I want to talk Florida today—the home of Alligator Xanadu, Alligator Alcatraz, and Alligator Man—where every retention pond looks like one bad news story away from a Gatorland theme park reopening.

(To be fair, New Hampshire does have the Wolfman.)

Specifically, though, I want to chat about Robert Levine and his 11703 Sunfish Way, Cooper City home, which he sold via ChatGPT without a Realtor. In the industry, we call these people For Sale By Owner [FSBO], or another fun acronym: Frequently Seen But Overlooked.

What Actually Happened in Cooper City

The viral NBC 6 video pulled 338,000 views and 1,421 comments in the last month alone.

The story, framed as an AI-powered FSBO success, was simple enough for television to love: Levine claimed ChatGPT helped with planning, prep, pricing, listing copy, marketing materials, MLS access, showings, and timing, and that the home got fast traction with five offers within 72 hours, then sold for $954,800 in five days, beat agent estimates by about $100,000, and saved him 3% in costs.

But the NBC 6 piece and the subsequent piggyback articles1 only sell the headline and miss everything else.

I want to be clear: you do not need a Realtor to sell your house.

But…

THE FOOTNOTE

Real estate without the real-estate-speak.

A Coffee With Steve Publication

Cooper City Was Not Waiting for ChatGPT

To really understand what happened in Cooper City, you have to examine the surrounding local market. Writing from New Hampshire, I’m at a bit of a disadvantage because I do not have access to Florida’s patchwork of MLS raw data feeds, and public aggregates, like Zillow, only present to the consumer a small portion of the whole picture. So, I called my friend Louise Weiss (who provided the FlexMLS dataset within an hour of asking, while she was on vacation in London?).

In January/February—the timeframe in which Levine sold Sunfish—41 single-family homes went under contract. 30% of those homes left the market within 30 days. Additionally, the longer a home sat on the market, the more likely the property experienced a price reduction or at least the acceptance of an offer below asking.

A fast contract in Cooper City was real—not some ChatGPT miracle.

3300 Bridge Road, another 4-bed 3-bath that closed in 50 days, suggesting another quick sale, originally listed at $959,000, sold low for $929,500, a $29,500 reduction. This is a Realtor-repped property that took a harder hit than Levine’s own price reduction.

Nikki Hanna, who represented 10311 Lima, Cooper City, however, has a completely different story. Lima is a 4-bed, 3-bath, 2,237-square-foot home, a seven-minute drive from Sunfish. Nikki said she had one open house, five offers within 24 hours, and under contract in 5 days. Listed for 949,999. The accepted offer—all cash: $960,000.

$10,001 more than list.

Remember, Levine garnered five offers within 72 hours and was under contract in 5 days as well. He originally listed for $972,500 and closed for $954,800.

$17,700 less than list.

This is not to say Levine failed. Nikki Hanna succeeded and Bridge Road lost2 in a market that already supported fast contracts and varied pricing outcomes. Levine’s closing price was right in the pocket. You cannot deny that at all.

What ChatGPT Actually Did

The idea that AI was what sold his house is the thing that is preposterous. Look at one of the statements he told NBC 6:

The most important thing it [ChatGPT] did for us was build out a timeline.

Which means Levine had an outline, which not only did he follow but also put in the hard work to follow step by step. And this is the thing most agents hate to admit: every single real estate transaction is completely and exactly the same.

In fact, here you go. Here’s the list step by step the whole enchilada:

These 29 steps are pretty much the same, and as an owner, you can handle these tasks yourself. What you can’t do is sell those same brokerage services to others to line your wallet. For that bit, you have to be properly licensed under your state’s law.

By the way, as a side note, just like Levine, I do utilize AI to assist me in determining price. Here’s my process 79 step pricing formula:

If you downloaded that file and wonder which part I use AI for, I want you to remember one important detail: AI spits out nonsense unless you feed AI a healthy diet of data and context. I utilize AI in these three areas: sorting the closed sales by relevance, identifying the best comparables, and identifying the subject-specific value drivers. This, of course, is all just spreadsheet data manipulation.

However, if you want to bet your home sale on a robot, you are more than welcome to check out my Pricing Strategy Robot, which is based upon those 79 steps, but the results are still not guaranteed. Just like Levine was told by his robot to paint, he could have very easily chosen a bad color. Heck, I have a very nice couple who wanted to put in neon yellow carpeting because they liked the color, with zero consideration to how the buyer would view that choice.

And things I don’t know about Levine’s situation: how much did his lawyer cost him, how about professional photos, printing costs for marketing materials, or the cost to feature on the almighty MLS. He didn’t pay a seller’s agent fee, but did he pay the buyer’s agency fee?

Did Levine actually save money, or did he trade his money for his time? Or does it even matter?

“I really wanted to challenge myself to use A.I. for the entire journey, not just piecemeal,” Levine said. “Every step along the way.”

Sounds like to me he just had fun. Which is also an amazing upside to his whole pull yourself up by your own bootstraps, don’t give the Realtors any more money than they deserve FSBO mentality.

Please don’t believe for one single minute that ChatGPT or AI or whatever is the thing that is going to save you, will actually save you. I bring this all up because I ran across a lovely little viral anti-realtor Instagram persona designed to make commission resentment feel like a movement.

Where the Anti-Agent Story Goes Next

@RealtorsHateMe is the outrage-engine that uses Mike Chambers’ anti-commission home-selling story to sell a broader idea: that consumers should bypass the traditional real estate system and use a tech platform instead. The tone is confrontational and consumer-first: traditional fees are framed as unnecessary, sellers are framed as being trapped in an outdated system, and entrepreneur Mike Chambers’ Ridley—the tech platform that’s being pushed—is framed as the escape hatch.

Ridley is supposedly an AI-powered platform designed to help homeowners sell with lower fees, guided workflows, listing distribution, and access to licensed support through partner channels. The idea is to allow consumers to keep more of their equity through the software’s on-demand expertise. It’s a little Boulder, Colorado startup that’s beginning to gain some traction here in New England, and New Hampshire specifically.

Having walked through the Ridley site, the listing distribution is nothing more than creating a property listing on Ridley for a fee; whatever that fee is has been difficult to track down. That listing only sits on Ridley. It does not go to Homes.com, Redfin, or Zillow.

If you are a buyer, one of the coolest Ridley features is that you can contact the home seller directly. If the button is working. Sometimes the button glitches into kinda sorta unclickable rectangular flashes between a white and gray in the upper right-hand of your screen.

When you ask the AI chatbot, “Hey how long has 2734 Northbrook Place been on market?” You get the fantastic answer, “I don’t know. I don’t have that information. You might consider contacting the seller.” The Northbrook listing noted more photos to be posted after December 14th,” so at least more than 124 days on market. A Zillow search 2734 Northbrook Place let’s us know the property has been listed by an actual licensed Realtor and been on the market for 9 days.

The owner gave up on Ridley somewhere around January 8.

Look, Chambers’ idea is good.

Traditional real estate feels absurd to a lot of people, sometimes me included. Sellers look at a commission number and feel like they’re paying a stranger tens of thousands of dollars to stand in a doorway, upload photos, and forward DocuSigns.

Checklists, disclosures, photo sequencing, prep timelines, pricing research, offer comparison, deadline tracking, document flow, and showing logistics do not require bespoke genius. Remember, Levine said, the most important piece of working with ChatGPT was the provided timeline? A decent software platform could reduce friction here. Hiring a Realtor means many of these platforms are already baked in. But we’ve mainly pieced them together and being SaaSed within an inch of our pocketbooks, but I still love meself some ShowingTime.

Although full-service real estate can be (or at least feel) bloated, pure DIY FSBO energy can be messy enough that many consumers don’t want to be completely alone inside the transaction. A hybrid model, like Ridley, where the seller stays in control and can tap into expertise when needed, makes a lot of economic sense.

The Ridley model is a concept people really, really want. So much so that Chambers raised $6.4 million in seed funding for a website that, unfortunately, whether intentional or not, resembles a leaky alligator-infested retention pond more than 21st-century AI tech.

Remember the other acronym for FSBO? Frequently Seen But Overlooked.

A Listing No One Can See

2734 Northbrook Place did not earn a spot on Zillow because of Ridley. In fact, no one even noticed Northbrook because the only place anyone could see Northbrook was on Ridley. The seller hired an agent to submit the property to the MLS. Then the MLS propagated the listing to all the aggregators.

In fact, if a Realtor ever tells you they will personally list your home across all these different aggregator sites, don’t be impressed. Understand that the process takes two or three mouse clicks and is standard operating procedure.

A home sale lives or dies on two metrics: price and visibility.

Price without visibility is invisible. Visibility without price is, well, I don’t have anything that rhymes, so just a long dang time on market. Neither metric works alone.

Most Realtors spit the word Zillow out of their mouths like they swallowed venom, but the tech radically changed the way real estate business is accomplished. Without Zillow (or HGTV, I guess), selling your house was a significantly slower, analog process. Realtors relied on physical MLS books and acted as the sole gatekeepers of property data, relying heavily upon paper flyers, landline phones, and physical yard signs.

Realtor Value Begins With Visibility

Consumers now have more access to real estate data than they ever did before. And yet, Realtors still act like they are the sole gatekeepers. Except now, instead of keeping people on the other side of the information-gate, Realtors are the gate. Infrastructure is a pay-as-you-go service. To name a few: NAR, state, and local association dues, MLS access fees, monthly lockbox Supra eKey subscriptions, brokerage splits, transaction management software, ShowingTime, Forewarn, copyrighted form libraries, required continuing education, renewal fees, and compliance costs.

Hmm. Don’t tell anyone I said this: we don’t market your home3.

We price it, we write about it, we get it ready for photos, and we list it. And somewhere, a Realtor-brain has experienced an aneurysm.

“Actually, I boosted an Instagram post once!”

“I mailed postcards!”

“I hosted an open house with lemon bars and a balloon arch.” Ahem. I always do a balloon arch.

One hundred percent, those lemon bars and balloon arches are not about marketing your house, but about marketing ourselves so we can find more deals to keep our wallets lined. Incidentally, I used to believe marketing myself was rather a crass thing to do, but every business, every employee, every person markets themselves. And if you don’t think that you market yourself, then you’re only choosing to market yourself badly.

A Realtor’s value begins with MLS access, which equals visibility. Without the MLS, you have zero visibility. Period.

Beyond the MLS we field the phone calls so you do not have to, schedule showings, run open houses, read buyer psychology, identify the price that creates activity rather than the price that flatters the seller, know when to price under market and when to hold the line, distinguish between improvements that produce return and improvements that are merely nice-to-haves, sequence prep, coordinate vendors, manage the paperwork avalanche, vet buyer financial readiness, negotiate, structure possession terms, track contract deadlines, manage the transaction, and save you an enormous amount of time.

In one of my most recent transactions, I moved the sale price from $390,000 to a $415,000 sold price. My broker called to check up on a particular stressful transaction last summer. When he asked me how I was doing, I said, “Backing up a U-Haul so we can unpack my clients.” And he said, “You are doing what now?” Listen: I have held garage sales, painted, patched drywall, cleaned gutters, and mailed 65 pounds of family pictures halfway across the country.

The Realtor Is the Product

This is the point where most people, including many real estate agents, get strategically misled, and I’ve written about this before. They believe the house is the product, and the Realtor is the guide who helps you acquire the product. The actual product you are purchasing, however, is the Realtor. The house is a separate asset altogether because, for all of our agent-talk about differentiation—our branding, our headshots, our value propositions—the same listing with two different agents can appear on the same sites, show the same photos, and will close under the same rules.

Not all Realtors are cut from the same cloth.

I myself, for example, in my younger days, have been known to play a good game of chicken with a circa 1984, beat-up blue Chevette against a red pinstriped Rabbit down dark country roads in the middle of the night sans headlights. Probably, you want to double-think if that’s the kind of person you want leading you through a real estate transaction. Maybe you are smarter than that? Maybe you’re more like Levine and can ChatGPT the entire process.

That’s fine. You still have a visibility issue.

This is the Actual Takeaway: If You Go FSBO, Solve Visibility First

Redfin, Realtor.com, Homes.com, all the big suit aggregators mainly only play in the MLS sandbox. To be fair, that fits their economic model where they make cash off Realtors looking for leads to purchase. If you don’t have an agent, they aren’t going to make any cash off you.

Zillow allows you to post your FSBO on their site for free, along with a video and an unlimited number of photos, providing you with an actual national audience for your property.

Redfin also shows FSBO listings, but you do not post directly to Redfin. Instead, RedFin displays FSBOs through a partner feed with FSBO.com, so you need to post your listing on FSBO.com to gain visibility on RedFin.

You still do not have access to Realtor.com or Homes.com.

Besides Ridley, you could also post on ForSaleByOwner.com for either free or $399. Neither tier gets you into the MLS. And yeah, they are owned by Rocket Mortgage, who doesn’t care whether you sell or buy a FSBO versus a traditionally repped property; they want to sell you a mortgage.

FSBO.com for the same $399 actually does get you into the MLS, which then means you go everywhere else too. If you’re selling by yourself, this is your meal ticket.

If you want to go cheaper, ownerentry.com is a fantastic option too, at $199 for six months on the MLS. Be careful here, though, because when they say “No Buyer’s Agency Commission Required,” that’s technically true, and depending upon the offers you are presented with, you might still pay that buyer agency fee.

NBC 6 sold an ugly story because AI headlines grab attention, and the news business is the attention business.

The real story, the boring story: Levine leveraged ChatGPT to build a FSBO timeline in a market already capable of producing quick contracts. Levine proved that a disciplined seller with the time, attention, and a willingness to do the work can sell a house without a Realtor, and we’ve already known that for a very long time. Nothing new under the sun here.

Meanwhile, other so-called AI tools like Ridley prey on people’s hope for a lower-friction, lower-cost way to sell a house. Man oh man, I am right there with you, and I do what I can, including capping my commissions, but I am not a magician. At the most, I’m infrastructure, access, labor, and judgment bundled into one very imperfect service.

Levine is not a prophet. NBC 6 is not a case study. Ridley is not a revolution—or at least not yet. If you are going FSBO, then yes, sell it yourself, but solve for visibility immediately.

And if you’re trying to decide between FSBO and an agent, let’s talk. I’m not here to shove you into one lane or the other. I’m happy to help you think through the pros and cons, the visibility issue, what kind of sale fits your house, your timeline, your tolerance for chaos, and will also bring a short list of other agents you can talk to as well. Just click the green button!

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About this publication.

Coffee with Steve is an independent publication by Steve Bargdill. Views are my own and do not represent Keller Williams Coastal & Lakes & Mountains Realty (“KWCLM”) or any other organization. Each Keller Williams Office is Independently Owned and Operated.

Not advice. Content is informational and educational; it is not legal, tax, or financial advice and does not guarantee results. Talk to a licensed professional who knows your situation before you act.

No agency created. Reading this does not create an agency relationship or agreement for services. Brokerage representation requires a separate written agreement with KWCLM.

Licensure. I am licensed in New Hampshire. Equal Housing Opportunity.

Wire-fraud warning. During representation by Keller Williams, you will never be asked via email to wire funds to anyone, including a title company. Do not follow email wiring instructions. Always verify by phone using a trusted number.

You can reach Keller Williams Coastal and Lakes & Mountains Realty at 603-610-8500 or Steve Bargdill directly at 603-617-6018.

Steve Bargdill | Realtor & Author | Seacoast NH | Licensed in NH as Stephen Bargdill Jr., with Keller Williams Coastal & Lakes & Mountains Realty.

Pronouns: he, they