Sell Your Home on Facebook
Seattle Real Estate | Gerhard Ade
How to sell your home on Facebook.
Is it possible to sell your home on Facebook? It’s not likely if you tried to sell your home on Facebook exclusively. However, as an online platform to market your home, Facebook is essential. Real estate and Facebook are made for each other. Are you on Facebook at least once a day? According to Brandwatch.com, there were 1.083 billion daily active users a year ago. Do your Facebook friends number in the hundreds? In 2016, each user had an average of 338 friends.
Even if you answered these two questions with no, read on. Don’t stop here, whether you are planning to sell your home soon or a year from now. I will show you how real estate and social media go together.
Your agent is the quarterback.
Selling a home has become a team sport. The team consists of you the seller, your agent, and your family and friends. You probably heard that some 95% of all home buyers look for the home of their dreams online. Often their family and friends join them in this online quest. My role as your quarterback is to make sure that your home is found online by as many potential buyers as possible.
Link Facebook to a special web page.
With the online buyers in mind, I write the content and create the design of the Facebook message. I also plan a roadmap to deliver the message. The ultimate destination of that message is your home’s special place on the web at SeattleRealEstateNews.com. Everything we do to sell your home on Facebook points to the most detailed and attractive presentation of your home anywhere on the web. The web cognoscenti call it a landing page.
To sell your home on Facebook: entertain and engage!
The best way to capture the Facebook user is with eye-catching visuals and clever writing. Take, for example, Hank, the seller’s pitbull. His Redmond home received 18 offers and had nine pre-inspections. It sold after just six days for 12% over the list price. That was in 2014 when the Seattle area real estate market could still be called fairly balanced. To feature Hank on Facebook was a spontaneous decision. I took the picture because I liked the dog. Only afterward did I recognize the potential and seized on it. Hank became the star of the show. Do you have a pet that could help us to sell your home on Facebook?
Always look for an angle.
Some of my Facebook posts are more calculated. In 2016 homes close to Bellevue Place were selling routinely over list price. Many received multiple offers. Featuring the seller’s miniature Swiss chalet in the backyard, I subtly conveyed that notion. The message was not lost on the buyers who responded with multiple offers, using escalation clauses. The Bellevue home sold in five days for 16.5% over list price.
Ride a familiar brand.
With another calculated Facebook post, I take my cue from the Redfin brand. In an effort to attract more buyers, the Redfin brokerage firm identifies a home that it predicts to sell quickly as a Hot Home. As soon as one of my listings is declared a Hot Home, I develop Facebook posts that take advantage of this attribute. I use the Redfin Hot Home brand to drive traffic to the web page of my listing client. I used this tactic for this Kenmore Home which sold in five days 13.3% above listing price. To sell your home on Facebook it helps to be a “Hot Home.”
The more the merrier
Needless to say, the more you and your friends are active on Facebook the greater the traffic that will arrive at the special web page. If you yourself are not that engaged on Facebook then you have to tell your friends who are. If there are still not enough people to promote your home sale online, I will call on my clients and friends to lend a helping hand. In any case, the results of using Facebook and other social media as catalysts in marketing justify the effort. In one case, over 800 people visited the special listing page of this Seattle Home in the span of four days.
