more. But it may end up having more questions for you. And actually, here's a prompt.

Better Prompts Plus Ask Your Inspector

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Using this PDF of a home inspection report, create me a list of things to request that will likely cost over a thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_02 10:14

Or that I'm a safety issue.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Ask me ask me questions before proceeding. Because it may look through and it go, it may look scan the document and go, hey, how long was that damaged baseboard? How big is your deck? How many posts are the deck? Because then it'll say then use that information maybe to figure that out. But AI's not perfect. Probably the better thing to do is use your ask your home inspector, hey, if this is your house and you're gonna buy that, what would you work on for what would be your top four thing, your top three priorities that you would fix immediately? That is probably the best thing to do.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

And if you've got an agent that's been an agent for a long time, a lot of times, you know, they've been around the block and they can help you narrow that list down too.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

If you know, like, and trust the agent.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

If you know, like, and trust the agent. Otherwise, your friendly home inspector is always here.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Well, we I've had an eight we we we've had uh well uh feedback one time from an agent who thought it was silly that the home inspector would comment that there's a light bulb in the closet that's just exposed. Thought that was silly, and I'm like no, that's that's an important thing. It's not it should have a glow brown because you know when it was more the incandescent light light bulbs, you put you stack stuff up there, that those bulbs got hot. They were a fire hazard. And here's agent like, nah, silly, don't worry about it. No, it's a fire hazard.

SPEAKER_02 11:57

Or hitting your head, the glass, like all of that.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, yep. Pulling things in out, you you tap it, it breaks. Now you got glass, it's a fire hazard. It's a silly little thing, but it's but it's still a safety issue. It's a safety issue. It's a lot of safety issues, not big deals, like uh no outlet covers. That's a safety issue. It's 30 cents probably for that part. So you so as a buyer, you need to figure out what you can take care of yourself or you want to take care of yourself or what you don't want to do.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Or what you want to learn how to take care of yourself because at some point you should start practicing and you should start doing things. And no, it's not gonna be pretty the first few times you do it, but you will get better.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

I mean, you could go, hey, run through the AI, give me the things that are only gonna cost a thousand dollars or more, and that's a go, and then send that to your inspector and go, hey, I got this list that I put through ChatGBT to to prioritize the repairs. What what threat three things would you fix first?

SPEAKER_02 12:57

Suggest first.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yeah, and I guarantee it will be take care of the water issue, whatever that is. Yes. So I think that's about it on this one. You think of anything else about this?

SPEAKER_02 13:05

No, I think that's about it.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

But no, you your inspector's gonna be the best source for you to know what's a request to get get fixed, or at least help you prioritize.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

But if you're handy, that's good. There's less you need to request. Well, think about it. The seller, if you got a house that had a lot of issues, they weren't they weren't that handy, so I would like nah, I'll fix them myself.

SPEAKER_02 13:27

I I would too.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

All right. Thank you everybody.

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Bye.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Bye-bye.