Molly McKinley

I spent a weekend binge-watching The Parisian Agency: Exclusive Properties on Netflix, the French family brokerage reality show, fully expecting it to be the Gallic equivalent of Selling Sunset. It is not. When the Kretz family presents a property, they talk about the stone quarry from which the marble came. They know the original architect, the renovation history, which direction the house faces and how that shapes the quality of light in every room at every hour of the day.

AI hasn’t replaced search. It has replaced selection. Eighty-two percent of Americans said they are using AI tools to gather real estate and housing market information, with ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini leading the way as the platforms most commonly cited by consumers, based on a recent Realtor.com study. TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY Not just Google. Not just portals.

On Friday afternoon, I stood on Highway 64 in Apex, North Carolina, watching 19 Buddhist monks walk past my home. They were on day 91 of a 2,300-mile journey from Fort Worth, Texas, to Washington, D.C. Several monks, including their leader Bhikkhu Pannakara, walked with stockings to feel the ground and stay present in each step. In November, a distracted driver struck their escort vehicle. One monk lost his leg. They kept walking.