Social Media Enhanced Real Estate Listings
Chris Brogan had an interesting post on March 27th and I read it at the time without thinking that I would be putting my own house on the market soon. Yesterday my wife and I made our final decision on a Realtor, but social media had nothing to do with the decision and I think that is unfortunate. I spoke with five of the most prominent real estate agents in our town and not one of them had a blog or used any “2.0″ type of capabilities when marketing a listing. In all cases I mentioned blogging, particularly the need for more video, but there reaction was that most folks looking to buy in town were not looking at real estate blogs and at the end of the day the true interaction came during the home appointment or open house.
To be frank, I think that is bullshit. Selling a house is about many different things, but certainly telling the ’story’ of the home is one of those which generates a connection with potential buyers. I was sidelined by this nasty flu that is going around and I was glued to the television last night and ended up watching King of the Hill, which was disturbing until the episode unfolded and told the story of Peggy trying to sell a house by acting out the ’story of the house and the people it had held’.
Our real estate listing will be published this week and it will tell folks things like:
- 4 Bedrooms and 1.5 Baths
- 1,900+ Square Feet
- .99 Acre lot
- Finished Basement
- Brand new roof, windows and furnace
It won’t talk about the summer days we walked up to Cunningham Park with Conor to swim in the town pool, walk our dog and watch a baseball game. A listing can’t talk about the smell of the lilac tree blooming outside our side door in late spring or the easy family walk to the center of town for a cup of coffee. Some of these stories certainly can be told by the Realtor to folks during an Open House, but doesn’t that always come out as salesy?
What better way to tell these tales than a social media enhanced real estate listing, that includes blog posts from the Realtor and the owner; videos, not only of the house, but of the stories that encompass that house and make it so special; audio interviews and of course the ability to share these listings more easily. I would have loved to hear more about the family who lived here before us, why they lived here for so long and what they loved about this town. Would this information not make the first face-to-face meeting during that Open House much more intimate and powerful? Social media enhanced real estate listings should be a priority for that industry, similar to the importance of the social media news release for PR folks.
Chris’ original post got some terrific comments and ideas and I hope we see some it instituted into the real estate biz. My question now shifts into how I can help make this happen during my own personal selling experience?
–Kyle Flaherty
April 8th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
I wholeheartedly agree with Chris’s points. Real Estate ads typically don’t tell the story that will attract potential buyers. Surprisingly, very few marketing people actually use or understand blogs.
April 8th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Stories sell. It’s just the truth of it. Why do you think people pay $4 for Starbucks coffee? Why do I believe Steve Jobs? What is it about EVERYTHING we do that falls back on story?
Thanks for your thoughts, Kyle, and good luck with the process. : )
April 9th, 2008 at 6:12 pm
Kyle, I’m not sure I agree with you on this one. When I’m looking to buy a home I don’t want to know about the good times you spent in what may be my kitchen, my bathroom and my bedroom. I want to know that the home offers the space, amenities, school system, access to the city and whatever other preferences I’m looking for. And I can do all of that through traditional means of house hunting.
That being said, I do think social media provides an opportunity to ask questions of people living in a potential neighborhood that may provide more candid feedback than your video pitch or a salesy realtor may come across.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:27 am
It’s always scary when I find myself agreeing with michael. (Hi mike!) Selling the story of the house has as much upside as downside, as fundamentally the new owners want the house to be THEIRS not yours. The stories might make it more intimate and personal, but that can turn off as many buyers as it might attract. That said, I think that your realtors are kidding themselves if they think that the only “true interaction” with the house comes at the open house or initial viewing. It just ain’t true. Particularly with home buyers in our generation and younger, the initial (and arguably most important) interaction with the real estate listing is through the online listing.
I base this judgment on my experience of buying homes twice in the last four years. Each time, the first thing my wife and I did was go to realtor.com and start searching for houses in our price range. The listings that we were drawn to gave us more information about the specific property - not personal information, but more data. And that data largely came in the form of photographs or virtual tours.
So photographs and videos are valuable, but personal anecdotes about the property maybe not so much, especially if the transaction is to remain at arms length (which I think makes transactions run more smoothly).
Just my 2,
Jeremy
April 10th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Michael and Jeremy together battling against Kyle? Sounds like a good game of Pitch to me!
Understand your thoughts here, the personal aspect of buying a home is often times found in placing yourself in that story, not hearing someone elses. Mike, I love the thought of using the actual neighborhood to tell the story, not necessarily our personal one, but the story of where the house is, etc. This in turn gets to Jeremy’s point of more data is always useful, and if that data is photographical or video-based the better.
I’m going to show my Realtor this thread of conversation to get her reaction.
/kff
P.S. The fact that I got Jeremy and Michael to both post on my blog is a huge success in my mind and may warrens it’s own post.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
3 bid
April 14th, 2008 at 9:46 am
I’m fairly certain most realtors wake up in the middle of the night with nightmares about how the internet/social media will eventually make them obsolute in some regards much the way travel agents are no longer needed because of expedia, orbitz etc.
I think realtors still play an important part acting as a buffer between buyers and sellers and handle the negociations between both parties, but beyond that, not quite sure what their roles need to be in this “home match-making” process.
4 bid!
April 16th, 2008 at 7:07 am
I’m going solo on a blind 4-bid. Michael put down your cards. I got these chumpsters.
June 18th, 2008 at 10:32 am
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