Ric Serrao has been selling real estate in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs for nearly 40 years. He has set suburb records, topped national sales rankings and built one of the most recognisable agencies in the market. His next project might be his most unusual: buying a robot to greet buyers at open homes.
The principal of Raine and Horne Double Bay and Bondi Beach is quite serious about it. He wants the robot at the door taking down names and numbers, freeing his agents to focus on the conversations that actually matter, the ones that turn an interested buyer into a signed contract.
“I’m looking to buy a robot,” Serrao said. “They’ll just be greeting buyers at the door, taking down names and numbers. And that will free up agents to do the serious talking with buyers and the negotiating.”
An Idea Born From a Real Problem
Open homes are one of real estate’s most labour-intensive rituals. An agent at a well-attended eastern suburbs open can find themselves split between welcoming new arrivals, answering questions, managing the crowd and keeping an eye on the property, all at once. The front-door greeting, polite and necessary as it is, eats time that might be better spent elsewhere.
Serrao’s logic is straightforward. If a robot can handle the name and number collection reliably, the human agents are freed for the work that actually requires human judgement. He is planning to travel overseas later in the year to industry trade shows to assess what is available.
“I think there’s definitely room for AI and aero robotics to help with minor tasks and collecting data,” he said. He is also realistic about the regulatory questions the idea raises. “Would they need to be certified as real estate agents?” he wonders, noting he has not yet raised the idea with Fair Trading.
And no, he is not planning to clone himself. “Someone that’s a lot younger with more hair,” he quipped.
The Technology Is Already Moving Fast
Serrao’s timing is spot on. In late January 2026, Elon Musk confirmed the end of an era for Tesla’s luxury fleet, announcing the company will axe the Model S and Model X by mid year. The move represents a massive strategic pivot. Tesla is ripping out the production lines at its Fremont factory to make room for the mass production of its Optimus Gen 3 humanoid robots.
While the robots currently serve as electric co workers learning the ropes inside Tesla plants, the goal is a staggering one million units a year. For local buyers, however, the wait continues. While production is ramping up, these robo agents are not expected to hit the open market until 2027 at the earliest.
Not Everyone Is Convinced
The idea has its sceptics, even among people who agree that change is coming. Paul Biller, principal of Biller Real Estate, is not rushing to sign up.
“I’ll be interested to see how it goes, but I don’t want robots at my opens,” he said. “It’s a cool gimmick, but it takes 10 seconds to say hi to a buyer and human interaction is important.”
He does agree, though, that the broader shift is real. “A lot of things are going to be automated and big changes are definitely on the way over the next five to 10 years with AI.”
What This Tells Us About Where Real Estate Is Heading
The conversation happening between Serrao and Biller is the same one unfolding across the industry. Real estate agencies have been looking at ways to manage the labour demands of property inspections for some time, with some already outsourcing open home duties to separate companies. The question is not whether automation comes to real estate, but what form it takes and what it replaces.
For Double Bay, a market where buyer relationships and discretion matter enormously and where Serrao’s near-four-decade reputation for personal service is a core part of the product he sells, the robot-at-the-door idea is not about replacing the agent. It is about protecting the agent’s time for the parts of the job that no robot will be doing any time soon: reading a room, sensing hesitation, knowing when to push and when to hold back.
That is the judgement that still takes nearly 40 years to develop. For everything else, apparently, there might soon be a robot.
Raine and Horne Double Bay and Bondi Beach is located at 385 New South Head Road, Double Bay. Enquiries can be directed to the team at 02 9327 7971.
Published 30-March-2026
