Finding the perfect home just got easier. Here’s how to jump in.
AI is rapidly changing the way people find homes and interact with the real estate market. More and more consumers are starting their searches with tools like ChatGPT and Gemini without interacting with traditional search platforms at all, preferring to find homes through conversations and questions.
With homebuyers becoming increasingly picky in today’s expensive market, Redfin wanted to make it easier and more fun for people to find the home that’s right for them. So we did that.
Home searchers can now find homes on Redfin by describing what they want in their own words and joining the conversation to narrow their search. With the new conversational search feature, you can now comment on suggested listings to say your kitchen should be more modern, or answer follow-up questions about things like your preferred commute time or proximity to your chosen school.
How house hunters use conversational search
Whether you’re looking for a home, browsing neighborhoods, or looking to find a unique property, conversational search is the way to go. Here’s how recent users use it:
Find renovated homes: The user requested a recently renovated property within a 30-minute rush-hour commute and within their desired school district. After some back and forth, the tool showed all the homes that met the criteria in 3 minutes. Looking for a high-value home that closes quickly: The buyer wanted a vacant home for less than $1 million that was move-in ready. The tool returned 13 single-family homes that met your criteria. Look for a home with high-end lighting: A home hunter wanted to see a home with high-end lighting and smart features such as small-diameter architectural lighting. The tool informed the customer that the seller may not have listed these specific features, but it still found a listing that met their exact criteria. Looking for an investment property: Another user was looking for an investment property within a budget with strict HOA restrictions, size requirements, and radius restrictions. Although these are not filters available to consumers, conversational search allowed them to find what they needed through natural conversation.
How to get started with conversational search
Built in Sierra, conversational search is built directly into the Redfin home search experience. Explain what you’re looking for, just as you would talk to a friend.
Here’s how to get started:
Visit Redfin.com and sign in. Click the search bar and you’ll see the option to try conversational search. Conversational search can also be accessed from the home page, map view, list page, or directly from Redfin.com/chat. Once you start describing the type of home you want, the tool will ask you follow-up questions to narrow your search.
You can react in real time while viewing property information. For example, you can say you want a bigger backyard or ask if your home is close to a nearby park. The tool adjusts on the fly and refines its results as the conversation continues.
Once you’ve found a home you like, you’re already in the right place to contact an agent, set up a tour, get pre-approved for a mortgage, and take the next steps in the home buying process.
How to get the most out of conversational search
Conversational search returns responses based on user input. Please be as detailed as possible about the type of home you are looking for. The more detailed the better. for example:
Instead of “Show me homes with pools in Chicago,” say, “Show me homes with pools in Chicago under $2 million, within 25 minutes of Willis Tower and near the L station.” Instead of “Find a cheap, quiet home in Detroit,” say, “Find a fixer-upper in the Burbank neighborhood of Detroit, on a quiet street near a park, with no HOA dues, for under $150,000.” Instead of “Show me a green home in Seattle,” say, “Show me a $1 million new or renovated home in Seattle with smart features, green technology, and modern interiors near Magnuson Park.”
Once you have your results, you can continue to make further improvements. You can ask follow-up questions, point out what you like or don’t like, and add new details as they come to mind. Tools are adjusted according to the task.
Importantly, Conversational Search cannot act as a licensed real estate agent. This means we can’t give you any substantive advice or tell you what you should or shouldn’t do. This makes your search easier and more intuitive, so you can spend less time sorting through listings and more time finding the home that’s right for you.
The future of house hunting is now
Artificial intelligence is changing the way people find information online, and finding a home is no exception.
With Conversational Search, Redfin uses AI to make the home search process smarter, more personal, and more accessible. We help you find the needle in the haystack. We will examine every haystack and provide detailed information on the type of needles you are looking for.
Conversational Search extends Redfin’s leadership in using AI to transform real estate and adds to product lines such as Redfin Estimate (real-time home prices), Ask Redfin (Q+A for housing questions), and Buying Power (personalized affordability calculator). Every innovation reflects Redfin’s commitment to making homebuying smarter, fairer, and more accessible.
Try conversational search by simply searching for homes on Redfin.com today. It’s built into the search experience on the home page, maps, and listing pages. You can also go directly to Redfin.com/chat. Support for iOS and Android will begin in December.
