The use of social media is a great way to take matters into your own hands when selling a property.
Whether you have decided to go via an agency or handle the sale independently, the widespread use of platforms such as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are bound to create a reach that you would otherwise be unable to achieve.
In this article, quick home buying experts Property Solvers explain some key ways in which you can use social media to optimal effect in order to achieve a fast and effective sale.
Images and videos
One of the great things about social media is that it is getting increasingly visual.
Platforms such as Instagram specialise in images only – providing you with the opportunity of regularly updating your account with beautiful shots of your property in all weathers and with different décor.
Even older platforms like Facebook make extensive use of images. If you add a visual to a post, the site’s algorithms will automatically broadcast it to a larger number of individuals.
So images aren’t only great for catching a prospective buyer’s eye, they’re also more likely to see your property’s information spread to a wider audience.
Videos of your home are also ideal to share, as they offer a sense of scale and show the audience how the property “fits together”.
Regular updates
You can keep your property in the “public eye” on social media by posting regular updates. This will work especially well if you’re sprucing the place up in preparation for a sale. Before and after pictures of refurbed rooms are always popular, after all.
You can also post information about the local area, like What’s On guides and details of local amenities like walking routes, always linking them back to your property.
Use handles and tags for a wider reach
One of the most valuable elements of social media is how widespread a post can become. For example, on platforms like Twitter, you can utilise the user handles of certain local news outlets or listings in tweets about selling your property, prompting those users to “retweet” them to their followers.
If you’re using a certain agency or portal, you can use their handle too (@rightmove, @zoopla etc.) and they may share the post you create with their followers – many of whom will be house hunters.
Hashtags are also highly important and are used on a huge range of platforms. Using hashtags like #ukproperty and #propertysales is great, but to zone in on your local area, try things like #manchesterproperty or whatever is most relevant to your region.
Include further tags like #garden or #familyhome to narrow down your audience.
This means that anyone using these particular terms to search on social media platforms are far more likely to come across your home.
Have a conversation
On estate agency websites, the most common way to ask a question about a property is to send an email or fill in an online form and wait for a response. Conversations on social media are much more flexible.
When people message you privately for information, you’ll receive an update about this immediately – which means you can respond straight away. Longer, more flexible conversations are much easier this way, and viewings can be arranged really easily.
If someone asks about your property publicly, this is also great. It often means that details of your property will appear on their own social stream and this will help to keep you at the top of the results for the hashtags you have used.
This will help to spread the word further even if that particular user does not go ahead as a buyer. It will also show other users that there is interest in the property, helping it to feel more desirable.
For full effect, make your profile public so that anyone in the world can see the details and share them – not just your friends and family. Using multiple platforms will also be extremely beneficial, as it means you’ll be tapping into a number of different audiences.
If you’re selling through an estate agency, remember to link to your property’s profile on their site every time. This will provide house-hunters with all the information they need and will prevent you from wasting your word count by providing details that you could link to instead.