AI advice tends to land in one of two buckets: it’s either so technical that your eyes glaze over, or it’s so obvious that it becomes redundant. Fortunately, New York Times bestselling author (and self-described non-tech guy) John Lee knows how to split the difference. He recently sat down with Jason Abrams on the MREA Podcast to discuss how to make AI work for your real estate business.
Spoiler alert: most people are using AI like a search bar, when they should really be using it like a new hire.
Take the “L” Out of It
Lee’s own story started far from Silicon Valley. As a dishwasher at his mom’s Chinese takeout, then an animator turned entrepreneur, his education in business wasn’t exactly “textbook”. But along the way, a mentor gave him a piece of wordplay he’s carried ever since: Drop the L from “learn” and you get “earn.”
If you’re not learning, you’re probably not earning. Sure, it’s a simple frame, but the reality is that the agents who get the most out of AI aren’t the most technical. They’re the most curious.
Find the 4%, Not the Hours
Before the conversation ever got to AI, Lee laid out how he thinks about effort in the first place.
While a lot of people understand that 80% of your results come from 20% of your causes (aka the 80/20 rule), Lee pushes it a layer deeper. “Look at the 20% of that 20%” he said, “and you’ll usually find a slim slice of activity (he puts it at around 4%) driving something like 96% of your results.” The takeaway isn’t “work harder.” It’s that the agents getting the most out of their time have already found their 4% and built everything else around protecting it.
Which is helpful framing when you consider that AI is really just about enabling you to spend more of your time on the 4%, and less on everything else.
The Mistake Everyone Makes
Ask most people what they do with AI, and they’ll describe a glorified Google search. “That’s the whole problem,” Lee said. The fix is something he calls “reverse prompting,” where instead of asking AI questions, you ask it to ask you questions, surfacing the blind spots you didn’t know you had. It’s about treating AI less like an oracle and more like an employee. It’s something you delegate specific, monetizable tasks to, not something you consult.
He organizes it into five skills worth actually learning:
How to talk to AI in specific, non-generic prompts.
How to spot the repetitive tasks worth automating.
How to “vibe code” simple tools (without knowing how to program).
How to build a knowledge base out of everything you’ve already said and written.
How to connect your tools together (Model Context Protocol or MCP integration) so a summary turns into an actual task landing on someone’s desk.
Put It to Work
If you’re an agent starting from zero, here’s where Lee’s advice gets concrete.
Record your prospecting calls and run sentiment analysis on your best performers to find the pattern. For example, when he started doing this, he found his own conversion jumped the moment he started saying “okay, here’s the paperwork” instead of “sign here.”
Automate the admin tasks nobody likes, like turning a batch of listing photos into a polished walkthrough video.
Build a personal brand, even a small one. He created a fictitious character with zero real-world presence and it pulled 1.9 million views and 46,000 followers in its first 30 days. The lesson isn’t “go viral.” It’s that visibility compounds faster than most agents assume.
Get Found Before They Ask
Building a brand is one thing. Getting it in front of the right people is another.
Lee says most agents are optimizing for a search engine that’s already fading. His trick: Type a client question into Google, scroll to the “people also ask” box, and, voila, you’ve got a list of the exact questions real buyers and sellers are typing in. “That’s not search engine optimization anymore,” he argues. “It’s answer engine optimization, because people are increasingly asking a chat interface for answers instead of scrolling a results page.”
Here’s where the napkin math gets tangible. “Take 420 agents, have each one post content that pulls a modest 2,000 views, and that’s 840,000 views a day — which compounds to 300 million views over a year,” he said. “Run a conservative 1% conversion on that, and you land on 3 million people in-market to buy or sell.” When you multiply that across a whole office, “post more” is no longer a vanity metric — it’s a lead source.
Will AI Replace Agents?
Abrams pushed Lee on the fear that’s on everyone’s mind, but Lee didn’t hedge. “Real estate is a people’s game,” he responded, “and that’s exactly why it’s safe.” His belief is that as AI scales, connection, collaboration, and community become scarcer, and therefore more valuable.
That’s a strong case for staying in the business. The agents who lean into relationships while automating the busywork are the ones who come out ahead.
Catch the full conversation with John Lee on the MREA Podcast, and be sure to check out his new book, Money Unlocked: How to Make It, Keep It, and Multiply It.
From Ideas to Action
Ready to take your real estate business to the next level? Good news. Gary Keller and Jason Abrams wrote the playbook. Literally. Volume 4 of the Millionaire Real Estate Agent Playbook is out now!
