Can Social Media sell my Vienna home?

Answer: No… but it will play a role.

Of course there are plenty of SM gurus out there who are preaching a very different answer to my question, but I really don’t think they have any idea what it takes to sell a home or the tools that I see actual home buyers using every day. People aren’t hanging on every Tweet mentioning their local real estate market (okay, maybe Realtors are) but Northern Virginia buyers Bob and Mary Beth certainly aren’t.

Bob and Mary Beth are putting in their criteria (see below) and are waiting for an e-mail alert with snappy pics.

Promoting you’re on Facebook or Twitter has become, I dare say, …cliché.

Doug Francis Twitter Social Media Vienna VA

Using Twitter is only one pillar of Social Media strategy

So what will sell your Eudora colonial in that cute suburban cul-de-sac to Bob and MB? The old-fashioned truth is that your home needs to be in excellent condition and priced right. Vienna VA home buyers are looking at online photos of your home on sites such as Homesdatabase, Trulia, Redfin or Zillow only after they have received an e-mailed “alert” from the site. Often on their iPhones during a meeting at work.

And if your house passes that test only then will they show up for an in-person tour.

They aren’t searching for Tweets at #ViennaVARealEstate

Last year I “liked” a Facebook page for a real estate brokerage on Nantucket after stumbling across a post, but the result was a wave of Facebook spam of hot new listings every thirty minutes. These were people who did not “get” what social media can do for their cause, but were viewing it as a free advertising opportunity to crush the competition. They were missing the point of it all and I promptly “un-liked” them.

About 600 million people, including myself, have found Facebook to be an opportunity to have fun with people from many parts in our lives. I haven’t lived in Vienna my whole life so to reconnect with old friends from Boston or Providence makes me understand that the world is a much smaller place, and that my life is actually pretty normal. (Okay, normal is subjective)

To properly sell your home, get it ready for the market, have great photos online, tell your friends that you are moving, and then the “social internet” will spread the word about your home being on the market. Using Facebook to tell your friends that you are moving to Florida will create the natural conversation about your Vienna house being on the market for sale. The concept here is very different than that of the realty firm on Nantucket… because you are leveraging your social network to help sell your home.

Believe it or not, your friends will be rooting for you to get your home sold.

For more real estate strategies, read my blog some more or send me an e-mail.