Source-linked AI summary
Generative AI Use Cases In Real Estate Marketing: Adoption and Constraints in Germany
Victor Kolominsky-Rabas, Leopold Müller, Felicia Perpina, Niklas Kühl
TL;DR
Evidence on real estate agents’ day-to-day GenAI use is scarce, and the study examines current and potential use cases through eleven interviews in Germany. It finds use across activities, with marketing communication prominent and agents retaining review and decision roles.
Problem
Evidence on how real estate agents actually use GenAI remains scarce, and country-specific practices make it uncertain which findings transfer to Germany.
Source: §1 · p. 1Method
Results
Takeaways & Limitations
The study maps current and potential use cases and identifies practical adoption challenges involving data access, workflow integration, output verification, and compliance-sensitive tasks.
Source: §1 · p. 2, §6 · p. 8The small qualitative sample of agents with AI experience limits statistical generalization and cannot explain non-use, resistance, or barriers among agents who have not experimented with AI.
Source: §5.2 · p. 8
Abstract
from arXiv · showhide
Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is changing how work is organized and performed. Real estate marketing is a prime example of this, yet evidence of GenAI in real estate agents' day-to-day practice remains scarce. In this work, we report on our insights from a German-based empirical study with eleven semi-structured interviews. GenAI is already utilized across different activities, with marketing communication being the most prominent. Concrete use cases are emergent and unevenly adopted, with writing expos\'e texts being the only widely established one. Interaction is predominantly human-in-the-loop: GenAI drafts, structures, and retrieves, while real estate agents curate, verify, and decide. Constraints stem less from model capability than from integration with listings and documents, data availability, and compliance in sensitive tasks. The study contributes a grounded map of existing and potential use cases and identifies tentative practical implications for adoption.
1 Introduction
Evidence on German real estate agents’ day-to-day GenAI use is scarce, and practices may not transfer across national contexts. The study maps current and potential marketing use cases and adoption constraints, finding predominantly human-in-the-loop work.
1 Introduction
- German real estate marketing is an information-intensive setting shaped by fragmented information practices, formal property documents, and European data-protection and AI-governance requirements.The study focuses on Germany because transaction routines, data infrastructures, and regulation are country-specific.Source: §1 · p. 1
- Agents transform incomplete property information into exposés, listings, social media content, client communication, and sales material while maintaining factual accuracy and regulatory compliance.The introduction also describes uneven experimentation and limited routine organizational integration despite estimates of substantial GenAI potential in German real estate.Source: §1 · p. 1
- Evidence on real estate agents’ actual GenAI use remains scarce, while existing U.S. findings may not transfer directly to Germany because practices vary across countries.The study asks which use cases German agents already apply and which GenAI use cases could support real estate marketing.Source: §1 · p. 1
- The study maps current and potential GenAI use cases in German real estate marketing, with agents verifying outputs, exercising judgment, and remaining accountable.It also identifies adoption challenges around listings, regulatory documents, data availability, and compliance-sensitive tasks.Source: §1 · p. 2
2 Background and related work
The background situates GenAI use cases within real estate agents’ transaction work and distinguishes GenAI tasks from established technologies. Prior research offers limited empirical evidence on day-to-day marketing practice, motivating a task-level study of current and anticipated use in Germany.
2.1 Core activities of real estate agents
- The study frames GenAI use cases within the real estate transaction flow, from acquisition and intake through marketing, viewings, closing, and handover.The activities provide a practical framework for locating where agents may use GenAI.Source: §2.1 · p. 2, §2 · p. 2
2.2 Generative artificial intelligence in real estate marketing
- GenAI is treated as a substantive component when it generates, rewrites, summarizes, interprets, or visually transforms real estate marketing content, or orchestrates such steps.The study distinguishes these tasks from analytics, workflow automation, and rule-based software, without assuming every technical step is uniquely GenAI-based.Source: §2.2 · p. 2
- Empirical evidence on day-to-day GenAI use in real estate marketing remains limited, and prior work largely addresses other AI applications or conceptual proposals without empirical validation.Existing empirical work includes social media marketing, property-description generation, and U.S. practitioner sentiment; this study shifts from broad sentiment to concrete tasks in Germany.Source: §2.2 · p. 2
3 Methodology
The study uses interviews with German real estate agents who actively use AI to identify current and potential marketing use cases. An iterative Gioia-style analysis organizes their accounts into concepts, themes, and aggregate dimensions.
3 Methodology
- Eleven semi-structured interviews with agents from different German companies were conducted between June and August 2025, averaging 29.6 minutes.Participants were recruited through convenience and snowball sampling and covered mixed real estate activities.Source: §3 · p. 2
- Eligibility required active professional AI use, and the sample included six men and five women averaging 11.2 years in the industry.Participants reported 5–50 closed transactions annually; the study notes non-users are important for examining resistance but less able to report practiced use cases.Source: §3 · p. 2
- The researchers iteratively coded current and potential use cases, deriving first-order concepts, second-order themes, and aggregate dimensions through open coding and author workshops.Coding proceeded in two cycles, and theoretical saturation was not claimed because new concepts emerged in the final interviews.Source: §3 · pp. 2–3
4 Results
The findings map current and potential GenAI use across real estate marketing and related agent activities. Marketing communication accounts for the largest share of participant-level use-case references, while adoption varies across specific applications.
4.1 Marketing communication
- Marketing spans exposés, listings, visuals, websites, and ads; exposé drafting is established, while other applications—including image editing, social posts, and floor-plan visualization—vary between current and potential use.Image edits can misrepresent a property's actual condition and create reputational risks if clients see differences during viewings.Source: §4.1 · pp. 3–4, Figure 1 · p. 4
4.2 Acquisition preparation
- Two REAs currently aggregate publicly available listings, while cross-portal searches, client matching, regulatory flags, and focused shortlists are described as potential acquisition-preparation uses.Filtering narrows an aggregated pool using criteria such as client preferences.Source: §4.2 · p. 4, Figure 2 · p. 5
4.3 Property analysis
- GenAI supports location analysis, investment KPIs, and review of regulatory documents; KPI outputs are drafting or explanation aids, not substitutes for validated analytics or spreadsheets.Current document review includes extracting regulatory figures and building constraints from development plans; land-register review is a potential use.Source: §4.3 · pp. 4–5, Figure 2 · p. 5
4.4 Sales
- Sales uses include limited current screening of public information and drafting non-binding reservation templates, while most screening and formal contract generation remain potential amid data-sensitivity and liability concerns.Participants cited uncertainty about GDPR and EU AI Act compliance for screening and emphasized human involvement around legal enforceability and liability.Source: §4.4 · p. 5
4.5 General communication
- General communication coordinates client relationships and transactions rather than producing promotional materials; current text drafting and refinement sit alongside potential automated replies and message organization.Examples include routine inquiry replies, viewing arrangements, negotiation phrasing, and future voicemail-to-record workflows.Source: §4.5 · pp. 5–6, Figure 3 · p. 6
4.6 General knowledge support
- General knowledge support spans tasks using real-estate-specific material, including business advice, situational information, document retrieval, and preliminary legal answers.One reported document-retrieval use locates details in development plans and reduces manual review time; adoption of legal-question support is mixed.Source: §4.6 · p. 6
4.7 Code distribution
- 47.7% of participant-level first-order use-case references concern marketing communication, followed by general communication (16.5%), property analysis (14.7%), acquisition preparation (9.2%), general knowledge support (7.3%), and sales (4.6%).These percentages are descriptive, not representative adoption rates; acquisition-target aggregation has the largest potential-versus-current gap and was mentioned by five REAs.Source: §4.7 · pp. 6–7, Figure 5 · p. 7
5 Interpretation and discussion
GenAI use spans real estate activities, but text-centric marketing is the most established area; elsewhere, integration, data, and compliance constraints shape adoption. Agents generally retain review and decision-making, and the study’s sample limits generalization.
5 Interpretation and discussion
- Marketing communication dominates because text-centric tasks allow outputs to be reviewed quickly; exposé writing is the only broadly established use case.Other areas, including acquisition preparation and document-related knowledge support, are also salient but less standardized and less routine.Source: §5 · pp. 7–8
5.1 Practical and theoretical implications
- Marketing suits low-risk experimentation, while acquisition aggregation calls for human review and personal-data tasks call for auditable, compliance-aware processes.The practical implications are tentative because the study did not directly investigate system design, law, or training.Source: §5.1 · p. 8
5.2 Limitations and future work
- The small qualitative sample of AI-experienced agents limits statistical generalization and cannot explain non-use or resistance among agents who have not tried AI.The authors also call for research on legal feasibility and technical implementation of specific use cases.Source: §5.2 · p. 8
6 Conclusion
Interviews and inductive analysis map current and potential GenAI use across the German real estate-agent workflow. They show early adoption alongside review and oversight work, with practical challenges around access, integration, verification, and compliance.
6 Conclusion
- Interviews and inductive analysis provide an overview of current and potential GenAI use cases across the German real estate-agent workflow.The study presents its account as the first empirical account of German agents’ GenAI use in real estate marketing.Source: §6 · p. 8
- In many reported practices, GenAI shifts parts of agents’ work toward review, verification, and oversight.Source: §6 · p. 8
- Adoption challenges include data access, workflow integration, output verification, and compliance-sensitive tasks; the field remains at an early stage.The authors call for work tracking adoption, evaluating governance and AI-literacy programs, and developing implementable pipelines.Source: §6 · p. 8