Am I Being Lazy or Smart?

by | May 9, 2025 | Real Estate

Am I Being Lazy or Smart?-AI in Real Estate Development


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Am I Being Lazy or Smart?

Welcome to the Real Estate Espresso Podcast, your morning shot of what’s new in the world of real estate investing. I’m your host, Victor Menasce. Today we’re talking about life-changing new habits and how I’m using Artificial Intelligence on a daily basis.

I have an AI assistant perpetually open on my phone and on my computer’s desktop. If you’re like most people, you probably experience decision fatigue at certain points in the day. I know I certainly do. One way I routinely use AI is to save mental calories. When I process thoughts, it seems to take less energy to subtract something than to add.

If I want to come up with an idea, I will often ask an AI tool to brainstorm ten ideas on a specific topic. It’s less draining to review the list of ten ideas, and it serves to stimulate my own thinking, rather than creating something from a blank slate.

In my household, my wife often asks me in the morning what I would like for dinner. While I appreciate her planning ahead, at that moment, I’m not hungry and am often consumed with planning other aspects of my day. The last thing I want to do is switch contexts and think about what I want to eat for dinner.

My wife also has some dietary restrictions, so I make a point not to suggest something that wouldn’t work for her. So, I ask an AI tool to give me five ideas for meals based on a few basic ingredients. From that list, I can provide her with a high-quality answer that I wouldn’t be able to devise on my own.

Some may see this as a trivial use of AI or perhaps even incredibly lazy. But for me, it’s hugely beneficial. I’m naturally curious and frequently run business scenarios in my head for fun. It’s just the way I think. But these mental exercises are often hypothetical. If the mental math is based on real numbers, not guesswork, I can derive more useful conclusions.

Let me give you an example. Recently, I stayed in a town with a small number of relatively modest hotels. The two and a half star hotel in most major cities would cost less than $100 a night. I struggled to find a hotel room for under $350 a night. In the end, I found a boutique hotel with about 20 rooms for $200 a night. I was shocked. Why was a hotel that should cost around $70 a night asking for $350? It was just a regular Thursday night in May – not high season, nor a weekend at a resort.

I was left wondering, why does this town have such poor choices for hotels? Could there be a neglected business opportunity here? Using AI, I could gain clarity in a matter of seconds without having to spend thousands on a market research report. Now, if I decide to build a hotel in this location, I will need to commission a third-party market study. But in the meantime, I can rely on an AI search result to prompt my thinking process.

I also use AI to fact-check statements made in conversations. While it doesn’t necessarily provide definitive truth, it offers an extra layer of validation. A large part of my day is spent reviewing legal documents. While I still perform a thorough and careful review, I start by asking an AI tool to check the document for consistency and highlight any inconsistencies. These steps not only save time but, more importantly, conserve mental energy, allowing me to dedicate it to more important thinking tasks.

I don’t use AI to replace thinking; I use it to aid my thought process, as a brainstorming tool. It’s much like riding an electric bicycle instead of a traditional bike. Purists may argue that a real bike is the only option, but I would contend that an electric bike address a genuine need and shouldn’t be discounted.

For instance, if we need to produce a document within our company, I often ask an AI tool to generate a template for that type of document. The output may not be exactly what we want, but with a little bit of customization, I can save hours of work and produce an outline for the document before handing it off to someone else in the organization to finish. This way, the outline and expectations are clearly established at the start of the process.

If I’m constructing a plan for a part of the project, I’ll ask AI to propose ten steps required to complete a particular task. It’s quicker and simpler to delete two unfitting steps and modify a few others. Within seconds, I’ve got a breakdown of a portion of a project. If the outcome of the work is completely off base, it indicates that I’ve asked the wrong question. I need to give the AI tool a better prompt — this isn’t a replacement for thinking, it’s an opportunity to apply my thinking more precisely to produce a better result.

This is probably the most transformative way that AI has changed my life. As you consider that, have an awesome rest of your day. Go make some great things happen. We’ll talk again tomorrow.

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