Scary reason first-home buyer used AI to purchase property
A first-home buyer has revealed how he got artificial intelligence to help him choose what property to buy.
A first-home buyer has ended a year-long search for a Sydney property after asking AI to help him choose what to buy.
Dhruv Sharma, 33, said he was growing frustrated with the housing options on offer on his budget, claiming many had extensive issues that required considerable research to uncover.
“Within a month or two of looking I realised everything was out of my reach without the bank of mum and dad,” he said.
“I looked all over Sydney for a house but that was impossible. Then I decided to buy an apartment but no one tells you as a first-home buyer about strata.”
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Mr Sharma said he found wading through strata reports overwhelming as the terminology was difficult to understand and some of the more critical findings were buried in the small print.
His answer was to turn to AI tool ChatGPT, which he used to develop a model for studying reports and identifying what was a good buy. It lead him to an apartment in Wolli Creek which he recently bought.
“A challenge buying in Sydney is that agents put too much pressure on you. It was great to finally get something.”
Mr Sharma said AI helped him select property in the absence of a government resource to help first-home buyers.
“I would constantly Google what everything means when looking through strata reports. I couldn’t find any kind of guide from a government group.
“What seemed the most useful were Reddit forums. After reading through a lot of different comments I started to get an idea for what some of the most common risks were with buying apartments.
“I got Chatgpt to review comments online to get a summary of the common risks and once I had a shortlist, I trained (the AI) to spot if those risks were in a report. It helped because some of the reports were really comprehensive ... sometimes there was too much to go through.”
Mr Sharma revealed he also got help from Sucasa, an Australian non-bank lender, who were able to offer him a preferable home loan. The group offers loans of up to 98 per cent of a property’s value.
Adam Trouncer, co-founder at Sucasa, said stretched affordability meant buyers often had to think differently to get into the market.
“Buyers are often making multiple compromises to get their foot in the door,” he said.
“Depending on what their circumstances allow it may be it’s city, suburb, number of
bedrooms, a garage or backyard.
“The current climate for home buyers in Australia is significantly different from a year
or two ago, primarily due to the impact of rising interest rates. Higher interest rates
have meant that borrower servicing capacity has been reduced.
“This means that home buyers can’t borrow as much as previously were, reducing the number of properties available to them to purchase. Even with the rise in interest rates, house price growth has remained robust.”
Originally published as Scary reason first-home buyer used AI to purchase property