This is a guest post by Erik Braunitzer of Douglas Elliman Real Estate Company, Agents for New York City Rentals - In today’s world, one of the most practical things any real estate agent can do is engage in online communities, particularly that of Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Foursquare. Of course, these are highly beneficial for many reasons, including the fact that they promote engagement. But what most agents really haven’t taken the time to explore is each community’s capacity in terms of direct conversion.
Sure, you can log into your FB account, check a local real estate company/agents page and find out about homes for rent or sale. Likewise, you will find information about upcoming events and dates, media (i.e. pictures, video, etc...), industry specific news and current trends.
But if real estate agents harnessed the power of GPS, direct sales would become way more efficient. If you’re a seller or agent, you can simply Check Into Facebook Places by making your location/address visible to all of your fans and followers. Once posted, potential buyers now have the knowledge that a phone call could have delivered, but way more as well. Visitors can view home information, real-time updates from current attendees and pricing and availability directly from this newly created location page (Home Address typically).
Likewise, you can upload your location through your pc via Twitter and Google+. In fact, foursquare is direct vehicle channeling event information to users. Now that the web has gone mobile, smart phone users are relying on their phones for this type of information. Provided your location/GPS are both turned on, you can utilize apps like “find my friends” to search and locate other people using the same app with similar permissions. Provided, FB and Foursquare are much better for giving full access to real-time status updates, comments and media. With the addition of Google+, users can much more easily upload a selected location for which their friends, family and acquaintances (i.e. – real estate agents) can view. Perhaps agents would be interested to know which homes you’re viewing without them!
Realistically, not every opportunity that pops up will get through to you directly from your agent. In today’s busy world, it’s difficult to manage multiple clients and their associated wants and needs. Having said that, the ability to upload this information directly to your fan base is highly beneficial. Of course, not every home will be of interest to an agent’s clientele. FB, Foursqure and + all provide ways to filter updates, events and locations to certain groups of people or friends. In addition, it doesn’t yield favoritism. If you have multiple clients with similar needs, it would be of best interest to present the opportunity to view and talk about potential home purchases, whether or not the communication is digital.
All in all, the power of geosocial location is enormous, particularly in the hands of a real estate agents. For somebody who’s always on the move, FB Places, Foursquare, Google + and Twitter are great messaging services for providing important and relevant content to fans, followers and future clients.
Photo courtesy of Douglas Elliman Real Estate Company, Agents for New York City Rentals.
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