.png)
Use AI to Free Up Time to Be a Better Human: Russ Laggan's Framework for Real Estate Agents
- Wendy Forsythe
- 24 hours ago
- 3 min read
Russ Laggan (VP of Training, EXP University) breaks down how real estate agents should use AI — not to replace relationships, but to create more time for them. Market updates in 12 seconds, daily digests, and the $500/hour activity test.
What's the right mindset for using AI in real estate?
Use AI to free up time to be a better human.
That's what Russ Laggan — VP of Training at EXP University, keynote speaker, and one of the sharpest voices in real estate training — kept hearing at events across the country. He did nine events in nine weeks, and this idea came up again and again.
It's not about chasing every AI tool. It's about finding the ones that clear the administrative clutter so you can get in front of people, build relationships, and grow your sphere doing things you love.
How do you use AI for a real estate market update?
Russ talks to his AI by voice.
"I need a real estate market update for the last month. Tell me the total sales, median price versus last year and five years ago — and exclude Detroit proper."
Twelve seconds. No MLS clicking. No radius search adjustments.
"I just grab my phone and start talking," he says.
That's the unlock. You don't have to type a perfectly formatted prompt. Just talk to it like you'd talk to a smart colleague.
What activities should real estate agents automate?
Start with two lists:
Money-making activities — appointments, showing homes, writing offers, building relationships.
Non-money-making activities — scheduling back-and-forth, reformatting documents, compiling data.
Russ's rule: "Anything I do over and over and over should be looking for an automation."
His current project? Building a scheduling tool in Lovable so that any EXP University presenter — Russ, Candace Garcia, Brian Ellington — can be booked from one link that syncs all calendars. Fifty scheduling interactions a month, solved.
"You'll never make $500 an hour if you're spending your whole week on $20/hour activities."
What's the daily digest workflow Wendy uses?
Her AI note-taker (Plod) captures every meeting — virtual and in-person with a wearable. At end of day, a single prompt pulls everything together:
A summary of all meetings Every to-do in one place Three social post ideas from the day's conversations Three observations from the day
"I start my next morning going through that to-do list. I love me a good to-do list."
The notes stop going into a folder and start working for you.
What if you're stuck and don't know how to use an AI tool?
Ask it what you're missing.
Russ uses Claude when he's stuck: "I'm trying to do this and it's not working. Ask me the questions you need to give me a better solution."
Claude responds with steps. Russ cuts and pastes them one at a time. No tech background required.
"Think of it as a master consultant. You don't have to figure it out. You just have to tell it what you're trying to do."
What is the EXP University Train the Trainer program?
Russ is building six modules to help qualified agents teach EXP University content at the highest standard — including AI prompts agents can use to replicate top agent strategies in their own voice.
The goal: take EXP University's playbooks (what Russ calls "recipes") and help more agents teach them with quality and consistency.
"The nation does not know EXP University has the best training in the country. We're going to get known for that."
Russ also shares his woodworking and barbecue life, what it looks like to be the whole version of yourself online, and why showing up as you is the most magnetic strategy there is.
Let's grow,
Wendy
Comments