How useful is Social Media when selling your home?

“The most hateable TV show ever made” and a zero star rating. You may think I’m talking about the latest general election debate, but it’s actually Buying London, the newest property reality show from Netflix.

Property Reality Shows

For the uninitiated, this is a television series following the exploits of a social media orientated estate agency in central London, who sell properties upwards of £1m, with ‘super prime’ (above £10m) being their speciality. It comes with the usual attention grabbing headlines and you’ve got to hand it to them, brilliant PR.

Social Media and the property sector

However what has social media actually done for the property sector? Does it actually help sell homes and who are the winners?

In its most basic form, estate agents need to firstly go out and get properties onto their books. They then need to turn around and go sell them. At the end of the process they get paid. Simple and it’s not rocket science.

Portrayal of estate agents

However what we have seen in recent years, through the rise of platforms like Instagram, is this over-glamorised, unrealistic portrayal of how estate agents actually operate. Ask yourself – do photographs on social media of my estate agent sipping their skinny-oat-milk-latte, mean that I am suddenly going to call them to sell my home? Maybe it’s the agent running through what designer beachwear they are sporting today, will cajole you into action?

Do the Hollywood-style property videos, featuring an agent waving their arms around like cabin crew on a flight to LA, mean that you will make an offer? Perhaps it’s the camera quickly spinning you around that will leave you wanting more? I’m not convinced.

Too much information?

Social media has continued to play on peoples’ insecurities and what you see online, isn’t what actually exists in real life. This goes for both properties and indeed the agents themselves. One can put information online about a property, however having full virtual tours, floorplans and a plethora of images has downsides such as security, digital footprint and disincentivising viewers to engage with the agent.

A recent viewing

Having 20,000+ followers online would surely mean that you are an estate agent at the top of your game? I thought this was the case, as I recently got shown around an expensive property by a negotiator at this super prime agency. Introduced as the rising star of estate agency and with a formidable social media following, I thought I may have met my match. What ensued was a viewing to remember.

Having arrived 20 minutes early, from across the road I noticed what seemed to be the owner go into the property.  My clients arrived and we rang the bell. The cleaner let us in, all the lights were off, mess everywhere and no agent in sight. We ambled around the two bedroom property (not the three as advertised) and the agent joined us claiming they were actually early and were waiting outside. As the agent showed us upstairs, it was immediately clear they didn’t know anything about the property. I then pulled the agent aside to say that I knew the owner was here and I could hear the shower was on. I am sure you can fill in the blanks!

Is social media useful?

Don’t get me wrong, social media has its uses. You can get information and properties out to your audience effortlessly, however it must be done in a sensitive and thought through way. The client must always come first, but this isn’t necessarily the case a lot of the time.

Is technology key?

What social media has actually done, has created more distance between estate agents, their vendor clients and the buyers. Anonymity doesn’t work in property and you need to know who you are talking to. We are a people and emotions business, with technology being a tool – in that order. The number of social media followers for an agent doesn’t correlate with experience or knowledge. So just be wary that all that glitters online, isn’t necessarily gold.