We don’t typically go into detail about personal events on our blog, but something amazing recently happened in over at the Green household that I can’t help but share with you all…
We sold our house in one week using facebook.
Yes. you heard me right. One week — with no realtor in a market like THIS. How did we do it, you ask? Well, admittedly it helps that we have an amazing network of neighbors and friends who were happy to spread the word, but our only true medium for marketing was facebook.
You see, I decided to go back to what I know best: websites, strong imagery, and social networking. Real estate is stuck in one of the biggest ruts of all time right now, and when this happens it takes a non-traditional route to break the mold. When selling your home via the traditional route, it becomes one of thousands of listings in a database. You need more than luck to be on your side for the perfect buyer to stumble across your home quickly! So I figured why not treat our home as if it is our biggest prized possession and give it it’s own sales platform to sell itself?
So, before we listed our house on the market with all the the others out there, I decided to take all the photographs I took for MLS and place them in a tasteful WordPress template from ElegantThemes. Once the website was complete, I simply blasted (yes, blasted) all my facebook friends with our announcement that we had decided to sell our home. The neighborhood we live in also has a very active facebook group where I posted the same announcement. It was this group that eventually led to three walk-throughs in four days, followed by a signed contract at the end of the week.
Throughout the week, we found it very amusing to watch the traffic climb each day. With every share, like, and comment on my post, the traffic on our site would jump just that much more. Within three days we had 459 visits, 92% of which were unique visitors. Of course, many of the visits were just friends wanting to check out our website, but all it took was a few of those friends to spread the word to potential buyers to seal the deal.
It’s humorous to see how quickly traffic dropped off once we stopped promoting the site, but by that time we had a handful of inquiries already. If the house hadn’t sold in 2 weeks time via facebook, we were planning on taking it to the market. Luckily, being very plugged in to our community on facebook allowed us to avoid this route.
We’re forever grateful for such a speedy sale, but this outcome now only means one thing…we need to find a new house!
If you’re interesting in learning more about the power of social media, contact GreenMellen Media today!
Ben Boykin says
Ali,
Thanks for sharing that story. That is so awesome how you literally took matters into your own hands and once again gave testimony to the power that can exist in building and engaging with your own community online.
All the best to you!
Ben
Ali says
Thanks, Ben! We’re still amazed at how quickly we were able to find buyers — or better yet how quickly they found us. Social media truly is a powerful tool, and this is a true testament to that!
JB says
Ali,
thank you for showing the way! What specific theme did you use from Elegant themes?
all the best to you,
JB
ali says
JB, I believe it was “DeepFocus” from Elegant Themes.
Kim Barrett says
Ali, I am very impressed with the web site you created for selling your home. We too are selling our home ourselves, and I would like to produce a site almost identical to yours. I took a look at Elegant Themes and find that it is beyond my skill level. Can I engage you or your firm to produce ours? If so, how much. If not, can you make a referral?
Thanks,
Kim
Ali Green says
Hi Kim! I’m glad you came across this post! I found a combination of a strong photo gallery, social media, and great neighbors all contributed to the quick sell of our home. You’re correct to observe that picking a theme on the WordPress.org platform can be daunting for a non-web developer, however WordPress has a simpler platform called WordPress.com that may be a good place to start. You can pick a theme, add a photo gallery, and start promoting rather quickly. If WP.com still looks daunting, let me know and I’ll give you a few additional suggestions.
Thanks for the comment!
Kim Barrett says
Thanks for your quick response. I appreciate the suggestion to use WordPress, but at this point I’m not willing or interested in investing one-time effort to create a web site. I would really like to find an affordable way to have it put together for me. You may have much better things to do, but is it possible to hire you to create our site? I would provide all pictures and copy. If not, I would be interested in finding someone to engage.
Thanks,
Kim
Ali Green says
Kim,
While we would love to help you create a temporary site, our services are better fit for long-term, strategic website development projects. We do have some partners that have some solid options for smaller budget sites. Shoot me at email at ali@greenmellenmedia.com and I’ll give you more information.
Thanks!
chronistergama says
Check Stodoys handbook if you want to learn about selling much much more.
Alan Loughlin says
No doubt, Facebook is the strongest social network. It’s great that we got very quick sale using Facebook but I really think it depends on the specific market in which you are located because the location always matter.
Andrew Brown says
Did you put the address of the house on the ad? I have a facebook page with 40000 followers and just wondering if I should leverage that. But when you put your house up you essentially give away the address, specially in a small town. Just wondering if it’s worth it?
Ali Green says
Andrew, you could always create a website for your home with photos and details (bed/bath/sqft), but not disclose the address to anyone other than interested buyers. Good luck!