AI in the Home Buying Process: What Works, What Doesn't, and When to Call an Expert

NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast

NerdWallet Personal Finance

Education, Investing, Business, How To

4.3 • 893 Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Find out how AI tools can help navigate the home buying process and where human expertise still matters most. Can AI help you buy a house with reliable information? What would you do if you had only ten years to live, received a $100,000 windfall, or lost your job with just one month of emergency savings? Sean Pyles, CFP®, and Elizabeth Ayoola sit down with a NerdWallet colleague to unpack his journey using AI to buy a home. But first, they take turns putting each other through a series of hypothetical — and sometimes grim — financial scenarios, revealing how they'd really handle everything from lending money to a struggling family member to deciding between a millionaire's Camry and a thousandaire's Mercedes. Then, NerdWallet’s podcast strategist Cody Gough joins Sean and Elizabeth in-studio to share his experience using Claude AI to help him make homebuying decisions. He shares how he used AI to figure out his financing options, find and evaluate agents, work through mortgage applications, and even assess whether specific neighborhoods were the right fit for his family. NerdWallet mortgage writer Kate Wood joins virtually to offer an expert reality check on Cody's experience — weighing in on his financing choices, what the AI got right and wrong about contingent offers in a competitive market, and where tools like NerdWallet's calculators and articles would have served him better than an AI chatbot. 2026 Home Buyer Report – 48% of Prospective Buyers Will Use AI: https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/studies/home-buyer-report Compare Today’s Mortgage Rates: https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/mortgage-rates See how far your homebuying budget could take you with NerdWallet’s free home affordability calculator: https://www.nerdwallet.com/mortgages/calculators/how-much-house-can-i-afford Want us to review your budget? Fill out this form — completely anonymously if you want — and we might feature your budget in a future segment! https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScK53yAufsc4v5UpghhVfxtk2MoyooHzlSIRBnRxUPl3hKBig/viewform?usp=header To send the Nerds your money questions, call or text the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373 or email podcast@nerdwallet.com. Like what you hear? Please leave us a review and tell a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hear that.
0:01.0	It's your big McDonald's hunger calling.
0:03.0	And that's not just any kind of hunger.
0:05.0	It's the kind that calls for, the big arch.
0:07.0	Stack with juicy beef, cheddar cheese and that big arch sauce.
0:10.0	Oh, and don't forget those crispy onions.
0:13.0	Hungry? You are now.
0:15.0	Serve from 11 AM, subject to availability.
0:18.0	Price and participation may vary.
0:20.0	Where the hell am I?
0:22.8	It's a fighting tournament.
0:24.3	To the death.
0:25.9	It's called Mortal Kombat for a reason.
0:29.4	The tournament begins.
0:31.9	Johnny Case.
0:33.2	You have been chosen to fight.
0:35.3	You're coming or what?
0:36.3	I'm an actor.
0:37.2	I can't do this.
0:38.9	You are fighting for the fate of our world.
0:42.0	Get over here.
0:45.0	Mortal Kombat 2 in Cinema's May 8.
	...

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