A friendly voice on the line might be a bot, but the strategy behind your move should be unmistakably human. We dive into how AI is transforming first contact in real estate—think call bots and text flows—and why the smart move is a fast handoff to a real conversation when a buyer is genuinely ready. Then we open the hood on pricing: how AI-driven analysis can augment MLS comps, tax records, and price-per-square-foot to produce a sharper, faster read on fair market value without replacing expert judgment.
From there we tackle the moment buyers have been waiting for. Mortgage rates have eased from the high sevens toward the low sixes, with a credible shot at dipping below six. Pair that with abundant inventory across the Charlotte metro, and you get rare leverage: motivated sellers, bigger price cuts, and room to negotiate repairs or credits. If you’re eyeing Dilworth, SouthPark, South End, or lakefront homes, you’ll hear how seasonal patterns and school calendars shape urgency, why days on market feel longer, and how a genuinely “balanced market” changes the playbook for both sides of the table.
We also map out a needs-first path for first-time buyers who must choose between school zones and commute, condo convenience and backyard space, short-term plans and long-term equity. With more than a hundred new residents arriving in the region daily, the runway to 2026 looks busy. Our take: act before the crowd, secure a strong strike price while inventory is high, and refinance later if rates fall. Along the way we share practical scripts for navigating AI outreach, questions to stress-test pricing, and the signals that a listing is primed for negotiation.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend in the market, and leave a quick review so more neighbors can find helpful, local advice.
Carolina Realty Advisors
Mike Sposato
Episode Transcript
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place
where local businesses andneighbors come together.
Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Regina League (00:10):
Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode
of the Good Neighbor Podcast.
I'm here in the Charlotte area,and I'm super excited to have
back with us today, I think forthe fifth time, Mike Sposato.
He's the broker owner ofCarolina Advisors, excuse me,
in Charlotte.
Welcome, Mike.
Thanks for having me.
(00:31):
Yeah.
So uh we have covered somereally fantastic topics in our
last four episodes.
And today there's something hoton my mind, and it's probably
on everyone's mind, is AI.
And I'm super curious how isthat being used or what are you
(00:51):
seeing it how in the real estateindustry?
Mike Sposato (00:56):
Well, there's a couple of different things I've
been seeing.
Um, one of them that's mostlike forward-facing that people
that consumers are probablyexperiencing, maybe maybe
they're not even aware they'reexperiencing it, but there's a
lot of platforms now that haveum AI bots that are actually
making phone calls.
(01:17):
So you might get a phone callfrom somebody who claims to be a
realtor, but they're actuallyan AI robot, um, believe it or
not.
And you can tell if you reallyhave a keen ear and you listen
to what they're saying, um, butit's getting better and better
and better.
(01:37):
And I'm sure by this time nextyear, it's going to be harder to
you know figure out that you'reactually talking to a uh an AI
bot versus a human being, butthat's technology for you.
So you got you got that, andthen there's a lot of platforms
that will do texting.
So if you happen to engage witha real estate agent or a real
(01:59):
estate firm about a property orany kind of interest in
something, you might starttexting back and forth.
And a lot of times those aregoing to be text bots, they're
not humans, they'repre-programmed to ask certain
questions.
And um, you know, we have it inour firm.
And I and it's funny becausesome of the people that engage
it, um the things they say, it'sit's kind of comical.
(02:23):
But um, you know, it it doeswork from that perspective.
But the other thing that thepublic doesn't see is on the
back end, um, one of the thingswe've kind of stumbled on is um
being able to uh price propertyout.
So when you're looking atlisting a property, you want to
try to come up with the the bestyou know fair market value for
(02:43):
pricing it.
And there's a lot of datapoints you can use from price
per foot to recent sales in theneighborhood, of course, and um
you know, tax record informationand in and a whole bunch of
other little parts.
But now, um, if you know how toask the AI chatbot um you know
certain questions, the rightquestions, it can lead you down
(03:04):
a pathway where you can start tofigure out what the AI thinks
the property is worth as well.
And you can use that as a datapoint.
I've used it a handful oftimes.
Again, not as the primary wayof doing it, but just as a data
point, and it's been reallyaccurate.
Regina League (03:21):
So um, yeah, well, that's it's a time saver,
I'm sure, for you, but for theconsumers and how you run your
business, um, what's yourpersonal philosophy after that
initial you know conversationtext?
Where do you go from there?
Mike Sposato (03:37):
Well, um the first couple of questions it asks are
very broad, general questions.
But if you see that the umpotential client is really
engaging and they're coming backwith the right kinds of answers
and they don't have an agentand they're in the market,
that's when we immediately callthem and try to get them on the
phone so we can have aconversation because nothing
(03:58):
beats a conversation with thepotential client.
Regina League (04:01):
That's right.
And I called a business todayand I knew it was AI.
I think we're all going tobecome wiser.
And you know, working with anagent or a firm to buy and sell
a home is such a big deal.
So uh that makes a lot ofsense.
So another thing that's on thenews and that we're all hearing
about is interest rates.
(04:22):
Tell us um what's going on.
It seems like they're shiftingagain.
So give us an update.
Mike Sposato (04:29):
So when we did our first show, um, like you said,
this is the fifth episode.
So it was probably it's been awhile, six, seven months ago,
maybe.
Um, interest rates were closeto 7% back then.
And um, you know, a lot ofbuyers are sitting on the fence
waiting for the rates to drop.
Well, they have dropped.
Now we're at 6.125, and today'suh October 29th, 2025.
(04:53):
So um, and from the informationthat we're getting, their rates
will probably drop two moretimes before the end of this
calendar year.
How big a rate drop, no oneknows, but I'm certain we'll get
under six percent.
There's those predicting thatby spring or summer we might be
down to you know five and a halfor five and three quarters,
(05:15):
something like that.
Um, it's certainly it's reallyinteresting because right now um
there's a lot of inventory onthe market.
And if you were a buyer, thisis one of the I've been doing
this 25 years.
This is one of the best timesthat I could ever think of to
buy because rates are trendingdown.
So you're gonna get acompetitive rate, but there's so
(05:37):
much inventory that sellers areyou're seeing major, major
price drops right now for peoplewho are motivated to sell.
And so you could get a goodstrike price on a property, get
a decent rate, and you know, ifthey go down, you can refinance
it.
But it it's it's a perfect,absolutely perfect storm time to
buy.
Regina League (05:57):
Wow.
Wow, that is fantastic.
What are some of the hot areasin Charlotte right now?
Mike Sposato (06:02):
Same as always, you know.
Um, you know, Dilworth isalways good, South Park's good.
Um, South End's always, well,not always, but it has been up
and coming.
There's just not very muchinventory there.
Of course, any waterfrontproperty on either one of the
lakes, you know, because they'rejust people love the lakefront
property, Waxhaw, Weddington,you know, those are some of the
(06:23):
best areas.
The the problem though that youhave is now that schools have
started, there there will bethose people who need to make a
move during the holidays toresituate with schools, but
there are a limited amount ofpeople.
And so the big suburbanmarkets, usually this time of
year, they they tend to getslower until we hit the spring
(06:44):
market.
So just keep that in mind.
Regina League (06:48):
Yeah.
When I was a kid, my dad's jobmoved us around, and we always
moved in the middle of theschool year, which is not so
much fun.
Yeah.
So um, we've tapped a littlebit into the Charlotte market,
but let's dive a little deeper.
What is happening in ourspecific area?
Mike Sposato (07:05):
What's that?
I'm sorry, I didn't interviewyou.
Regina League (07:07):
That just um a market update for the Charlotte
metro area, because I knowyou're a North and South
Carolina uh realtor as well.
unknown (07:16):
Yep.
Mike Sposato (07:17):
Well, um, like I was saying earlier, there's a
lot of inventory.
Um, you know, when when I guessthis time last year, we still
had roughly, you know, a monthand a half, two months of
inventory, which means from thetime you listed it to the time
you sold it, it would have takenyou know 45 to 60 days.
Now it's it's like six monthsof inventory, which is uh it's a
(07:42):
it's a I'm always lookingthings like a pendulum.
So you have this kind of bigpendulum like this.
You list it until you close isroughly 40 to 30 days.
A balanced market is on thebottom of the pendulum where we
are now, which could be aroundsix months plus or minus to list
your property, go through thewhole selling process and close
(08:03):
it.
And a buyer's market is whenyou're way up on the other side
of the pendulum where you haveyou know 12 months of inventory.
So if you don't have that muchinventory, you can be
competitive on price and doeverything they possibly can to
sell.
So right now we're actually ina balanced market.
It just doesn't feel like itfor a lot of people because
they're not used to it.
(08:24):
You know, if you're relativelyyoung, you've never seen this
before.
You know, you're used to justproperties getting listed and
bam.
But if you've been around andyou've been in the market or you
just you know bought sold homesthrough you know a couple of
decades out throughout yourwhole life, then you realize
that right now we're we're in abalanced market, you know.
(08:46):
So there isn't a lot is asinterest rates drop and and we
get into 2026 and all of asudden the current inventory
either sellers take it off themarket, which we're seeing that
happen, or um the marketinventory gets absorbed.
I think we're gonna slowly butsurely get back into more of a
(09:10):
seller's market because there'sa lot of pent up buyer demand,
and especially in our area.
I don't know the exact number,but they say there's over a
hundred people, sort of 150people every day moving in in
here.
So if there's that many peoplemoving in, that they need a
place to live that a lot of themare renting currently.
But you know, that's just a bigwaste of money and the rent's
(09:35):
not very cheap around here.
Regina League (09:37):
So yeah, I mean I look around Charlotte, but
there are a lot of uhmultifamily things being built,
but yeah, for sure.
Mike Sposato (09:50):
I mean, it's always been a great place.
So I mean ever since I've beenin the business, like I said, 25
years we've been in the topthree century for a variety of
reasons, as we all know.
So yeah, it's it's great, butum going forward, I think 2026
is gonna be a robust year buyingand selling real estate.
Um, I would highly advise ifyou're listening to this to get
(10:12):
in on the front end of thatbecause I could see you know, we
hit March, April, May, and allof a sudden it starts to get
like a chili cook-off gone wild,and rates are down, people are
moving really fast.
So yeah.
Regina League (10:29):
For first-time home buyers, where do you advise
them uh to to look?
Where do you shine a light forthem?
Mike Sposato (10:37):
Well, uh, you know, everybody's different, you
know.
So it depends on what theirsituation is.
Uh, you know, a lot ofpreviously when we were in the
COVID year, people there's a lotof younger buyers coming out
trying to get into the popularareas, but now um the the
first-time buyer is a little bitolder.
And so if they have a family,the schools could be really
(11:00):
important.
You know, if if it's more of aninvestment and they're coming
into town for a couple of yearsand maybe working in uptown or
close to uptown, and they wantto be close to work and they
want, you know, that kind ofcondo town home living, you
know, that could be a good fit.
So you just really it's a needsanalysis-based approach when
you just kind of learn moreabout each individual client,
(11:20):
what's important for them beforeyou can give any advice,
really.
Regina League (11:23):
Well, I love that the name of your business is
Carolina Realty Advisors.
And I know we've touched onthat in some of our other
conversations, but with youbeing uh you know such a high
producer and covering this metroarea and you're very community
involved, so you bring a lot, alot of knowledge and uh help and
(11:45):
advice you know to yourclients.
So uh kudos to you.
Glad things are going so well.
Yeah.
Well, Mike, it's been apleasure.
I know we're gonna do more ofthese, and I look forward to our
next talk.
Tell everybody how to reachyou.
Mike Sposato (12:01):
Yeah, um, it's easy.
My number is 704-619-7070.
That's the easiest way.
Or you could email me.
My email is Mike at CarolinaRealty Advisors.
That's the name of our company,Carolina Realty Advisors.
So Mike at Carolina RealtyAdvisors.com.
Regina League (12:20):
Perfect.
All right.
We'll talk soon, Mike.
Mike Sposato (12:23):
All right, have a great day.
Thanks for having me.
Intro/Close (12:25):
You as well.com.
That's gnpsouthsharlotte.com orcall nine eight zero three five
one five seven one nine.
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