If you’re interested in selling your home as quickly as possible, or for as much money as possible, you’ll be eager to experiment with multiple different listing channels. Over time, if your home isn’t selling, you’ll be increasingly eager to find a medium that works—and if you’re desperate to sell your home out of the gates, you’ll be fervent to hit the ground running.
At multiple stages of the process, you’ll be tempted to use social media as a platform to sell your home. But is this beneficial?
The Benefits of Social Media
There are multiple distinct benefits to using social media as a home sale platform:
- Visibility. Social media can be a quick route to visibility for your listing—but only under certain conditions. If you share photos of your home, along with a brief description, to your 1,000 followers, you’ll instantly make your home visible to 1,000 new people. Maybe 20 of those people have a network they think might be interested, so they share it to their average of 200 followers, increasing your reach to 5,000. If this ripple effect continues, your home could reach tens of thousands of people with a single post.
- Cost. Using social media for its most basic functions is completely free. You won’t have to pay for a listing, or pay for advertising; instead, you can just share images and details of your home with people who might be interested in buying it. Of course, paid advertising is also an option, and it’s a relatively cheap one—so it’s worth considering.
- Networking. Social media can also be a great networking opportunity. You might be able to meet other people in your neighborhood, who in turn might be trying to get friends or family members to move here. You might meet real estate investors or other professionals in the industry, who can provide you with tips or direction.
- Q&A. At its core, social media is about conversation, so if you’re using the platform to list your property, you can simultaneously engage with prospects. If someone is concerned about the state of the roof, or curious about how “finished” the semi-finished basement is, they can reach out directly, and you can engage with them, increasing your chances of success—and potentially informing you of common buyer concerns.
Key Tips for Success
There’s clearly something to using social media as a way to sell your home, but if you want to make the strategy work, you’ll need to follow these critical tips for success:
- Get advice from a professional. Before listing your property on social media, get advice from a professional. It’s a good idea to work with a real estate agent, but even if you’re selling the home yourself, get some pointers from someone in the industry. You’ll learn which communities and demographics to target, and might even learn some pointers on how to frame your home description in the best possible way.
- Make your posts public. This should go without saying, but make sure all your posts relevant to your listing are publicly available. You’ll want to reach the widest possible audience, so don’t limit yourself with a private setting.
- Share with groups and local communities. You have the highest potential for visibility and virality if you share your home’s information with specific groups and communities. For example, there may be neighborhood-specific groups on Facebook, or people involved with a specific real estate market on LinkedIn. Seek these relevant groups and make the most of them.
- Make yourself available. Don’t simply post information about your home and walk away; you’ll maximize your chances of success if you make yourself available afterward. Pay attention to people who are sharing or commenting on your post, and look for any questions that people have. Answer questions, thank people, and engage with your community; it will support you in multiple ways.
- Use the right tags. Most social media platforms allow you to tag your posts in multiple ways. You can include hashtags to make your post easy to find via searches, and associate it with various topics, and tag individuals to get their attention. Use both to maximize the visibility of your posts—just make sure all your tags are relevant.
- Be consistent. Finally, try to post your listing multiple times, across several days and weeks. As long as you’re not spamming it, you’ll slowly generate more visibility and interest.
Social media isn’t the best standalone channel to help you sell your home, but it offers some unique advantages, and is especially powerful when used in conjunction with other channels. Consider it seriously as part of your home sale strategy, and make sure to complement it with other home sale best practices.
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