01The practical questions about a listing, and who can answer at 11 pm
Some questions about a property are practical, and the answers already sit in the listing. What does it cost, how many square metres, which floor, is there parking, how is it heated, is it still available, can I see it on Saturday? The agent may be at a viewing when such a message arrives. A chatbot that reads your own listings can reply at 23:00 with the facts you published and offer viewing slots. It earns its place on that repetitive part of the work and nowhere else. It knows nothing about a home you have not entered into its data, so it is only as good as the listing sheet behind it.
- Facts from your own listing: price, area, floor, year built, heating, parking, running costs, as you published them
- Viewing slots offered from the agent's real calendar
- A reply at any hour instead of the next morning
- Nothing it has not been given: a home missing from the data is a home it cannot discuss
02Qualifying a lead and booking a viewing
Qualifying means a few questions in the order an agent would ask them: buying or renting, which area, how many rooms, a rough budget, how soon. A chatbot can ask them, but the answers only help if they reach you. Ask any vendor whether the chat passes the conversation to the agent, with the contact details, and where the lead is stored, so the first call starts from facts rather than from 'how can I help'. Booking is the second job. When the visitor picks a slot, it should land in the calendar you already use, not in a second one someone has to reconcile. PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan lists an AI website chatbot that qualifies and books, plus booking automation and a CRM.
- Five questions at most: buy or rent, area, rooms, rough budget, timeline
- Ask any vendor: does the chat pass the conversation to the agent, with the contact details, and where is the lead stored?
- A viewing that lands in the one calendar you already use, not a second one to reconcile
- Ask what happens when the visitor requests something the bot cannot do: does a message reach the agent?
03What it must never do: value, negotiate or advise
A chatbot should not put a price on a home. A valuation is the agent's professional judgment, resting on the street, the building and what has sold nearby, and a number from a bot is hard to take back once an owner has seen it. The same goes for negotiating, for promising that a price will drop or that a home is still free, and for anything touching a contract, a mortgage or tax: those go to the agent, or to a lawyer, a bank or an accountant. It must also say it is an AI. Article 50(1) of the EU AI Act asks providers to design chatbots so that people are told they are talking to an AI, unless that is obvious, and the European Commission's FAQ says Article 50 applies from 2 August 2026.
- No valuation and no price advice: that stays with the agent
- No negotiating, and no promise that a price will drop or that a home is still available
- No contract, mortgage or tax advice: it points to the agent, a lawyer, a bank or an accountant
- An opening line that says it is an AI assistant (EU AI Act, Art. 50(1))
04Keep the data true: a sold flat is the real risk
A risk specific to property: the bot gives an answer that was true last week about a home that has since sold. It repeats what it was given, so every change of status has to reach it the same day: sold, reserved, price changed, viewing slots full. Decide before launch who owns that update, and give the bot a plain way to say it is not sure and hand the visitor to you. Test it as a stranger would, by asking about a home you sold yesterday. If you cannot name the person who updates the data every evening, the chatbot will fall behind your listings.
- One owner for listing status, with a rule: update the same day a home sells, is reserved or changes price
- A plain 'I am not sure, I will ask the agent' instead of a guess
- Test as a stranger, with a home you sold yesterday
- Read the conversations every week and correct what it got wrong
05Where PROOF48 is the wrong choice for a real estate agent
We have not built a chatbot for a real estate agent, and none of our eight published builds is one. AUTOMATE costs 2,997 EUR a month and includes everything in GROWTH below it, so for an agent with a handful of enquiries a week it is the wrong purchase: a clear contact form and a quick call back cost less. It covers website chat, AI DM and email auto-responders, booking automation and a CRM. It does not cover WhatsApp or phone calls, so if your enquiries reach you that way, the chatbot never sees them. And if your listings live only on the portals, the bot has nothing to read. A listings site with search is a web app, from 5,000 EUR, with its own timeline.
- No real estate chatbot among our eight published builds
- AUTOMATE: 2,997 EUR a month, website chat, DM and email, booking and CRM; no WhatsApp, no phone
- A few enquiries a week: a good form and a fast reply cost less
- Listings only on portals: the bot has no data to read; a listings site is a web app, from 5,000 EUR
Not an agency: a property site with an enquiry flow
None of our eight written-up builds is a real estate agency or a chatbot for one. The closest is Santorini Hotel in Eforie Nord, a business built around a property: a public site with rooms, a gallery and contact, a booking enquiry flow, and the reception, restaurant and complaints phone lines published on the page and in structured data. What carries over is that an assistant can only repeat facts that exist in a clean, public form. We have not built a searchable inventory with filters, and we do not publish the hotel's occupancy or booking figures.
See the build: Santorini HotelQuestions, answered
Can a chatbot give a price for my client's home?
No. It can repeat the asking price you published. A valuation is the agent's professional judgment, and the bot should pass that question to you.
Does the chatbot have to say it is an AI?
Art. 50(1) of the EU AI Act asks providers to design AI systems that interact with people so that those people are informed, unless it is obvious from the context, and the European Commission says Art. 50 applies from 2 August 2026. Saying so at the start is plain good practice anyway, and a lawyer can confirm how the rule applies to you.
Can PROOF48 connect the chatbot to WhatsApp or my phone line?
Not as part of AUTOMATE, which covers website chat, DM, email, booking and CRM. A standalone WhatsApp or voice assistant is a custom build, priced on request.
What does it need from me to work?
Your listings as data: price, area, floor, year built, heating, parking, status. Then your viewing hours, the questions you want it to ask, and a person who keeps the data current. Our AI assistant page describes testing against real scenarios before launch and a weekly review of conversations.
Where PROOF48 fits
A chatbot suits the repetitive written part of a real estate agent's day: facts from the listing, a short qualification, a booked viewing. Valuation, negotiation and advice stay with the agent, the bot says it is an AI, and the listing data must be kept true. PROOF48's AUTOMATE plan, at 2,997 EUR a month, builds the website chat and booking side, not WhatsApp or phone, and we say so plainly when a form and a fast call back fit better.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Cosmin has worked in online marketing and software development since 2018, and has built with AI every day since January 2023. He still writes code from scratch daily, in Python, React, Rust and C#. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, so every opinion on this blog was paid for in real builds, not in theory.