Yesterday, I opened an email that made my jaw drop.
A $2,000 bill for bookkeeping services. With a 261-line spreadsheet attached.
I looked at that spreadsheet for about 30 seconds. Then I opened ChatGPT.
What I Did Next
I uploaded the spreadsheet to ChatGPT and typed one sentence:
*"Categorize these transactions by type, flag any unusual expenses, and give me a summary of my top 5 spending categories."*
It took 47 seconds.
The output was cleaner than anything I'd received from my bookkeeper. It caught two duplicate charges I'd missed. It flagged a subscription I'd forgotten about that was costing me $89/month.
The Real Cost of Not Using AI
I'm not saying fire your bookkeeper. I'm saying understand what you're paying for.
If you're paying $2,000 for someone to categorize transactions in a spreadsheet — that's a task AI can do in under a minute.
The value of a good bookkeeper is in the interpretation, the strategy, the tax planning. Not the data entry.
Three AI Tools Every Real Estate Agent Should Use
1. ChatGPT (or Claude) for document analysis Upload any PDF, spreadsheet, or contract and ask questions about it. Summarize it. Find inconsistencies. Extract key data.
2. Notion AI for note-taking and follow-up After every client meeting, paste your notes into Notion AI and ask it to generate a follow-up email, a task list, and a summary.
3. Otter.ai for meeting transcription Record every Zoom call. Otter transcribes it automatically. Ask ChatGPT to summarize the key decisions and action items.
The Bottom Line
AI won't replace you. But an agent who uses AI will replace an agent who doesn't.
Start with one task this week. Pick the thing you do most often that feels like data entry. Try doing it with AI first.
You might be surprised.
— Keith
