7 Social Media Tricks to Increase Flip Profit and Home Equity

Tip 1 – Offer an incentive on social media to direct buyers

As we mentioned, 90% of houses are sold through the MLS, but social media provides an opportunity to tap into the remaining 10%.

The goal here is to find potential buyers in your online network and local community that may not be already working with a buyer’s agent. These direct buyers who forgo working with an agent, will save you 3% commission ($9,000 on a $300,000 house!) that buyer’s agents typically charge sellers. To provide further incentive for these direct buyers, you can offer to cut the asking price 1-2% and that way you and the buyer both save by avoiding the agent middleman. By leveraging social media this way, 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!

Tip 2 – On Facebook, tag friends and community influencers

Tagging the right people can really help spread your listing through your network, your friends networks, your family members’ networks and your colleagues’ networks. Friends and family are often the most willing to share your post, while community influencers or real estate professionals may have the most reach, so try both, as long as you know them well enough to ask. We’d recommend tagging people in the comments below the actual post, since they’ll be notified either way and it’s better not to clog your description at the top with random names.

Tip 3 – Make the MOST of your POST comment

The goal of the descriptive comment at the top should be to encourage your friends to spread the word about your house, while clearly describing details and location. – Try commenting something like “We’re moving! Please share this post and help us sell our house!”. The more friends share, the more exposure to potential buyers. – Mention any especially attractive features about your home and neighborhood. Why would people want your house instead of others? Pool, patio, bedrooms, neighborhood, schools? – 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.

Tip 4 – Make it public!

At the bottom of the Facebook post screen you’ll see a dropdown labeled “Friends”. This means that the post is only viewable by your Facebook friends. Instead you could choose “Public”, and then you’ve just widened your potential reach by quite a bit. If for some reason you do want to limit who views the post, you can choose “More Options” and share with Custom Groups and Lists. But we’d recommend sharing publically and then post individually to specific pages, groups or lists.

Tip 5 – Send it privately too

After you’ve shared publicly on your own timeline, you can also personally message friends to directly request help in spreading the word and you can share to groups you’re a member of or pages you manage. If you privately message friends to ask for help, they’re often more willing to share. Just make sure you pass them the correct link.

Tip 6 – Tweet it for retweets!