Beyond ChatGPT: MAXA’s James Wong on what it means to become an AI-enhanced real estate business

HousingWire

In this RealTrending episode, host Tracey sits down with James Wong, CEO and founder of MAXA Designs, to talk about what it really means to become an AI‑enhanced real estate business. While most of the industry is still stuck on basic use cases—asking ChatGPT to write an email or a social post—James pulls back the curtain on how top teams and brokerages are using AI to reengineer workflows, elevate their brand, and free up more time for what actually moves the needle: relationships and sales.   James walks through a practical framework for running an AI audit across your business, similar to what a great coach would do. He explains how elite producers categorize every task—what gives them energy, what doesn’t, what can be eliminated, automated, or delegated—and then plug AI into that system. From benchmarking your marketing spend with tools like Claude to building repeatable, AI‑driven processes, James shows how agents can turn AI from a novelty into a true operations engine.   The conversation also dives into advanced AI use cases many agents haven’t even considered. James explains how top teams are “teaching” AI by recording their own workflows, saving them as reusable skills, and letting tools like Claude CoWork and its Chrome extension execute tasks across their desktop, CRM, design platforms, and accounting systems. It’s the equivalent of hiring an assistant—at a fraction of the cost—and training it once to work exactly the way you do.   Finally, James explores why esthetic intelligence—having great taste in design and brand—is becoming a major competitive advantage in an AI‑everywhere world. He breaks down how high-performing brokerages are scaling deeply customized campaigns for top producers, and why more marketing leaders are building their own personal brands to attract and retain top talent. Listeners come away with a playbook for standing out in a market where anyone can generate content, but very few can create a brand that actually resonates.   Tracey Velt’s LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceyvelt/  James Wong’s LinkedIn  https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-wong-53b304a0/  MAXA Designs  https://www.maxadesigns.com/  Book a demo with MAXA Designs  https://www.maxadesigns.com/#book-a-demo-form   Want more from Tracey? Don’t forget to subscribe to Real Estate Daily.   The RealTrending podcast features conversations with the brightest minds in real estate. Every Monday, brokerage leaders, top agents, team leaders, and industry experts join us to share their secrets to success, trends, and the lessons they’ve learned. Hosted by Tracey Velt and produced by the HousingWire Content Studio.

Transcript

00:11If you're sick of the typical AI conversation, like do this, don't do that, do this, we've

00:18got a better one for you.

00:19Today, I have James Wong.

00:21He is the CEO and founder of Maxa Designs, and we go into some great ideas for marketing

00:30and campaigning and just really personalizing your marketing through AI, and this is advice

00:39that you probably haven't heard anywhere else, so enjoy the podcast.

00:43Hey, James, welcome to The Real Trending Podcast.

00:47Hi, Tracy.

00:48How are you?

00:49Yeah, good.

00:50I am excited to talk all things AI with you today, so let's get started.

00:58Everyone's talking about AI, obviously, and one of the things that you had mentioned to

01:03me is that The Real Opportunity isn't just using AI, it's becoming an AI-enhanced real

01:09estate business.

01:11So what does that look like for a real estate team or a top agent?

01:17Great question.

01:18You know, I actually just completed a really neat survey and interview series with some

01:26of the top marketing leaders in real estate and mortgage, and it's been really fun working

01:31with some of these big brands.

01:33And, you know, we've been finding some really interesting data around this world we're in,

01:41which, you know, the world of AI, what's changed.

01:43And, you know, 95% of them are actually saying that AI is the biggest single force reshaping

01:54how teams work right now, especially around, of course, content creation, design production,

02:01and overall approvals and workflow approvals.

02:05And so it's been pretty incredible.

02:07And your question was what they're doing specifically.

02:14I think everyone is swimming around these AI-assisted creative tools, what works, which tools they

02:25like, and then they'll start to systematize which AI-assisted creative tools they would like the rest of

02:33their team to use.

02:35Yeah.

02:36Yeah, definitely.

02:37And you, one of the things I absolutely loved in our conversation earlier is, you know, conducting

02:43an AI audit of every workflow inside your company.

02:48So how do you start that and what do you think would surprise them if they did this audit?

02:54And tell me a little bit more about the audit itself.

02:57Yeah, for sure.

02:58So if we think about it, I would say all of the top producing agents, teams, or even on

03:04the lenders side, you know, if they had a coach, one of the first things that a coach would

03:09do is say, hey, let's go through all the things it takes to run your business.

03:15And they would start with writing it all down.

03:18And then they would start to categorize it into, well, does it give me joy?

03:24Do I get energy from this?

03:26Do I love it?

03:27And then they go into, it doesn't give me joy.

03:30I don't like it.

03:31So then the question is, can I eliminate doing this?

03:34Why am I doing this?

03:36And then it goes into, well, if I can't eliminate it, can I automate it or delegate it?

03:42Right.

03:42Can we delegate it to a person or automate it with a system or tool?

03:48And then the other piece is probably the things that you can't automate or delegate and you

03:53still have to do it.

03:54But ideally it's, you know, 10 or 20% of your day to day.

03:58And the same audit can be used with now AI assisted tools.

04:03So, you know, a lot of people and I've got a chance to work with different, a different range of

04:10professionals.

04:11And some of them have jumped to AI really quickly.

04:14And I'm watching them use Claude, Gemini to help make better decisions.

04:22I can give you guys some examples for maybe you run a real estate team and you don't really know

04:29the benchmarks for your spending allocations around marketing.

04:34Maybe you have an idea.

04:35Oh, I should spend on digital ads.

04:37I should spend on farming.

04:38Or if I'm a loan officer, I might spend more on investing in real estate partners and taking them out

04:45for lunch.

04:46Well, what is the benchmark?

04:48If you asked an AI assisted tool like Claude, it will provide percentage allocations for you to do that audit.

04:57And essentially, when it comes to AI and your marketing and your branding, you can use those benchmarks to find

05:08out where you can execute what you're doing.

05:12And then you can ask the AI what tools, what are the best tools, AI tools to actually use.

05:19And so it's this incredible transformation and teams who are into it and they're willing to learn.

05:29What ends up happening is they become these AI tools become kind of like the process of hiring your first

05:35assistant where, yes, it takes a while to teach them, train them, get them to manage the system.

05:41But these agents, AI agents can do the same thing.

05:45And so I highly recommend everyone listening to take that time to actually train your AI, set up your system,

05:53learn it, ask AI to teach it to you.

05:55Because once you do, you just went from you doing it to it doing it for the long term.

06:02So it might be a lot of work up front, but for the future, you're now ahead.

06:07And it's just like a game changer because an employee might cost you 60K a year, but an agentic AI

06:15is, you know, a hundredth of that.

06:17Yeah.

06:18I love that.

06:20And I, you know, I think it, it also, what it does is it frees them up for the relationship

06:26building and the in-person activities that they really get them the business and get them sales.

06:32So it's, it's, I love that idea.

06:36So a lot of, a lot of agents are using like ChatGPT or Claude or Gemini to write emails and

06:42social posts, but that's pretty basic.

06:45What are the more advanced ways that you're seeing kind of elite real estate teams and agents use AI that

06:52many agents might not have even considered?

06:54One would be an AI assistant, obviously, which is a great idea.

06:59What are some other use cases?

07:02So a really big one, and it's like unlocking levels, is when you do something, you can, you can do

07:12a recording, screen recording of what you're doing.

07:16And, or you can take screenshots of what you're doing, and then you can essentially drop it into your Claude

07:21or ChatGPT and say, hey, save this as a skill.

07:27Yeah.

07:28So you can save it as a skill.

07:29And then when you're using, let's say Claude cohort or Claude extension, the Chrome extension, and I'll break that down,

07:38what the differences are.

07:40You can just say, hey, do this action and use this skill that you saved.

07:45Use the skill that you saved to do it the way I do it.

07:48And all of a sudden you're unlocking a real, they do it for you type experience, which has been really

07:57the jaw dropping moment for the whole world.

08:00So it's really important that people understand Claude.

08:04I'm going to use Claude because I really love that tool, but they, all of them have, have this now

08:09where it's energetic.

08:11Do you know, you're watching the mouse happen on your computer.

08:15Claude cohort is doing things inside of your computer and you're giving it permission along the way.

08:21So it's asking you if it's okay to, you know, open this folder and do things for you.

08:24And then eventually you can say, I'm always going to allow you to do it.

08:29It could be from review, working on a doc, filling out a, an offer on a, you know, on a

08:39Microsoft word.

08:41It could be organizing folders, doing accounting and separating it in the right folders on your computer, taking receipts, turning

08:51it into expenses.

08:55That all can be skills.

08:57Then it's the difference is you have to download Claude cohort for your computer.

09:02And then you have to download Claude Chrome extension on your desk, on your actual browser.

09:06Sorry.

09:06Because the different, when you're on the browser and let's say you're using your CRM tool, or let's say you're

09:14using a design tool like Maxib, you can actually command Claude, the Chrome extension to do things on websites.

09:25So let's say you're, you're, you're using QuickBooks or you're using your CRM and you're constantly doing it and you

09:30record it.

09:31As you continue to do those things, the Chrome extension, uh, sorry, the Claude Chrome extension will learn it and

09:38continue to do it for you.

09:39So I have a question.

09:41This is very selfish question.

09:43Um, I've always used chat GPT, but I hear everybody talking about Claude, but the problem is I use it

09:49for personal.

09:50We have our own at LVX at housing wire.

09:53Um, but the problem is I have so much in there that I'd have to reteach Claude.

09:58Can you just, is there a way to download all of that and move it into Claude?

10:02Oh yeah.

10:03It takes like 30 seconds.

10:05Okay.

10:05So you can just launch Claude, say, Hey, how do I take everything I've taught my chat GPT and put

10:10it into my, into your Claude, into my new Claude.

10:13It'll just give you the instructions.

10:15Yeah. And I think there are a lot of agents probably out there who have done the same.

10:19They started with chat GPT and they're hearing of these other ones, but it's very time consuming to go teach

10:24another, um, you know, AI system, everything that you taught the first one.

10:28So that's good information for me and for the audience too. So definitely.

10:33You had talked about this idea of aesthetic intelligence, like kind of in a world where everyone has access to

10:39the same AI tools.

10:41Why is be having kind of great taste a competitive advantage?

10:46Oh, I'm so glad you asked that question.

10:49So, you know, design is evolving. We're seeing it everywhere.

10:53And AI tools have made it so that production times have shrunken.

11:00It's easier to produce an idea that you may have, whether it's a video idea or it's a social post

11:08carousel campaign.

11:11And the question though, is when you think about aesthetic intelligence or design intelligence, which is, you know, I get

11:20to play in that world a lot.

11:21Do, uh, running Maxa design platform we provide is, is your brand and the marketing you're producing made with intention

11:31or is it just me?

11:34Is what I wonder, you know, I asked, and then it's like, can others tell that it's meaningful what you're

11:42producing?

11:42Is it, is it curated with your brand or what I call AI generated slop?

11:50A lot of times you, it's very, very noticeable.

11:53You can see it.

11:55And I think you actually lose brownie points with your brand.

11:59When people see some type of slop that's getting produced.

12:03You can tell by the writing style, you know, a lot of AIs, especially Claude and ChatGPT like to write

12:08the same way for everyone.

12:10You can see it in the design aesthetic.

12:12Of course.

12:13Uh, it's a little, I would say the AI tools right now are the furthest behind when it comes to

12:18the design.

12:19I can't really get it to look nice at all.

12:21And then the marketing leaders and the partners I work with are having a really hard time with their, their

12:26agents and MLOs who are going off and doing things real rogue.

12:33And there's no design system or branding kit that they're following and they're missing, you know, disclaimers, disclosures, they're missing

12:42a bunch of stuff and what they're doing.

12:43And so, uh, when it comes to design intelligence, I think about it.

12:48And this is about in our, we conducted this survey, a bunch of marketing departments, a hundred, a hundred percent

12:56of them said, let me, let me pause for a second.

12:59Actually, when we think about where AI is shaping us, everyone knows it's a permanent long-term change.

13:06Everyone believes that the, um, workflows of how things get done have fundamentally changed, but even, but it's more significant

13:17that being, having taste and knowing, you know, having the experience of what looks good and what doesn't look good.

13:28It's vital still.

13:30And I'll say, you know, when I break down what aesthetic intelligence really means, I'll break it into three parts,

13:37which is being or seeing, uh, or an aspiration to be uniquely distinctive.

13:47And that takes, uh, a lot of practice or a lot of experience just to understand like what, what actually

13:53makes you as a brokerage distinct.

13:55And then it's, well, how human and relatable are you?

13:59So, you know, I really think about the, the, that, that emotional IQ, how well do you showcase that?

14:06And then are you aesthetically obsessed?

14:11You know, if you think about some of the biggest brands, whether they were top one agent, uh, or there

14:16are 10, there's 10,000, uh, people in the company.

14:20Um, how well do you, uh, you know, articulate and visualize the brand through every asset, video, email, print, those

14:32big three, I'll say it again.

14:33And it's like, again, being uniquely distinctive, how real, how human and relatable are you?

14:39And then being aesthetically obsessed.

14:42Yeah.

14:43And it kind of really all leads into the, the need for designers and writers that are human because, you

14:53know, they've, they do kind of a, most of them have that already inherent in their, in their DNA and

15:01what they do.

15:01Um, and so it's kind of like the same thing, chat GPT or AI doesn't make everyone a writer.

15:08It doesn't make everyone a designer just because you can do it.

15:11It doesn't mean that you're doing it well, or you're doing it to your brand specifications either.

15:17So, so yeah.

15:18And that doesn't mean you don't have taste either.

15:20It just means that that's not what you do.

15:24100%.

15:25And even the marketing leaders, you know, it's a cultural shift for the marketing leaders because they have to get

15:30their team.

15:31Who's producing the content to believe in the same thing.

15:35And it's not just like, oh yeah, I just got it done, um, on time.

15:40It's, hey, did we actually care about what we created and the design details, the little details.

15:45You know, I like to say design intelligence or design thinking is about engaging the communities you serve, really thinking

15:54about who you serve.

15:55And then how distinctive or how relatable are you to that community?

16:02And the better you are doing that by your ass, your content, because if you think about content, it's just

16:07leverage of who you are.

16:09It's like, it's, it's showcasing and just demonstrating who you are as a brand or as a, as a person,

16:15your personality.

16:15So as extreme as you can go with your voice, uh, your style, your aesthetic, the more human they believe

16:25you are and, and, uh, relatable.

16:27Yeah, absolutely. Um, and you've talked about using AI before a listing appointment to kind of research homeowners, understand their

16:35interests and even personalized gifts.

16:37So what other ways, um, or practical ways can agents and teams create an even more memorable, uh, client experience

16:46using AI?

16:48Great. So great question. I think the first thing is to, for everyone to lay out all the things that's

16:55in their playbooks currently.

16:56Yeah.

16:57And then have their, just turn it into a PDF or copy and paste and drop it into their AI

17:02tool and see what suggestions they have, what the AI will have.

17:08You know, um, I've used the, I'm sure all of us have used our AI tools, whether it's cloud or

17:15chat GBT for a lot of things.

17:17A lot of advice. You know, sometimes I ask advice for my relationship and it's like, the responses are really,

17:23really incredible.

17:24And I would start with, Hey, drop in your playbook, your workflows, and just say, Hey, what would you suggest

17:30I do?

17:31I would even get more specific and go, Hey, I did 50 million in volume last year, the last 12

17:38months.

17:38What would it take based on like current activities for new business legion activities prospecting to get to a hundred

17:46million?

17:47Like just literally tell it that, ask it that, and it will live literally.

17:52And if you, if you wanted to take it further, you know, a lot of people have learned you prompting

17:57is really important.

17:58And usually everyone says, start with your telling the AI to act as if they are right.

18:05So active, if you are doing 200 million in volume a year as a real estate professional in, you know,

18:13United States or a state, um, catering to, let's say church, church, uh, communities.

18:21And then, um, from there, you would give them the next prompt, which is like what you want from it.

18:28Read this, read my current playbook and give me a suggestions on what to do.

18:33That acting part.

18:34I don't know if you've heard that Tracy's it's a big deal.

18:38I haven't.

18:38Yes.

18:39So pretty much every prompt you want to tell it to act as if it's, uh, Gary Keller, you know,

18:46active, you know, just keep acting as if it's this person or this.

18:50It's the best producer in the world.

18:52And it'll give you a better response.

18:54I love that.

18:55And, you know, this, I love sitting, I love doing these podcasts cause I learned so much too, for myself

19:01personally.

19:02So thank you.

19:04Um, and so you've worked with many of the industry's highest performing teams, brokerages.

19:08Um, you know, you don't need to name names, but what's one AR AI or branding strategy that you've seen

19:15that made you stop and think, wow, that's like incredibly smart.

19:19Um, so yeah, there's a few really, really good, which is the marketing teams are doing a lot.

19:29Um, I think what we found as we're seeing a lot of, a lot of recruiting growth expansion is they,

19:42the marketing teams that have figured out how to scale real customizations for their top producers and their top teams

19:53are winning.

19:54So I'm seeing broages interview a top producing team on over like maybe one hour help develop, let's say three

20:03to four pillars of that top producer or teams.

20:06And then produce a three month marketing campaign for print, uh, you know, community engagement, that's all around the printing.

20:18And then it's like social here's assets for every day.

20:22And then video content, uh, with scripts written just for that team.

20:28And, um, so we went print social and email and then help produce landing pages for funnels, display marketing and

20:42co-marketing.

20:43And so what happens is if you're a marketing team and you know, the basics of running a campaign, imagine

20:50going to every top producing team, building a program for let's say the top 10% or future top producers

20:56and say, we're going to do all of this for you.

20:58Within just two meetings that we need with you.

21:01And it's all professionally produced and prepared for them because of these AI assisted tools, the AI assisted creative tools

21:08can do 80% of the script writing, the social post content creation, the email blast, but it's all catered

21:17around, let's say three or four pillars.

21:18And co-branded with that top producers, personal brand or the team brand.

21:24And then they've built a system of just knocking it out for like 50 top producing teams a month or,

21:31and that has been insane.

21:33I highly recommend building a system to curate custom campaigns for your top producers.

21:39Cause they're really impressed because the content, especially writing right now, like video scripting.

21:45I can take everything, questions that I ask about that agent or producers or team's brand and convert it into

21:5420 videos, 20 clips for TikTok, Instagram, YouTube shorts.

22:00All of it can be recreated using these AI assisted creative tools.

22:05Yeah.

22:06I love that.

22:06It's such a value add as well.

22:08Um, so my last question is just, you've kind of had a front row seat to working with some of

22:12the industry's best marketers and highest producing teams.

22:15What's one secret you've learned from your clients, um, that more real estate leaders should be copying today.

22:22All right.

22:23This is a good one.

22:23Good one.

22:24So I'm finding with these bigger brokerages, the marketing leaders are, are, are building their own personal brand.

22:34Um, which I'm like, wow, that's really impressive on the mortgage side.

22:38I can think of a few and on the, and the real estate side where it's not just the founder

22:43of the brokerage or the CEO.

22:45It's actually the marketing leaders are branding this, the president and themselves as the CMO, or maybe their senior creative

22:54directors that I've never seen.

22:57And I've been doing this since 2012 and now it's like, whoa, um, you you're, you're the, the marketing leaders

23:05are branding themselves, showcasing what they can do as a company for their agents and LOs.

23:10And then, um, people are excited to meet the CMO and get support from them.

23:17They just marketing department.

23:18And which is, you know, I've said this before on different, uh, let's say stages or a podcast.

23:26And I'm still finding the second biggest reason, um, sales professionals join a brokerage is because of what that brokerage

23:35can do for their marketing.

23:36So the better you brand your leader yourself as a marketer, the more interested they are in your company.

23:42Yeah, absolutely.

23:43Um, amazing advice, James.

23:46And, um, you know, congratulations on such a successful business with Maxa.

23:50Um, I'm really impressed with everything that you guys do.

23:53So thanks so much for joining real trending.

23:56Oh, you're welcome.

23:58Thanks, Tracy.

23:59Yeah.

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