The 85% Rule: How to Actually Use AI in Your Investing Business with Bob McIntosh
In this episode of The PETE Podcast, host Jon Nolen sits down with Bob McIntosh, a Buffalo-based investor who bought his first deal in 2008 and has since built a 31-unit rental portfolio, a marketing agency for real estate investors, and a hard money fund. A former bank-hacking IT security pro, Bob now builds AI systems that hunt down deals for investors while they sleep.
Bob breaks down the AI agent stack his team built that pulls listings across your counties every morning, runs comps and photo-based repair estimates, checks them against your buy box, and emails you the day's deals in ranked order. He and Jon get into where AI still falls short, why "grind culture" and vibe-coding are traps that pull investors away from real money, and how the whole game is shifting to speed. This one's for investors who want to use AI as leverage instead of a shiny object, with a Myspace-era detour along the way.
Timeline Summary
[0:00] – Jon introduces Bob McIntosh: 20 years in real estate, rentals, a marketing agency, and AI tools
[1:25] – Bob's background from hacking banks to flipping houses in Buffalo with his dad
[2:01] – His current operation: 31 rentals, a marketing company, and a sub-$150K hard money fund
[2:43] – Bob's tech stack: a custom GoHighLevel build, ClickUp, local AI models, and Lovable
[4:13] – What Hermes is and how a "harness" lets AI act like an employee executing tasks
[4:39] – Using AI for marketing content, research, and SEO, and why he still posts natively
[5:24] – The agent stack that finds, comps, and ranks real estate deals automatically every day
[6:51] – Why he preaches MLS deals and how 40% of his own deals came from the MLS
[7:50] – Getting AI repair estimates to 85% accuracy and where photo-based guesses break down
[9:10] – Treating AI like another employee that gets you most of the way, then a human takes over
[11:12] – A plain-English breakdown of APIs and the horse-and-harness analogy for Hermes
[13:13] – What hasn't worked: AI marketing copy still leans on cliches and stalls around 85%
[14:48] – Why AI misses the nuance between residential, commercial, and investor real estate
[16:28] – Company world models, why they shine for larger firms, and why most investors lack SOPs
[18:13] – The 85% rule: AI copy is a huge multiplier if you couldn't do it well yourself
[18:34] – Bob's prediction: AI deal-vetting accuracy tightening to within a few percent by year end
[20:28] – Why it's adapt or get left behind, and the false confidence AI can create
[21:22] – Where hype outruns reality: old marketing tactics being forced as they get shut down
[23:23] – The marketing cycle from direct mail to texting to cold calling to AI and back again
[23:46] – Grind culture as a trap and why grinding should be a phase, not the goal
[24:25] – The vibe-coding rant: an investor bragging about a workflow that took six man-hours
[26:35] – Focus on getting deals, not on becoming a developer, unless that's truly your thing
[26:54] – The hidden cost of vibe-coded apps: maintenance, changing APIs, and security
[28:16] – Rapid fire: keep your starting tech stack simple and add features over time
[29:08] – The one tool he can't run his business without and why Google Workspace is underrated
[29:59] – The tool he regrets: roughly ten grand spent on cold email with nothing to show
[30:26] – Why adopting AI isn't optional if you don't want to be outpaced on every deal
[31:05] – How AI turns real estate into a game of speed and who gets the leftover thin deals
[33:02] – Where he stays current: masterminds, local REIAs, younger people, and an AI news agent
[35:15] – The Myspace-era throwback and how young people flock to new tech the way we learned HTML
[35:39] – Where to find Bob and the AI tools he's building to help investors get more deals
5 Key Takeaways
AI Finds The Deals, Humans Close Them— Bob's agent stack pulls listings, runs comps and photo-based repair estimates, checks them against your buy box, and emails ranked deals daily. It gets you ~85% of the way so a human can focus only on the highest-probability deals.
AI Is An Employee, Not A Miracle Or A Gimmick— The mistake is thinking AI either does everything or is useless. Treat it like a team member that gets you most of the way for a fraction of the cost, then a person takes it home.
The Game Is Becoming Speed— AI won't thin out deals directly, it just makes the people using it faster. If you can call the agent at 8am with comps already in hand and your competitor can't until 9, you've already won the deal.
Stop Vibe-Coding, Go Get Deals— Investors burn hours building apps and workflows to brag about, when buying an existing tool and spending those same hours on deals would make far more money. Focus on the thing, and the thing isn't being a developer.
Old Marketing Tactics Are On A Timer— Direct mail, texting, and cold calling cycle in and out, and several are being actively shut down by changing rules. When everyone says a channel is working, that's often the signal to move on.
Links & Resources
The Lead to Close Health Check (free 6-minute assessment):https://peterei.com
Bob McIntosh's contact card:https://dsg.co/3/bobmcintosh
Hermes (AI agent harness):https://peterei.com
Lovable (AI app builder):https://lovable.dev
ClickUp (project management):https://clickup.com
Google Workspace:https://workspace.google.com
Enjoyed This Episode?
If Bob's take on AI as leverage instead of a shiny object shifted how you think about your next deal, pass this one along to an investor still stuck in grind mode. Follow The PETE Podcast, leave a rating, and drop a quick review so more investors can find the show.
