Does Social Media Actually Sell or Rent Houses?

Does Social Media Actually Sell or Rent Houses?

A guide for sellers and landlords on what social media is really for, and why the agents who get it wrong are wasting their time.

If you've ever scrolled past an estate agent's Instagram and wondered whether any of it actually works, you're asking the right question. Most agents can't answer it convincingly, mainly because most agents are doing it wrong.

The mistake almost every agency makes

Plenty of agents have tried social media, posted houses for sale for six or eight weeks, got no interaction, and concluded it doesn't work. It's not that social media failed them. They used it like a portal, and it isn't one.

That's the difference worth understanding before you judge any agent's online presence, including whether it should influence who you instruct.

Portals are the safety net, not the strategy

Sites like Rightmove and Zoopla do one job well. They're a static shop window, there for anyone actively searching who an agent hasn't already reached anywhere else. That's a useful job. It's also a passive one: list the property, take a few photos, and hope the phone rings.

For agents whose entire strategy is "list it and wait," that passive approach is the whole plan. It shouldn't be. Portals are the fallback for people you haven't reached yet, not the main event.

What social media is actually for

Social media isn't a faster way to advertise a property. It's how sellers, landlords, buyers and tenants get to know, like and trust an agent before they ever need one.

Those three things, knowing, liking and trusting, are what make someone pick up the phone. People need to know who you are, like how you operate, and trust that you'll do a good job, and social media is where that happens over time, not in a single post.

That's also why the size of an agent's following matters far less than its relevance. A hundred thousand followers made up of bots or people in the wrong country are worthless. Ten thousand genuinely engaged local followers will outperform them every time. It's about relevant eyeballs, not vanity numbers.

The delayed effect nobody talks about

Here's the part that surprises people: a video of a house being sold or let today usually doesn't sell or let that house. What it does is help sell or let the next one, or the one after that.

Someone sees a property today they can't afford or already missed, but what they take away is that this agent understands the kind of properties they're interested in, presents them well, and is worth talking to when they're ready to move. That impression sits there until it's needed.

What real traction looks like

Done properly, and consistently, over years rather than weeks, social media stops being a marketing channel and starts being a reputation. Sellers and landlords currently with other agents start asking to transfer across because they've seen how their kind of property gets presented. Buyers and tenants get in touch not because they saw a specific listing, but because they've decided this is the agent they want handling their next move.

That's the actual return on social media. Not a direct line from post to sale, but a stream of people who've already made up their mind about who they trust before they've even got a property to sell or a viewing to book.

What to ask a prospective agent

Don't ask whether an agent "does social media." Most will say yes and mean an occasional listing post. Ask about their reach, how engaged and how local their audience actually is, and how long they've been building it. Ages spent posting photos and hoping the phone rings is not a strategy. It's a hope.

This guide was written by the team at Lancasters Estate Agents on the Isle of Wight.