Ultimate AI Model Comparison for CRE (May 2025 Edition)

In late 2021, before most people had heard of ChatGPT, we had started tinkering with the idea of a digital coworker for commercial real estate (though we didn’t call it that yet!). At the time, we were working with OpenAI’s GPT-3. It wasn’t all that powerful, and it certainly wasn’t built to handle CRE tasks. But even then, it showed just enough promise to make us believe the concept could work.

Fast forward to today, and the number of generative AI models—especially large language models (LLMs)—has exploded. With AI’s capability improving at breakneck pace, it’s no longer just about using an LLM, but about choosing the right LLM for the task.

That’s where CRE Agents comes in. To build the industry’s digital coworkers, we must rigorously test the leading models, identify their strengths, and train your digital coworker to use the best tool for each task. You focus on real estate. We handle the AI.

Each LLM brings unique strengths. Whether you’re underwriting a deal, writing a pitch, conducting market research, or brainstorming a marketing campaign, knowing which model to use can improve both the quality and speed of your output.

But let’s be clear: LLMs have limits. They’re not going to build your Excel model or design your pitch deck from scratch. What they can do is support your process—suggesting better Excel formulas, automating repetitive tasks, drafting initial content, or giving you a head start on your research.

So, with that, let’s walk through our picks for the top LLMs by task as of May 2025:

Financial Modeling Support

Winner: Claude 3.7 Sonnet with Reasoning
Claude has become our go-to for Excel troubleshooting. It can follow complex instructions, suggest formulas, help with VBA code, and even walk you through writing macros. One acquisitions analyst we support shaved hours off their weekly reporting routine using Claude to automate common Excel steps.

Research and Investment Committee Memos

Winner: OpenAI o3
OpenAI’s o3 shines when you need a well-structured summary fast. We watched one team pull together an entire IC memo using o3, feeding it notes, output from the model, and commentary. The final memo was tight, articulate, and ready for internal review with just a few edits.

Reasoning and Scenario Analysis

Winner: Gemini 2.5 Pro
Zoning, entitlements, phased development—Gemini is excellent at teasing out the logic behind tough decisions. A development manager we work with had it draft an entire zoning risk memo for counsel after feeding it site characteristics and jurisdictional overlays. It nailed the structure and surfaced a few risks they hadn’t even flagged.

CRE Marketing and Listing Descriptions

Winner: OpenAI GPT-4.5
For sharp, persuasive marketing copy that adapts to audience and tone, GPT-4.5 is in a class of its own. One brokerage group used it to draft listing copy for five different personas—tenant rep broker, investor, institutional LP, mom-and-pop owner, and lender. It nailed the nuance each time.

Creative Hooks and Property Names

Winner: OpenAI o3-mini
o3-mini is a lighter, faster version of OpenAI’s flagship model. Ideal for quick brainstorms. We used it in a session to name a 300-unit multifamily redevelopment. It gave us 30+ viable names in five minutes. The winning pick? Already in trademark review.

High-Volume Content Tasks

Winner: Llama 4 Scout
When you need to move fast and scale up content, Llama 4 Scout gets it done. A property marketing team used it to auto-generate short blurbs for 200+ assets. We tuned the outputs a bit and it was done within a day—something that used to take a week.

Real estate professionals shouldn’t have to keep tabs on every new LLM release. That’s our job. We build and train digital coworkers to know when to use Claude, when to use OpenAI, and when to call on Llama. You don’t need to memorize benchmark scores or learn prompt engineering. You just need the right output. The digital coworker handles the rest.

If you’re curious what this could look like inside your business, we’d love to show you. Join our waitlist to be added as an early access customer.