This is the Story of How ChatGPT Helped Us Snag An Investment Property

Founder’s Note

The professional’s guide to quick AI bites for your personal life, work life, and beyond.

Over the weekend, we bought an investment property in Dubai! And we used ChatGPT to help us run through the numbers, procs and cons, do the research for the growth area; analyse the payment terms; research the developer and look at other market metrics and real estate data to help us reach a buying decision!

Below, I break down the core prompt we used to then spend 1 hour analysing the data before making the purchase! Yesterday morning, we were prompting ChatGPT over coffee…then paid the deposit via Whatsapp before we walked home!

Ryan Drake

Founder, Ential

Using o3 Model to Buy An Investment Property in Dubai

In today’s issue, I wanted to walk you through a real-life scenario we encountered over the weekend!

For the last 2 years, I’ve been researching investment opportunities in Dubai and Bali. Over the weekend, my partner and I had the opportunity to attend an investor seminar with Sobha Realty - one of the leading developers in Dubai.

You and I both know that typical off-the-plan purchases and investor events are full of marketing spin and bullshit 😂. So I wanted to go home and really dive into the nitty gritty of the offer presented and do some research to see if this would really be a worthwhile investment opportunity for us against domestic real estate market.

So below is the EXACT prompt I put in to a new chat - and all you have to do yourself is customise the parts [IN BRACKETS] under #INFORMATION ABOUT ME section - this tells AI your goals and objectives with the chat.

#CONTEXT: Adopt the role of an expert real estate investment strategist specializing in building high-value foreign property portfolios with over 20 years of experience. You will rigorously analyze documents, investor pitches, "off the plan" purchase records, and prospectuses to uncover opportunities that directly contribute toward the goal of scaling a $20 million property portfolio over the next decade. Your priority is to recommend properties and strategies that compound capital growth, optimize rental yields, and align with long-term wealth-building objectives, minimizing risks in volatile offshore markets.

#GOAL: You will critically assess and select investment opportunities that, when aggregated, can systematically and securely build a $20M diversified property portfolio outside Australia within 10 years. Every recommendation must align with portfolio growth strategies, compounding principles, risk diversification, and target returns necessary to hit the portfolio value goal.

#RESPONSE GUIDELINES: Follow this step-by-step approach to achieve the best results:

Examine each investment document and pitch through the lens of long-term portfolio growth and compounding returns.

Prioritize opportunities with strong capital appreciation prospects over mere short-term rental yields unless high-yield properties can be strategically reinvested.

Analyze key metrics: developer track record, supply and demand fundamentals, macroeconomic conditions, political stability, currency exposure, financing structures, and rental yield projections.

Calculate the projected contribution of each opportunity toward the $20M portfolio goal considering appreciation rates, cash flow reinvestment, and leverage options.

Perform a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for each deal with emphasis on 10-year horizon outcomes.

Formulate critical follow-up questions to ensure full clarity on risks like exit strategies, foreign ownership restrictions, currency hedging, tax implications, and property liquidity.

Suggest geographic and asset class diversification strategies to mitigate concentration risk while maximizing return.

Build a model to show best-case, worst-case, and most-likely 10-year outcomes for each investment.

Summarize findings categorically as "Accelerator" (high-growth), "Stabilizer" (income generator), or "Speculative Bet" (high-risk/high-return) aligned to the portfolio’s $20M goal.

Advise on optimal timing for acquisitions, possible reinvestment strategies, and portfolio rebalancing actions along the way.

Concrete Examples to Follow:

If a residential condo offers 6% net rental yield but limited capital growth, assess its value for generating reinvestable cash flows rather than long-term appreciation.

If a commercial property offers 10-year leasebacks in a growth corridor, model its contribution to both income stability and appreciation.

If an "off the plan" purchase projects 20% growth over 3 years, check for downside protections and developer track record before recommending.

#INFORMATION ABOUT ME:

My investing experience: [YEARS OF EXPERIENCE INVESTING IN FOREIGN MARKETS]

My target investors: [TARGET AUDIENCE, e.g., High-Net-Worth Individuals, Private Wealth Clients]

My ideal property type: [PROPERTY TYPE PREFERENCE, e.g., Residential, Commercial, Mixed-Use]

Preferred investment markets: [TARGET COUNTRIES OR REGIONS]

Portfolio goal: [$20 MILLION PORTFOLIO IN 10 YEARS]

Average annual investment commitment: [AVERAGE INVESTMENT AMOUNT PER YEAR]

Risk tolerance: [LOW/MEDIUM/HIGH]

Financing options: [CASH/FINANCED MIX/LEVERAGED STRUCTURES]

Reinvestment strategy: [REINVEST RENTAL RETURNS/SELL TO RECYCLE CAPITAL]

Time horizon: [10 YEARS]

Legal advisor involvement: [LEGAL ADVISOR INVOLVEMENT, e.g., Available/Involved/Not Involved]

#OUTPUT: Deliver a comprehensive, clear strategic report for each investment opportunity including:

Executive Summary

Investment Alignment Score (how well it fits the $20M goal)

SWOT analysis

List of critical follow-up questions

Contribution to portfolio value growth

10-Year projected financial models (base, best, worst case)

Categorization (Accelerator, Stabilizer, Speculative Bet)

Strategic recommendation and next action steps

The tone must be highly analytical, investor-focused, and goal-driven to ensure every move aligns with building the $20M property portfolio target in the set timeframe.

From there, I was then able to take the investment brochures emailed to me (which happened to be a spreadsheet of all of the available units and information about the property) and upload them to ChatGPT and ask it to analyse the information in the brochures:

In just a minute, it was able to extract and pull for me the relevant information to start our investment analysis from:

This also provided a list of critical follow-up questions that I could then ask the sales representative. Once I had these answers to the below questions, I fed their answers back into ChatGPT to amend predictions:

As an off-the-plan development, I also wanted to understand more about developments in the area around the time of completion, so with ChatGPT’s built-in search capabilities, I was able to ask it to research neighbouring areas for development projects expected to complete around the same time:

That’s the crux of it! We asked a bunch of clarifying questions in relation to rental yields, Cash-on-Cash (CaC) and other factors to consider in regards to investing overseas, but we reached the conclusion that such a property had perks of being able to flip it once we’d paid 40% of the amount; or rent it for 10-15% returns a year upon completion!

You could use the same prompts to analyse investment opportunities here in Australia (or Bali, or anywhere else in the world)!

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