As consumers flee Google for ChatGPT, some advice for brokers on how to best take advantage

Google’s search dominance is not likely to end anytime soon. However, there are cracks in the mighty tech giant, with antitrust litigation ongoing. And they face a more immediate threat from artificial intelligence (AI) search tools, like ChatGPT, and brokers should prepare for its continued growth.
A February survey showed that 27% of Americans now use AI chatbots like ChatGPT instead of Google. An article in the Wall Street Journal noted that 400 million people were using ChatGPT weekly. Mortgage lenders have been introducing new AI tools almost weekly.
Carlos Scarpero (pictured top), mortgage broker at Edge Home Finance, also has a background in search engine optimization (SEO). He has used his knowledge to adjust his own SEO, which has allowed him to get loan customers from ChatGPT.
“I’m ranking on the AI tools and ChatGPT,” Scarpero told Mortgage Professional America. “I closed four this month, and three out of the four were from AI, which is crazy to me.”
Scarpero specializes in VA loans, focusing on low-credit-score loans. Because he has a lot of content about those types of loans, AI searches are suggesting him to clients.
“I do a ton of low credit score VA loans,” he said. “That’s my niche. I just have a lot of content on that. So if you go into ChatGPT and say, ‘I’m a Veteran. I have bad credit, and I need a VA loan. Who should I call?’ If they’re located in one of the 33 states where I’m located, my name will probably pop up and usually be number one. I got a ton of calls.”
From cannabis to VA loans
Scarpero started experimenting with SEO techniques when he considered getting into doing cannabis loans, as legalization efforts were increasing in Great Lakes states. While he didn’t find a strong market there, he took what he learned into the VA loan market.
“I started looking at pockets where there’s less competition,” Scarpero said. “One is VA renovation, which nobody even offers, so it’s pretty easy to write. Nobody else is targeting it. And two is a low credit score VA loan.”
His web content gives him an advantage over even big lenders with these types of loans, because their websites don’t often target those keywords.
“Even the big online lenders, they’ll write one blog post to touch on the topic, just because they want that top of authority of having all the topics,” he said. “They don’t really want that 580 credit score borrower. The 550 credit score borrower, they definitely don’t want. And so that’s what I target.
“I create some content around, ‘If you’ve ever been turned down by Veterans United, call me,’ type of stuff.”
New AI tech in the mortgage industry aims to automate lending tasks, with Katie Sweeney, EVP of broker strategy & advocacy at Rocket Pro, seeing it as a way to improve work-life balance and strengthen human connections, not replace brokers. https://t.co/eqQBB5oVGA
— Mortgage Professional America Magazine (@MPAMagazineUS) June 18, 2025
In addition to targeting specific types of VA loans, he creates regional content in the states where he is licensed. He found that AI search tools like ChatGPT especially like regionally targeted content.
“I also have different pages that are state-specific,” Scarpero said. “So if you type, ‘Bad credit score, VA, Ohio, Kentucky, or Indiana,’ I have pages targeting those phrases. I wasn’t even trying to get on the AI. It just kind of happened. I figured out that the super-targeted pages, the AI loves that stuff.”
Stepping up the website game
Technology has been rapidly increasing in the mortgage space. Companies are encouraging brokers to embrace new technology to scale their business.
Scarpero encourages brokers to embrace a web presence to draw in more customers. He said many that he knows barely have a website.
“From a broker level, my competitors aren’t doing this stuff because it’s way over their head,” Scarpero said. “Most of them don’t have a website, let alone an online presence. The big online guys, they don’t really target local markets, because it’s too small a search phrase.”
While ChatGPT results might not produce enough results for big lenders, Scarpero said they work well for small brokers.
“In Ohio, it will get maybe two calls a month, which is fine by me,” he said. “I’m in 33 states, so that’s 65 calls a month, which is amazing.”
For brokers interested in building an online presence, a more robust website with plenty of content is the starting point.
“Most of them have a (bad) templated website,” Scarpero said. “There are three or four providers that provide these kinds of things. They’re fine, but they’re not going to rank. You’ve got a website with the same content that everybody else has, and they get shocked when it’s not ranking. You have nothing unique to show the world.”
Scarpero said the technology boom allows brokers to build a unique website with great tools without paying thousands of dollars to a web designer for the same bland, templated website.
“You can build stuff in AI that’s almost as good as what the big lenders have,” he said. “I don’t have a $200 million budget. It’s just little old me in my spare bedroom here, just building out crazy little web pages.”
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