subject: Social Media Is Changing Real Estate [print this page] Not that long ago, having real estate listings online was cutting-edge. Now, many buyers can't even be bothered to go to a home viewing without first seeing photos, videos, and a 360-degree virtual tour online. The tight real estate market today is pushing agents and sellers to find new ways to market homes for sale, and the tool many are turning to these days is social media.
As we are increasingly connected 24/7 via iPhones and Blackberries, potential customers - particularly younger, first-time home buyers - want quick, easily accessible information, and for their agents to be as tech-savvy as they are. Of course, anyone can have a Facebook page and Twitter feed. The real trick is using them in a way that gets results.
Homeowner Chad Bowman recounted in the Austin American-Statesman how a "tweet" helped him and his wife find their perfect home. After a year of fruitless searches or making offers on homes after other buyers had gotten there first, Bowman and his wife were about to quit looking. Then, Bowman received a tweet from a local agent about a home which met all of their criteria - and was yet to go on the market. They were able to get in the first offer, and finally move into the home they were looking for.
Tweets and texts allow agents to provide clients the "inside scoop" on properties; as Bowman said, "On Twitter we were seeing it before the majority of potential buyers." It also allows real estate professionals to keep a connection with potential buyers, and use its instant nature to generate traffic - such as by tweeting photos during open houses.
Of course, it is possible to have too much of a good thing; tweeting and re-tweeting irrelevant or redundant information can backfire and cause followers to drop off. Limiting "tweeted" listings - or setting up a Twitter feed specifically for listings, such as 2WEETER, can help ensure clients receive only the information they need. 2WEETER is the first Twitter feed dedicated to delivering geo-targeted real estate trends, news, and listing information to agents and consumers. Current markets served include the major metropolitan areas in Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, with plans to expand to all 50 states over the next year.
Sites like LinkedIn and Facebook can help increase agents' reach, as well, by allowing them to feature certain properties in their News Feed or Facebook Marketplace, and by having a robust profile on each. As commercial realtor Mark Pustka puts it in the Statesman article, "[Potential clients] use LinkedIn when they meet somebody and want to know who is this person and want to know his legitimacy, what has he done before." The site's recommendation feature and the ability to network via "connections" make it easier to generate referrals and new business.
Even YouTube is being used to help sell properties. Some brokerage firms use it to post and broadcast video listings, or to highlight certain neighborhoods and communities. Others simply use it to stay connected with potential clients, such as New York's The Corcoran Group, which posts regular videos of their CEO answering questions from Facebook and Twitter followers about the local real estate market or offering tips for living in the area.
Sites that were once reserved for looking up old boyfriends or broadcasting the daily details of our lives are now finding arguably more productive uses. Social media has a great potential to reach an increasingly mobile and paperless population, and ignoring this new trend means missing out on a powerful and relevant sales tool. Simply put, social media marketing is what the consumer expects today.
