Yesterday, in Row 31 on a flight home from Sydney, a game I play with ChatGPT gave me a fresh angle on property marketing.
And let’s face it, in a buyer’s market, every one percenter helps.
The game starts with a prompt:
Go into my email and tell me something interesting. Let’s teach each other something.
Yes, this is my idea of in-flight entertainment. Make of that what you will.
ChatGPT gets more context about my interests and experience; I discover connections I might not have made on my own. It also helps me cherry-pick something interesting from the newsletters piling up in my inbox. (There are only so many hours in a day; I subscribe to other people’s stuff as though there are considerably more.)
This time, it spent nearly three minutes thinking before bringing up Anne-Laure Le Cunff’s Ness Labs newsletter about the ‘fresh start’ effect.
A new year, birthday or school term can make us feel more ready to change something. We get a little distance from the version of ourselves who meant to start last Monday.
Cool. We know this. It’s why New Year’s resolutions get made, and broken.
But then ChatGPT made a connection I hadn’t considered: moving home is a fresh start too. Part of the appeal might be the person we imagine becoming when we live there, whether we’re buying or renting.
That connects with James Clear’s identity-based habits in Atomic Habits: start with the kind of person you want to become, then build habits that reinforce that identity.
So here’s the property marketing question: could this home make those habits easier?
I’ve written before about creating buyer personas before asking AI for listing copy. This conversation added another layer: ChatGPT asked whether my persona prompt considered who that person hoped to become.
A home might give that change somewhere to happen. Here’s how I’d build that into the marketing.
1. Build the persona from the home’s features
Give AI the verified features of the house and its location, or use Ailsa to do this. Ask which buyers or tenants it might suit, and why. Each persona should connect back to something the property actually offers.
Take golf. A home with convenient access to a course might suit someone who wants to play more often. That’s one possible customer to explore.
2. Explore their interests, then what they want from them
Ask AI what interests each persona might have, based on the property’s features and what you know about the customer. Then go a step further: what might they want to do more of, improve at or finally begin?
“Interested in golf” could mean wanting a lower handicap, more time playing with friends, or the confidence to take it up. Different aspirations, different messages.
Living nearby could make shorter practice sessions possible.
These are possibilities to test. When you’re speaking with an actual buyer or tenant, ask: “What would you love to do more of that your current home or location makes difficult?”
3. Use that understanding to choose audiences and write hooks
The interest helps you work out where to reach people: perhaps a local club newsletter or golf-related community. The aspiration helps you decide what to say.
“Close to the local golf course” tells someone where the home is.
“Make room for nine holes after work” helps them imagine what living there could make possible.
You could also try:
“Imagine having time to work on that handicap.”
“More time on your swing. Less time getting to the course.”
Check the practical details, including course access, before using these. A nearby course can make practice more convenient; the house won’t improve anyone’s swing for them.
Try this with your next sale or rental listing:
Help me develop customer personas, audiences and advertising hooks for this property.
Sale or rental: [details]
Verified house features and location facts: [details]
Relevant customer insights I already have: [details]
1. Suggest three plausible buyer or tenant personas. Explain which property facts support each.
2. For each persona, suggest relevant interests and aspirations: what might they want to do more of, improve at or begin? Label inferred interests and aspirations as hypotheses to test.
3. Connect each aspiration to an obstacle and a property feature that could make a useful routine easier. Drop weak connections.
4. Suggest relevant audiences and places to reach them. Identify what needs checking.
5. Write three distinct hooks per persona. Explain the supporting facts, then develop the strongest into a Facebook ad opening and two sentences of listing copy.
Use Australian English. Ask for missing details. Don’t invent property facts or promise personal outcomes.That’s what I like about my version of in-flight entertainment. ChatGPT brought a fresh connection; together we worked out how it might apply to real estate.
Happy Hunting 🚀
PS. The little golfing promo video was created with Seedance 2.5
This column first appeared on Samantha McLean’s Substack, samanthamclean.substack.com.