Step-by-step sharing on Social Media to Increase Home Profit
Without a doubt, the most efficient way to sell a home is listing on the MLS, since that’s where buyer’s agents search for prospective homes for their clients. HOWEVER, sharing your home listing on social media can provide an extra boost to help you sell quicker and for a greater profit. Below we’ll explain how sharing can pay dividends and how to make sure you’re optimizing the power of your post.
How sharing can increase take home profit on your home sale:
If you use social media tools effectively, you can tap into potential buyers in your network and community that may not be already working with a buyer’s agent. These direct buyers, may be willing to work directly with you rather than using an agent, and therefore save you 3% commission on the buyer’s side (when working with agents, generally you’re paying 3% on the listing side and 3% on the buyer’s side).
Offer an incentive to direct buyers:
To provide further incentive for these direct buyers, you can offer to cut the asking price 1-2% and that way you both save by avoiding the agent middleman. By leveraging social media this way and incentivizing direct buyers, you are tapping into part of the market that the MLS doesn’t capture – your personal network, which can potentially be the most profitable buyers out there!
Don’t be Facebook shy!
In this age of social media over-sharing, I’m generally cautious about what to post on Facebook, since most people probably don’t care what I ate for breakfast. But selling your home is one of those big life events where people understand the need to share and many times are more than willing to help spread the word. If you’re still hesitant, you have the option to limit who on Facebook sees the post or you can post directly to groups or lists.
Facebook – Steps for effectively sharing your home listing:
The process of sharing your home listing to Facebook is quite simple, as long as your listing website provides s
ocial media sharing links, as shown in this screenshot from ListingSpark.
Step 1 – click and view your Facebook post options:
Click the Facebook share button on your property page and the Facebook share pop-up window will appear showing a photo of your house, the address and a short description. You’ll also see a text area labeled “Say something about this”, a dropdown labeled “Share on your own Timeline” and a few other options towards the bottom.
Step 2 – choose WHERE to post:
To choose where you would like to post (your wall, a private message, another wall, etc), select the dropdown at the top labeled “Share on your own Timeline”. We’d recommend leaving it as is – to share on your own timeline – and you can further filter options using the features at the bottom of the screen. Then after posting on your wall you can repeat the process again but choose to share on friend’s timelines, in a group, on a page you manage, in a private message or all of the above (5 separate posts).
Step 3 – choose WHO to share with (Friends, Public, Custom Audience):
This step only applies when sharing on your own timeline. Select the dropdown at the bottom labeled “Friends”and you’ll see options to select who you’ll allow to see your post. We recommend sharing to the public, but if for some reason you need to limit who sees the post on your wall, you can choose any of the options described below. You can also use this to share with specific groups, which can be effective, so check out the “Custom” option or other lists of people that may appear at the bottom if you’ve previously created them.
- Public – your best option to reach the most people.
- Friends – only your Facebook friends.
- Only You – this option won’t do you much good besides testing how the post looks.
- Friends except Acquaintances – “Acquaintance” is a label you can apply to Facebook “friends” that you’re really not that close with, which basically allows you to stop seeing their posts without de-friending them (especially nice for annoying over-sharers). In our case when sharing the house listing, this means those acquaintances will not to see your listing post if you choose this option.
- Custom – this allows you to filter more specifically: share with Friends of Friends, Friends of people you tag and other specific lists of people. It also allows you to exclude specific people you don’t want to share with.
- Other lists of people – preexisting lists that may include people from your previous jobs, schools, family, certain cities, etc. You can create new lists too, and send to those people.
Step 4 – comment and tag:
Once you’ve decided your target audience via the options above, don’t forget to add a comment and tag friends (and maybe add your city as a location or an emoticon showing how you’re feeling).
The All Important Comment: The goal of the comment should be to encourage your friends to spread the word about your house… “We’re moving! Please share this post and help us sell our house!”. Remember, the more your friends share, the more exposure to potential buyers.
- Also m ention any especially attractive features about your home and neighborhood. Why would people want your house instead of others? “You’ll love the pool, jacuzzi and surround sound theatre room!” or “Great neighborhood and public schools for kids!”
- Mention that you’re willing to discount your price for direct buyers who are not using a real estate agent. Remember if there’s no buyer’s agent, you (the seller) will save 3% in commission.
Tagging the Right People: Tag specific people in the post, such as influencers in your community, real estate professionals or people that may have an interest in helping you. To tag, click the icon at the bottom showing person with a plus sign. You can always add additional people in the comments below once you post by simply typing their name and choosing the profile when it pops up.
Once you post, encourage activity by responding quickly to any comments, keep it fun and wait for your property page visits to skyrocket!
Twitter – Steps for tweeting your home listing:
Twitter is a different animal in that most of your friends probably won’t see the tweet unless you tag them by tweeting @ them, but the potential reach is huge in the case that your tweet is so interesting it starts “trending”! #ohyeah #multiplecashoffers
Quick STEPS for tweeting:
- Click the Twitter share button on the property page where you list your home, as shown in the ListingSpark sharing buttons screenshot shown earlier.
- Login to Twitter when prompted, if you’re not already logged in.
- An automated message will appear displaying a preset message. You can edit this to say whatever you want (check out the tips below). Just make sure that your address and the link to your property page remain in the 140 character message.
- Click Tweet and you’re done… easy!
TIPS for an effective home selling Tweet:
- The same rules apply here as in your Facebook comment, except that you only have 140 characters to tell people your house is for sale and that you want them to retweet it… “I’m selling my 3 bedroom home in East Austin! Please retweet!…”. Make sure the property address and the link to the property page remain in the tweet.
- Try a few hashtags such as #homeforsale #realestate #austin #dallas #houston #yourneighborhood
- Tweet @ certain people who might have an interest in your property. For example, @yourhusband @yourparents @agentfriend
- Text a few of your real estate or social media guru friends and ask if they don’t mind retweeting your tweet. Give them the link to make it easy on them.
Social Media Sharing Summary
Social media sharing is a simple process, but a few simple adjustments can make a big difference and lead to hundreds of additional views of your property. It’s just one of the tools you should be using to sell your home but it’s definitely one you shouldn’t ignore. Remember, 90% of homes are sold using the MLS, but sharing on Facebook and Twitter is a great way to get a bigger chunk of that other 10%. It’s a no brainer… sharing is free, it can attract direct buyers and lead to thousands of dollars in increased profit on your home sale!
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