AI Meets Business Development: Turning Local Market Intelligence into Corporate Relocation Business
At the recent LeadingRE Forum in Chicago, five presenters led a great session on different topics related to Artificial intelligence and its use in real estate and relocation. The session started out with the very important topic of how to use AI responsibly. It is the Wild West out there right now, and misinformation is rampant. So, as with anything we get from the internet, they discussed how to protect, verify, personalize, and own the data.
To get yourself noticed, you need to get your information there by training the AI LLMs and chatbots to recognize who you are and what you do. Look, I’m no AI expert, but I do know we need to pay attention and utilize these tools in our best interest. And if we don’t, our competitors and the consumers will. So explore it and keep asking questions; we are all learning together. Maybe at different paces, but it is still uncharted territory, particularly in the real estate world.
Answers versus queries.
They also discussed the shift from Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Have you noticed that now, when you Google or search something, you typically get an AI response before links to website resources? It’s immediate gratification and solutions through answers. Information is being disseminated differently, and SEO has lost its impact. So if SEO dominance has been your department’s, agent’s, or company’s strategy, it may be time to rethink that.
Brokerages are cobbling together tools for their agents to help them find lead opportunities, help buyers see the possibilities in the market, and provide transaction management assistance, among other things. The magic will be getting all parties to use them effectively so the human touch is not lost, only enhanced. It’s a tool, not a replacement for the humans that drive this business. Based on what I know about the tools out there, no single tool can fully meet a brokerage's needs right now. But technology is changing and advancing daily.
One of the presenters said, ‘service was our greatest competitive advantage’, and I couldn’t agree more. How to serve in a personalized way:
Differentiator. (I am big on this one. Figure out what sets you and your company apart and capitalize on it)
Intentional Relationship Building. (Supported through customized marketing efforts)
Personalized Matchmaking. (Agent team profiles and a complete picture of buyer and seller wants and needs allow us to have greater conversion through better matches)
Memorable Client Experiences. (Expanding your programs and resources keeps the clients close and gives them a very customized experience)
Using AI gives you more time and resources to do the above by eliminating the mundane and tedious tasks that can bury us. Necessary, but tedious nonetheless.
This led me to want to do a deeper dive into the portion of the presentation by Yvonne Regan of Howard Hanna Rand Real Estate Services, which serves an 18-state footprint. She spoke about using AI for business development, which is a topic near and dear to my heart.
Q & A with Yvonne Regan.
Q. Tell me a little about your role with your company and your focus on local business development. Has that evolved over time?
A. My role within Howard Hanna’s Relocation and Business Development team focuses on Relocation and Strategic Partnerships. A big part of what I do, along with our team, is to grow our relocation and referral business. For us, business development means building relationships—connecting with companies and organizations in our local markets and finding ways to support their employees with their real estate and relocation needs. We are always watching what is happening in our markets—who is growing, who is hiring, who is expanding—and how we can start building those relationships before there is an immediate relocation need.
Q. Before you used AI, how were you targeting corporate activity in your area?
A. Before AI, it was much more manual—scanning business journals, economic development news, company announcements, and LinkedIn, looking for company hiring activity, expansions, or moves, while also talking with our agents and managers about what they were seeing locally. The biggest challenges were time and organizing all the information into an action plan. The information was there, but in so many places. AI hasn't replaced the sources or relationships, but it helps me bring the information together faster, organize it, and view it through a relocation and business development lens.
Q: Tell me a little about your journey to using AI to help craft some different tools to help you target activity in your area.
A. It’s been a journey, and one I’m still on. I started with baby steps after an RDC meeting where a panel introduced us to some different AI tools. I started by experimenting with ChatGPT and was amazed at how it helped me become more productive and organized. As I got more comfortable, I started using other AI tools and thought, why not take it a step further and use AI to help me with business development? How could AI help me identify where relocation opportunities might be developing? That led me to create what I call a Mobility Watch. For example, if a company announces an expansion or starts increasing hiring, AI can help me pull together those signals, determine whether they could lead to employee movement, identify the people we should connect with, and suggest next steps with actionable items. For me, AI has evolved from a virtual assistant to a business development assistant.
Q. Once a company is identified that might be having relocation activity, what are your next steps?
A. The first thing I do is verify the information from the Mobility Watch Report. That's important because AI can make mistakes, so I always want to know where the data came from. Then I use AI to categorize, rank, and prioritize my outreach. Are they hiring locally or nationally? What types of positions are they recruiting for, and could those employees actually need relocation assistance? From there, I use Perplexity and LinkedIn to identify the right people, whether it's Talent Acquisition, HR, Recruiting, whoever may be closest to the need. I will then use my connections to help further the introductions. AI really helps with preparation, drafting outreach, and setting up a follow-up plan. After that, it is relationship building, and that is still very human.
Q. How has using AI changed the way you approach business development? Where are you seeing the greatest value?
A. I still consider myself early in this process, and by no means an AI expert, but it has already changed the way I approach business development. I am identifying companies and opportunities across multiple markets I might not have found as quickly before, and I am going into conversations much better prepared and with more confidence. For me, the value has been increasing my productivity and focus. Instead of spending hours searching through information, AI helps me narrow down where I should spend my time and take the actions needed to turn that intelligence into relationships and ultimately, leading to more referrals.
Q. What words of advice do you have for Relocation Directors who are trying to figure out a way to focus on company-generated business?
A. I would say do not overcomplicate it. You do not need to build a huge AI system to get started. Pick one market and ask AI to help you identify five companies that are growing, hiring, expanding, or investing in that area. Then verify the information and choose one or two companies to research further. The goal is to get to action—make the connection, start the conversation, and build the relationship. AI can help you find opportunities and prepare for the conversation, but you still must pick up the phone, send the message, and build the relationship.
Many thanks to Yvonne for taking the time to do this. I learned from Yvonne that there may be some shortcuts in your strategy, but relationship building takes a human touch and time. If you have a referral for her, you can reach her at yvonneregan@howardhanna.com or on LinkedIn: Yvonne Regan | LinkedIn.
Yvonne Regan