Selling your home is a challenging endeavor especially if you choose to go the For-Sale-By-Owner (FSBO) path. There will definitely be a LOT of work to do — from listing your home, preparing for inspections and appraisals, conducting repairs and maintenance, processing all the legal paperwork, scheduling open houses, not to mention marketing your home!
Luckily, with the use of social media, it’s now easier than ever to sell your home! Gone are the days of cold calling and listing your house in the classified section of the daily newspaper. Still, it can be overwhelming as there are many things you need to know before you can market effectively on social media.
As a real estate agent, you can say that I have mastered the art of social media marketing as it’s an everyday task for me to sell homes both in person and online! Trust me when I say that I’ve tried many things and always made sure to take advantage of the latest features available. Here are six ways to use social media that will help you sell your home faster!
1. Create a social media strategy
The first thing that you need to do is to strategize your social media campaign. Your goal is set: To sell your house. But which social media tactics you should use to achieve this goal?
You’ll need to decide on which platforms you’ll be using (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.), gather the materials you will need (photos, videos, articles, MLS listing?), set your budget (organic, paid advertisement, or both?), and narrow down the audience you want to target.
While the type of content you create is up to you, you’ll need to unleash a bit of your creativity regardless! There are several types of content you can choose to create. You can do as simple as posting a description of your home with photos. You can also take it to the next level by creating an Instagram Reel, Facebook/Instagram Story, or going live on a social media platform.
2. Digital Word-of-mouth is key!
As a private seller, you might not have a business page on social media. Not to worry as you can still market your listing via digital word-of-mouth! Simply posting about your listing can already help you spread the word. It’s also a good way to target an audience that would most likely be interested in your listing as most of the people in your network live close by to your area.
Aside from that, you can also share your listing on various social sharing groups such as Facebook groups about real estate selling in your area. Just remember to read the group rules first and make sure that it’s allowed before you post!
3. Consider paying for ads
If you’re a motivated seller with a good budget, consider paying for social media ads. You can easily run ads on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at an affordable price for a period of time. Social media ads are a quick and effective way to reach your target audience especially because you can choose the demographics of your ads. You can also easily see the stats of your ads while it’s running, receive engagement and messages in real-time, and extend your ad if you want to keep it running for longer.
4. Use keywords and hashtags
When relying on online marketing to sell your home, you need to ensure that your post or listing can easily be found by potential buyers. The trick is to use the right keywords and hashtags. Determine the keywords and hashtags that are aligned with the most common phrases that people use to search when looking for a property in your area. It can be the type of property, area name, or amenities that most people want in a home.
By doing this, your content is more likely to appear on your target audience’s explore page. Once they search for posts that are related to your keywords and hashtags, they will most probably bump into your content as well.
5. Promote your open house event
People wouldn’t just magically appear at your open house. You need to make efforts to promote your event. And since you are selling on your own and don’t have the network of a real estate agent, you need to double your effort.
Promote your open house event on social media prior to your event date. Post consistently until your event date to encourage excitement among your audience. Share the event with different real estate groups on Facebook. Ask your friends to help you reach more people by sharing it on their pages.
6. Go live on Facebook.
There might be a few people who won’t be able to physically attend your open house event. And who knows – maybe one of these people is your homebuyer. So consider going live on Facebook during your open house event.
If it is more convenient for you, schedule a separate virtual open house for those who cannot attend the actual open house. With this, you’ll be able to give your full attention to each guest – on-site and online.
Maximize social media as a tool today!
Whatever strategy or content you come up with, don’t forget that this is just a tool to help you with selling your home. At the end of the day, it’s still up to your skill and knowledge of the space that will land the deal. Aside from maximizing social media for marketing your property, learn how to effectively deal with people and negotiate for the best offer.
