Your Next Leasing Competitor Is the Renter’s AI

What happens when AI stops simply helping renters search for apartments—and starts doing the research, comparing, screening, and eventually taking action for them?

In this episode of The Multifamily Marketers Podcast, hosts Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills explore the next evolution of AI-powered apartment search, sparked by a Google Gemini commercial Caroline saw during an NFL game showing AI being used specifically for apartment hunting.

From AI comparing total monthly costs and analyzing reviews to potentially communicating with leasing assistants and scheduling tours, Josh and Caroline discuss what happens when AI begins representing the renter, not just the property—and what multifamily marketers should be doing now to prepare.

You’ll learn:

• Why Google’s mainstream advertising of AI-powered apartment hunting signals a major shift in renter behavior
• How renter-side AI could dramatically shorten the traditional apartment search funnel
• Why properties may be considered—and eliminated—without ever receiving a website visit or lead
• How websites need to serve both human renters and AI systems with clear, structured information
• Why pricing, fees, pet policies, parking, availability, and other property details need to be accurate and consistent everywhere
• How AI could make transparency and data accuracy a competitive advantage
• Five practical steps multifamily teams can take now to improve their AI discoverability

To suggest a topic, get in touch!

For more multifamily marketing help, connect with us at Resident360.

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TRANSCRIPT

Episode 57: Your Next Leasing Competitor Is the Renter’s AI

Podcast Co-Hosts: Josh Grillo and Caroline Mills, Resident360

Josh: So Caroline, I got an email from you over the weekend, I believe, with a commercial that came on while you were watching an NFL game. Tell me what you saw and why it caught your attention.

Caroline: Yes, this was interesting. I was sitting on the couch, and you know me and my crafts. I recently got into needlepoint. My boyfriend was watching the game, I was doing my little crafts, and then I heard, “In today’s apartment hunting…” And I thought, “No way.” Being in the industry, it caught my attention right away, because it was that same sports-announcer voice, and I wondered what they could be talking about.

It was a Google Gemini commercial built specifically around apartment hunting. It shows a girl on the couch, and it talks about how she’s a fantasy player making her lineup, but it’s all about apartment hunting. That’s what stopped me. I’ve seen plenty of broad AI advertising, but this showed an everyday renter using AI to help find a place to live, and it ran during an NFL game in front of a mainstream audience.

So I did a little research and found another spot. In that one, Gemini helped someone with a fairly complicated home search, using the kind of long-form search query we’ve talked about: several people, two dogs, a rabbit, and a bearded iguana. Something funny to catch your attention. But my immediate reaction, and I put this in the email to you guys, was that this is moving into multifamily faster than management companies probably realize.

Josh: I was a little stunned when I saw it. I thought, “Wow, they’re really putting it out there for everyone to see.” Now, I know we’ve covered ChatGPT apartment searches in depth on this podcast, along with the very slow decline of traditional Google search. But what makes this development different?

Caroline: I think the difference is adoption. This isn’t a prediction that renters might use AI someday. Google is spending mainstream advertising dollars during these games to teach people how to use AI for apartment hunting right now. But the bigger story isn’t just AI-powered search. It’s what comes next: AI moving from helping renters find properties to actually performing parts of the renter journey for them. It could help decide where they live, and it could have just as much of a voice for these renters as your leasing team does.

Josh: Awesome. All right, let’s jump into our quick intro. I want to welcome everybody to the Multifamily Marketers Podcast. I’m Josh Grillo, co-founder here at Resident360, and I’m joined by my co-host, Miss Caroline Mills. Everybody knows Caroline. She’s got all the insights when it comes to AI. So we’re doing a deeper dive into AI today, talking about these commercials, because it’s moving so fast now. We’ll also talk about the next version of the apartment search journey: not just AI providing a list of properties, but AI researching, comparing, screening, and potentially taking action for the renter. Or let’s say possibly taking action down the line, because I don’t think that part is happening yet. But I bet it’s coming.

So Caroline, with these commercials, what is Google teaching consumers to do differently?

Caroline: I think Google is positioning Gemini as a personal decision-making assistant. The renter doesn’t need to learn a technical process. They can describe their situation naturally, talking to AI in more conversational language, and the AI will help them work through it. That matters because a renter’s actual needs rarely fit neatly into search filters or the keywords we go after.

Someone might say, “I need a two-bedroom apartment within 25 minutes of work. I have a large dog. I’d like covered parking. My total monthly budget is $3,200, including all mandatory fees. I care more about quiet than nightlife, and I’d pay slightly more for private outdoor space.” A traditional ILS can filter by bedrooms, rent, and maybe amenities, but AI can interpret the trade-offs between those requirements and explain why one property might be a better fit than another.

Josh: I think that’s what’s super cool about doing a long-form query on an AI search platform. You can literally use the microphone, talk right into it, and go in depth. You don’t have to use complete sentences. You’re just rambling things off and going deeper and deeper. And what’s unique about it, especially ChatGPT, is that it’ll ask you more questions back to narrow down the options it wants to give you. So why does it matter that the commercial aired during an NFL game?

Caroline: This one was so important to me because it shows that AI has left the early-adopter stage. We talk about it so often, and we’re so into it all the time, that I feel like we assume everyone else is right there with us. But Google isn’t only speaking to technology enthusiasts or AI enthusiasts. It’s telling millions of ordinary consumers that this is a normal way to make a major life decision.

Multifamily tends to look at adoption through what operators are buying. But consumer adoption may move much faster, because renters already have Gemini, ChatGPT, and other AI tools in their pockets. They don’t have to go out and get something new. They can just pick up their phone and try it.

Josh: So are we watching the traditional funnel collapse? Walk me through how apartment shopping works today and what AI could remove from that process.

Caroline: Yeah, absolutely. Today, renters search Google or an ILS and open a bunch of tabs. That’s me; I’ll have 50 tabs open. They visit property websites, compare floor plans, read reviews, submit forms in all these different places, and try to remember which property offered six weeks free or which one charged an extra monthly fee. Every one of those steps is an opportunity for a property to appear, persuade, or convert.

But now imagine the renter saying, “Find the five best options, calculate the likely cost, remove anything with repeated noise complaints, and schedule tours for me this Saturday.” We’re not quite there yet on that last one, but imagine when we are. We’re already doing it for everything else. The AI may search 20 different communities and only show you five, because that’s what you asked for. The renter may never visit the other 15 websites or see the advertising those communities paid for.

Josh: So does that mean the funnel disappears?

Caroline: That’s a good question. I’d say not completely, but it becomes shorter and definitely less visible. Some research happens inside the renter’s AI instead of on channels we can properly measure. A community could be considered and eliminated without ever recording a website visit, a phone call, a form submission, or a guest card. The property may never even know it was in the running.

Josh: So it could become an attribution problem.

Caroline: Absolutely. We get a lot of questions about this. Last-click attribution already provides an incomplete picture; we’ve broken that down before. But if AI compresses the research process even more, it becomes even harder to see which sources actually influenced the renter before the tour. That’s exactly why we bring in tools and services like GEO and AEO, so we can track what’s happening on these platforms. But it’s going to become very complex.

Josh: Caroline, we know multifamily has spent heavily on chatbots, leasing assistants, and automated follow-up. But have we been watching the wrong side of this?

Caroline: We’ve mostly focused on AI that represents the property. Its job is to capture the lead, answer questions, recommend a floor plan, and maybe even schedule tours and follow up until the prospect takes action. I’ve even talked with these on the phone. The renter’s AI has a different assignment. It represents the prospect, the shopper. Its job may be to protect their budget, identify hidden costs, compare options, and eliminate poor fits.

Josh: So what would a renter ask their AI to do that they wouldn’t do manually?

Caroline: There’s a lot we could look at. It could calculate the total monthly cost instead of comparing only base or advertised rents. It could check pet policies for a specific animal, breed, or weight restriction. It could analyze patterns across hundreds of reviews. It could compare concessions based on the actual lease term and move-in date you’re looking for. It could examine commute times, which you usually don’t see on our websites, based on the hours the renter will actually be traveling.

It could identify conflicts between the website, the ILS, and what the agent is saying. And it may simply reject communities that fail one of the renter’s non-negotiable requirements. I won’t even have to look at their website, because it’s telling me I don’t need to. So the property’s AI is trying to expand interest and convert, while the renter’s AI is trying to narrow the list and protect the renter. Those goals aren’t the same.

Josh: So the first AI competition could happen before there’s even a lead.

Caroline: That’s a great way to put it. Yes, exactly. A property may be filtered out before its leasing team even gets the chance to sell anything.

Josh: All right, how about you take us through a realistic future journey from beginning to end?

Caroline: This is kind of fun. We were chatting about this before we got on: Can you imagine if these chatbots and AI tools start working with each other, and the renter is almost totally removed from it? With how fast it’s been moving…

Josh: So what you’re getting at is something like a ChatGPT agent talking with a leasing assistant on a property website, or wherever it is, and actually doing the handoffs?

Caroline: Yes. What if your AI assistant did all your initial outreach for you? You wouldn’t have to keep track of it. You wouldn’t even have to fill out the forms.

Josh: I mean, it’s getting pretty close to that. I was looking for an interior painter the other day, and I used ChatGPT for the whole thing. No Google searches, nothing. Just ChatGPT, and I dug deeper: “Tell me about the reviews. What do the reviews say? Who do you think would be best?” I got really into it. Think about that. I went down this super narrow path with ChatGPT, and it gave me what I think were the top two or three options, and those are the people I contacted. It did everything, even supplying the phone numbers.

Caroline: And imagine how much time that saved you, versus vetting 20 different interior painters on your own and trying to read all their Google reviews. That’s where I think it’ll get really interesting.

Josh: So it’s the same thing with apartments. You’re looking for an apartment and thinking, “Why do I need to go to Apartments.com? Why do I need to go to Google? Why don’t I just go straight to my personal agent?” That’s ChatGPT, or Claude, or Gemini, which we talked about at the top of the show with the commercials you saw. And let’s see the experience I get.

Caroline: Exactly. It could look something like this. First, like we said earlier, the renter gives a very detailed brief to the AI, just like we’re used to now: budget, preferences, everything. Second, same as today, the AI searches the market and reviews the sites, maps, listings, reviews, and neighborhood information. Now it makes an initial ranking.

But third, what if it gets to the point where it questions the property’s leasing agent? It starts talking to the property’s AI leasing agents, reaching out on your behalf and asking, “Is this unit available for this move-in date? What is the total price with all required fees? Does the pet policy allow this specific breed of dog?” It takes all of that in. And remember, the renter is just going about their normal life on the other side of their device. They’re not involved in any of this.

Then it comes back, and the renter’s AI narrows down the options. Maybe three properties make the final list and another seven are eliminated. Then, with permission, it schedules tours for you, adds the appointments to your calendar, and creates side-by-side comparisons. And eventually, down the line, what if it could help you complete parts of the application and submit your fees? That’s where it gets really interesting. We’re already about halfway to that version of the funnel, and think about what we were looking at a year ago and how fast this will change.

Josh: I was going to follow up and ask: Is all of that happening perfectly today?

Caroline: Wouldn’t that be nice? My move down here to Florida would have been a lot easier if I’d had all of it.

Josh: Yeah, something tells me something would get pretty messed up in that process, right?

Caroline: Not there yet. But to already be halfway there this quickly, and to have these companies running mainstream commercials about it, shows they feel confident enough in the tools doing this. It’s definitely picking up.

Josh: Okay, so here’s a big question: Does the property website become less important? Every time something like this comes up, someone declares the property website is dead. But is it?

Caroline: No, but its job changes, and we’re having this conversation with our clients every day. Traditionally, the website would attract, persuade, and convert the renter. But in an AI-mediated journey, it also becomes the source of reliable information for the system advising that renter. That makes the site more important as a source of truth, rather than just looking pretty and capturing attention. You still want it to do both for now, but that’s why this is so important.

Josh: So where do multifamily websites fall short?

Caroline: We often see them rely heavily on emotional language and light decision-making information. They’ll say things like “elevated living,” “unmatched amenities,” and “a vibrant lifestyle,” but make renters hunt for parking fees, storage fees, pet policy information, pet restrictions, or even actual availability. We’ve all seen it: you click the floor plan, then “Check Availability,” and now you’re going off the site. An AI agent needs direct answers. What’s available? What will it actually cost? Which fees are mandatory? What are the restrictions? What are my parking options? What’s genuinely within walking distance? Why is this property meaningfully different? Those are the things you want your website to answer.

Josh: So does this mean websites should become dry databases of information? Just put up a spreadsheet: column A is the question, column B is the answer?

Caroline: I can see someone out there thinking, “Well, what if I just answer all these questions?” Maybe we’ll see that someday, but not yet. The site still needs to be strong. You still want the branding, the photography, and the emotion when someone visits. But now it has to do both: persuade the human and provide clear, structured substance that the machine can understand.

Especially right now, everyone is still going to visit the website and at least check it out. People are still in the phase of learning to trust these AI agents. So you want to appeal to both sides and find that balance: not so data-heavy that the site isn’t enjoyable to look at anymore, but not relying only on “vibrant lifestyle” language either.

Josh: Let’s talk about transparency. Will AI force more of it? What happens to properties that advertise one rent and reveal mandatory fees later?

Caroline: We’re already seeing changes on that across the country. But those properties become easier to expose and compare. Apartment marketing has sometimes benefited a little from friction: starting at one price with fees appearing later, concessions that require calculations, policies that vary by platform, and availability that doesn’t always match reality. An AI working for the renter is designed to remove that friction and make things as easy as possible for the person using it. It can calculate effective rent, compare total costs, detect conflicting information, and summarize recurring complaints in reviews.

Josh: Could transparency become a competitive advantage rather than just a compliance issue?

Caroline: Definitely. The property with the lowest headline rent may lose to the property that provides clearer costs and fewer surprises. If the website, the ILS, and the leasing assistant or agent give different answers, the community looks unreliable. A human might overlook one inconsistency, but AI can identify 10 of them almost instantly. Data accuracy has been treated like housekeeping, something you check during audits, but it could become a major leasing advantage.

Josh: All right, here’s a big one. Let’s talk about branding. If AI builds the shortlist based on facts and data, does branding lose its influence?

Caroline: I’d say weak, generic branding may lose influence, but strong branding becomes more valuable. AI can assess whether a community satisfies a stated need. It can’t fully recreate how someone feels when they walk into the property, meet the team, see the view, or imagine living there. The shortlist may be built through logic, but the final decision will still include emotion and a connection to the property and the team.

Josh: Okay, this is interesting. I just ran a search while we were talking. I think ChatGPT does a pretty good job with apartment searches, and it pulls a lot from Apartments.com, actually. Putting my marketing hat on: if you’re looking for high-end properties on ChatGPT, the ones with unique names really stand out. I searched downtown San Diego apartments with views, easy parking, dog-friendly, and so on. It listed all these apartments it thinks I should tour, like West SD Apartments. Nope, won’t tour that one. Simone Little Italy; that one sounds kind of interesting. Stanza Little Italy. VC Luxury Rentals. Ancora AV8. See? These have really unique, fun, cool names, and I’m going to look at those. AV8 probably sounds the coolest, versus West SD Apartments, which was the first one it recommended.

Caroline: Yeah.

Josh: So branding, and naming especially, absolutely matters. If you have a unique name, guess what? When you get a recommendation from one of the AI platforms…

Caroline: It still stands out.

Josh: That unique name could really pay off and help you stand out. I just thought I’d bring that up.

Caroline: That was fun. I like that.

Josh: I thought it was interesting. And now I’ve totally lost where I was. Okay. So what should operators be asking right now, Caroline? If you were sitting with an owner or a marketing team today, what questions would you tell them to ask?

Caroline: I’d start with six.

Josh: Six? Sure it’s not seven or eight? Six?

Caroline: First question: Can AI accurately understand and recommend the property? Test realistic renter scenarios. We say this all the time: Put on your prospect hat and act as the renter. Can someone find you without using the property name? See whether the community appears and whether the description is even correct.

Josh: Okay, what’s the second?

Caroline: Second: Are the property’s facts consistent across its website, Google Business Profile, ILS listings, review responses, and leasing assistant? If you’ve been listening for a while, you know this isn’t new. One of the very first episodes we ever did was about your NAP (name, address, and phone number) and keeping everything consistent. But it’s even more important with AI.

Josh: Number three?

Caroline: Number three: Can an outside system determine the total monthly cost? If an employee can’t calculate it quickly, the renter’s AI will probably struggle too. Is it easy to find on the website? Are your other fees listed anywhere?

Josh: Number four?

Caroline: Is important information trapped inside an image, a PDF, a virtual tour, or a leasing team script instead of on the website itself? If so, it can’t be easily found. AI may not be able to read those, so that information may not influence a recommendation.

Josh: Number five.

Caroline: What are your reviews teaching AI? One of the key things AI does is identify patterns. So repeated comments about noise, towing, cleanliness, or maintenance may outweigh a strong average rating.

Josh: And Caroline’s number six.

Caroline: Last question: Who owns AI discoverability? It touches SEO, websites, reputation, operations, and data management. When everyone partly owns it, nobody truly owns it, and everyone assumes someone else is handling it. So make sure there’s a clear point of contact or area within your department that owns this.

Josh: All right, let’s talk about this quarter. We’re about done with the third quarter and moving into the fourth. So how about five actions? Not five things to study for next year, but five things teams can actually do this coming fourth quarter.

Caroline: Absolutely. First, run renter-agent mystery shops. Create five realistic renter profiles, make them very different from each other, and ask all the major AI platforms for recommendations, just like you did today on the show. Track who appears, who doesn’t, and what information is inaccurate.

Second, establish one approved source of truth for your fees, policies, amenities, parking, and pets, and make sure it matches across all your platforms.

Third, replace vague copy with useful specifics, like we talked about. Keep the personality and the branding, but answer the questions renters are using to eliminate properties.

Fourth, test the handoff from the renter’s search to the property website and the property’s leasing assistant. They found you; now, when they get there, is it easy to navigate? Are they getting conflicting answers, missing information, or unnecessary dead ends?

And fifth, rethink your measurement. Watch your direct traffic, branded search, tour quality, and lead-to-lease performance alongside conventional source attribution. AI may influence the decision without getting any credit in your reporting.

Josh: That’s all good stuff. Really good insight, Caroline. Everybody, rewind that and take note of those five things. They were solid all the way around. So what do you think multifamily is most likely to get wrong about this shift?

Caroline: Ooh. I could see the industry spending too much time debating whether AI will replace leasing agents, and too little time examining how it changes renter behavior before the leasing team ever meets the prospect. The immediate disruption may not be AI replacing a person in the leasing office. It may be AI representing the renter before the property even knows that person exists.

Josh: That’s just crazy when you think about it. All right, biggest upside for operators?

Caroline: Better-qualified prospects. We talk about high intent all the time, like Google Ads versus geofencing, but this is about the highest intent you can get. If AI matches renters with communities that genuinely fit their needs, the people who tour may arrive with more information and stronger intent. But the property only gets that opportunity if its information is accurate, accessible, and differentiated. Otherwise, you may just be filtered out silently.

Josh: All right, so you saw one commercial during a football game and went looking for more. After all that, what’s the one idea you think our listeners should leave with?

Caroline: Stop thinking only about how your property uses AI, and start thinking about how your next renter, your next prospect, is going to use AI. The next important conversation about your property may not begin between a prospect and a leasing agent. It may begin between ChatGPT’s answers and the prospect. It’s all shifting, so think about how renters are using it, not only how we can use it for our websites.

Josh: It’s changing so fast, right?

Caroline: It really is.

Josh: We’re talking about this now, and in probably the next two months, someone will say, “Guess what? Now it’s actually talking to the leasing assistant.” It’s like fast-forward; it’s already happening, and quickly. All right, that was fantastic. Guys, I think we’ll leave it at that and wrap the show. Lots of good insight here. Keep your eyes and ears open. If Google is running commercials of people doing apartment searches with Gemini, you know what’s happening: more and more people are going to do these personal searches with their own AI agents. The times, they are a-changin’. I appreciate everybody listening today. Take care. As always, Caroline, we’ll see you next week with another episode of the Multifamily Marketers Podcast. Thanks, guys. Bye-bye.

Caroline: Bye!