Updated 20 September 2026: first published on Elite Agent in April 2025. The article has been refreshed as an AI basics guide to using SCAMPER to explore practical improvements to an agency process.
“But I’m not creative.”
Sometimes the problem is having to come up with an idea while staring at a blank page. A more useful starting question is: what could we change about something we already do?
That is the exercise in this AI basics for real estate guide. Pick one familiar process, give the AI a clear description and ask it to explore a few different ways of doing it.
The framework is SCAMPER. You can use it with pen and paper, in a team discussion or in an agency-approved AI chat tool.
What is SCAMPER?
SCAMPER is a set of seven prompts for looking at an existing idea from different directions. The University of Toronto’s facilitation guide sets out the framework. Here is my real estate application:
- Substitute: What could we use instead?
- Combine: Which related parts could work together?
- Adapt: What could we borrow and adjust from another useful process?
- Modify: What could we make simpler, smaller or clearer?
- Put to another use: Could something we already have help elsewhere?
- Eliminate: What unnecessary step could we remove?
- Reverse or rearrange: Would a different order make more sense?
These are questions for generating possibilities. An idea still needs checking before it becomes part of your service.
Which real estate task should I start with?
Choose something specific enough to describe in a paragraph: preparing a listing presentation, collecting open-home feedback or handing a campaign from one colleague to another.
“Improve my business” is a lot to ask of a first attempt. “Help me make our campaign handover clearer” gives the AI a process to work with.
Write down what happens now, who is involved, where things get stuck and what must stay. Include the limits that matter, such as the team’s available time and the tools you already use. Remove client-identifying details before sharing the notes.
Try this SCAMPER prompt
Open a new chat in your approved tool, paste the prompt and replace the brackets. The first output should be a set of ideas you can discuss.
Help me explore improvements to one real estate agency process using SCAMPER.
Process: [NAME]
What happens now: [STEPS AND ROLES]
Problem we have actually observed: [EVIDENCE]
Desired improvement: [OUTCOME]
Available time, tools and resources: [DETAILS]
Required steps and commitments that must remain: [DETAILS]
Suggest one practical idea for each SCAMPER angle: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse or Rearrange.
For each idea, explain the proposed change, why it might help, its main trade-off and what we would need to check. Use only the supplied facts about our agency. Do not claim the idea is unique in real estate or promise a business result.
Do not remove required checks, client commitments or approval steps. Flag missing information. Finish by asking me which idea I want to explore before making an implementation plan.What might a useful idea look like?
Fictional example: a team describes a campaign handover where the same information is copied into several messages. “Combine” might suggest one agreed handover summary with links to the source records.
That is a possibility to test. You would still need to check who can access the records, which information belongs in the summary and whether the receiving colleague finds it useful. Combining messages should not make a required approval disappear.
Look for that level of detail in the AI’s answer. If it says “automate communication”, ask it to explain the exact step it would change using the tools and permissions you supplied.
Choose one idea to test
Review the suggestions with the person responsible for the process. Remove ideas that depend on facts or capabilities you have not established.
Pick one manageable change and decide what a useful test would show. A handover test could check whether the next colleague can find the required information without chasing it. Keep the original process available while you test the draft.
You do not need seven changes just because SCAMPER has seven letters. One useful improvement is a worthwhile result.
For more scenarios and the original experiment, read my free SCAMPER guide. Once you have agreed a process, you can turn a recording into a written SOP so colleagues can follow it.
The original version first appeared in Samantha McLean’s AI Powered Agents newsletter. The refreshed guide is available on AI Powered Real Estate by Samantha McLean, now on Substack.