What the New Google AI Update Means for Land Investors

[retipsterseth (Seth Williams)]

After reading about the new Google update, I think land investors need to pay attention.

With the new Google AI updates, I think the way land investors handle their leads is about to matter a whole lot more.

Google is clearly moving toward AI doing more of the work for the buyer. Instead of someone searching, clicking around, calling multiple investors, and comparing options themselves, Google’s AI can now call businesses and gather info on their behalf.

Google has actually been building toward this for years. Back in 2018, Google introduced something called “Google Duplex,” where AI could call restaurants and salons to book appointments and gather information naturally over the phone. At the time, it felt futuristic. Now, Google is starting to roll those kinds of AI capabilities directly into Search itself.

That means if a motivated land seller is looking for someone to buy their property, Google may start doing the shopping around for them.

And here’s the part I think a lot of land investors are not thinking about…

If Google’s AI calls your business and nobody answers, you are probably not getting picked. It is not going to leave a voicemail, wait two days, and hope someone calls back. It will move on to the next investor who can answer.

The fastest investor to give a clear answer is going to have a massive advantage.

This is why missed calls, slow follow-up, and inconsistent communication are becoming a much bigger problem. It is already costly when a motivated seller calls, and you miss it. It is going to be even worse when Google’s AI is calling multiple investors and deciding who actually solved the query.

A lot of investors still operate like it is 2015. They miss calls, reply to inbound leads hours later, forget to follow up, and let messages sit unanswered. That is already costing people deals today. It is going to cost them even more as search becomes more AI-driven.

The investors who win will be the ones who respond quickly, provide clear information, and make it easy for the seller to take the next step. AI voice agents, automated follow-up workflows, and instant text-back systems are not just “nice to have” features anymore. Tools like Stride (and more specifically, Stride AI Agents) are being built EXACTLY for this reason, and use cases will only grow.

It is not just about having a good list anymore. It is about being reachable and useful the second the opportunity shows up.

Google is becoming the seller’s assistant. Investors will need their own AI assistant on the other side.

The future of land lead generation might not only be “who has the best direct mail template?”

It might also be “who can answer first and give the clearest answer?”

And if your business can’t answer the phone 24/7 and provide useful information, you might be out of luck.

[donyost]

Question for the group: If a motivated seller called your business right now, on a random Tuesday afternoon, what actually happens? You pick up? Goes to a VA? Voicemail you’ll check tonight? An AI agent?

And how comfortable would you be letting AI answer that first call and represent you, versus wanting a human on the line for anything involving someone’s land? Where’s the line for you?

[seanjean]

I’ve had an AI agent answering my inbound line for about 2 months. Not perfect, but I’m also not going back.

Before this, most of my calls went to voicemail. Probably more than 75% of them. And think about what a voicemail greeting actually does to a motivated seller. They finally talk themselves into calling, they get “sorry I missed you leave a message,” and a lot of them just hang up and call the next guy. The few that did leave a message, I’d call back the next day and by that time, they’d already cooled off or signed with somebody else.

I also tried using a call center for a bit. It was better than voicemail in some ways, but also worse in other ways. The person had zero clue about land. Couldn’t answer anything. Just grabbed a name and number like a fancy answering machine and you could tell the seller knew they were getting brushed off.

The AI thing isn’t flawless or whatever. It’s fumbled a couple weird questions. But it picks up on the first ring every single time, it knows my buy box, and it actually grabs the info I need while the person is still fired up about selling. When I call the person back, I’m actually armed with some real information, and the seller actually feels like they were heard.

I guess my point is the bar was never “perfect human on the phone.” For me, it was voicemail, a clueless call center rep, or me trying to take live calls I can’t actually take half the time anyway. Compared to that? AI agents are an easy call. Not to mention, they’re only going to get better in the coming months.

One thing on your trust question though. I dont let mine close anything or make offers. It answers, asks the basic qualifying stuff, and the warm ones get handed to me. Anyway, ask me whatever if you’re on the fence.

[Kay-Walker]

I think it really depends on your business, your strategy, and how the seller found you.

If someone is responding to direct mail, they’re usually a little more motivated than someone calling from a PPC ad. Because of that, I think you have a little more room when it comes to response time. That said, anything is better than nobody answering the phone.

At one point, I used an answering service called CallPorter. One thing I liked was that they specialize in real estate and investor clients. Their reps are all U.S.-based, they understand the terminology, and they know how to handle seller calls.

The challenge is that they’re still human. Some reps answered with high energy, some with low energy. What I noticed was that even when motivated sellers left detailed messages saying they wanted to sell right away, provided all their information, and checked every box, it was surprisingly difficult to reconnect with them afterward. Because of that, we stopped using the service pretty quickly.

What really moved the needle for us was answering calls live whenever possible. Either I answer or my transactions manager answers, and she’s local here in the Carolinas. We use OpenPhone, which rings both of our phones at the same time.

If neither of us picks up, the caller hears my actual voice on the voicemail, just like they called my personal cell phone. I intentionally didn’t want a call tree or anything that sounded too corporate.

I’ve found that people leave detailed messages. They’ll reference the mail piece, provide their code, and often send a text as well because the voicemail tells them they’re welcome to text the same number.

I think hearing a real person’s voice and knowing they’re communicating directly with someone creates trust. It makes people feel comfortable and avoids that big corporate feeling.

That approach has worked really well for us.

I’m not opposed to trying AI for nights and weekends just to see how sellers respond. As a backup solution, I think AI is absolutely better than having nobody answer. Honestly, I also think it’s a better option than a traditional call center, and it’s significantly more affordable.

The biggest factor in this business is trust. A lot of our sellers are older. Some of them don’t even want to use DocuSign. Because of that, I’m cautious about how well AI can handle nuanced conversations with sellers.

That said, as a backup answering service, I think AI has a place. I believe it’s better than nothing, better than most call centers, and worth considering as part of the process.

That’s just my experience and my two cents.

[Kay-Walker]

Okay… I’m done after this. Promise! And HAPPY FRIDAY to all!

And just as another thought while we’re discussing this, I think the more we try to automate and remove the human element from this business and replace it with AI, the more careful we need to be.

There’s obviously a balance because this is still a business. We need systems, automations, and AI to operate efficiently. But I think it’s a very sensitive area when those tools are interacting directly with sellers.

That seller-facing piece is a huge lever. It can swing the pendulum in your favor or completely erode the trust a seller has in working with you.

Especially with AI advancing so quickly right now, I think a lot of people are going to look for the “easy button” in every part of the land business, whether that’s market selection, follow-up, lead intake, or other operational tasks.

Personally, I think the riches are in the niches, and a big part of that is the human connection.

I’d encourage people to be cautious . I’m probably overly cautious and sit pretty far on one side of the spectrum, but I do believe there’s a healthy middle ground where you can take advantage of the technology that’s available while still intentionally injecting the human element into the business.

At the end of the day, I think that’s what’s going to set us apart as land investors and business owners, not just in this industry but across industries. We need to make sure that human connection stays alive and well.

[retipsterseth (Seth Williams)]

This is something I think about a lot since I’m building in this space.

What rings true for me is what people compare the AI to. Everybody pictures a perfect human answering, then judges the AI against that. But that was never the actual choice. For most land investors, the real options are voicemail, a call center rep who knows nothing about land, or you trying to catch every call live while you’re in the middle of ten other things.

Among those three, there aren’t any great options. A seller who finally calls and gets “leave a message” usually just dials the next guy. The call center person grabs a name and number, and the seller knows they’re getting brushed off. And taking every call yourself sounds fine until you’re out on the lake with your kids and the phone goes off.

So yeah. An AI that picks up on the first ring and knows your buy box beats all three of those most days. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be better than the option you’ve actually got right now, which is usually one of those three.

I don’t think the play is letting AI close deals or make offers. The version I like answers fast, asks the basic qualifying questions, and hands the warm ones off to a person while the seller is still fired up. Quick pickup, then a human for the part that counts.

Anyway, really good thoughts shared above. Has anyone else actually let AI take that first call yet? I’m curious how it went.