Using Instagram for Real Estate – The Ultimate Guide for REALTORS®

Integrating Instagram into Your Content Marketing Plan

Academy Content Team May 22, 2024Last Updated: May 22, 2024

23 minutes read

To prosper as a Realtor you need to be comfortable with technology. Antiquated methods will not get you very far. It is important not to underestimate the potential of social media. Social media is one of the most significant avenues to promote content and needs to be integrated into your marketing efforts. In North America people spend 2 hours and 6 minutes every day on average on social media. This reveals just how visible you can make your brand if you use it well. There are many beneficial platforms but Instagram for real estate marketing is especially useful given its highly visual nature.

The platform might look like a turnkey shortcut for success, but in order to get the most out of it you will want to consider the points we will cover in this article.

Why do Realtors Need Instagram?

Nowadays, most people with a smartphone will spend a considerable share of their time on social media; and Instagram is a popular mobile platform.

Instagram is considered a casual social medium that connects people and allows them to share images and videos but the business potential of Instagram is undeniable. For the average person, it may be where they see what their friends are up to. For people in business, it is a chance to reach a vast audience and generate leads.

Comparison Stats

The average Instagram user spends 53 minutes a day scrolling down the news feed and viewing the STORY section of the platform. that’s a significant number that runs second to:

Facebook with 58 minutes and excels
YouTube with 40 minutes and
WhatsApp for 28 minutes.

Instagram Stats

There is more to this cute image sharing platform, look at these stats from Hootsuite:

5 hundred million people use Instagram stories every day.
63% of Instagram users log in at least once a day.
A third of most-viewed stories are from business pages
Instagram’s potential ads reach is around 850 million users.

Why Instagram Works and What You Will Gain

Everything about Instagram is suitable for realtors. Its visual nature, images, videos, stories, location tagging feature, plus it has a high number of users. It doesn’t take much effort to use, and it’s engaging, popular, and last but not least, it’s owned by and connected to Facebook.

It is clear realtors need to be on Instagram for real estate and use Instagram Ads to level up their game and develop a solid source of leads. Their audience is partially made up of typical people who spend a lot of time on the platform, and the platform is still a relatively untapped market for agents. According to FitSmallBusiness.com, only 14% of realtors are on Instagram. Furthermore, 83% of all homebuyers look for pictures of properties online.

How to Set Up Instagram for Your Real Estate Business

It is possible to use Instagram for real estate on a computer or mobile device. But due to the nature of the platform, which is heavily used on cell phones, we recommend that you go with the mobile version.

First of all, you need to download the app on your cell phone. If you are going to use the platform on your computer, you can skip this step and fast forward to the next part.

1. Download and Install

Depending on the device you use you can download the app on

App Store for Apple phones
Google Play for Android phones
Windows Store for Windows phones

After you have downloaded and installed the app it is time to sign up. You have the option to sign up with your Facebook account or use email or your phone number to create an account. There is no difference between these methods so go with the one you feel comfortable.

Tip: If you have a business Facebook page it is ok to sign up with it for Instagram.

3. Username and Password

For your username go with a name that represents your business and includes your name. don’t go with long user names as it looks unprofessional.

Choose a password you will remember but not the same password for everything! avoid using easy to guess passwords. You can activate your account by phone or by your email address.

Note: after you have chosen a username and a password before you proceed with the rest of the setup you have the option to change your account type to “Professional”. As your purpose of using the platform is doing business it is highly recommended that you do so.

The professional account allows you to have a more detailed insight on how your content is doing in terms of reach, shares, etc.

At this step if you choose to change to a Professional Account, you need to define your field of business. Just type in “real estate” and click the suggested option.

Now Instagram will ask you to create a Facebook Page for your business. If you have signed up with a Facebook business page you won’t need to do this step.

4. Profile Image

You need to have a professional headshot for all your social accounts and use the same one for all so that your audience can recognize you easily. Instagram doesn’t have a very big profile image and it cannot be expanded when clicked on. However, that little circle featuring your image has a lot to say. Make it look great.

It is a good idea to have your headshot taken professionally as you should be using the same image on all of your social media accounts (business ones of course). A random cropped image made from a vacation photo you took last weekend won’t leave the best impression on your audience. Think of your brand. How do you want to be thought of?

5. Bio

The bio is the little line right under your user name and name. The bio is very important as this is the only place where you can post a link. Make sure you have a link to your website and include your expertise and more like areas you are active in, and neighborhoods you cover. Later on, when you have a link to a landing page or a certain page you would like to direct your follower to, you can replace it with the link to your website and tell your audience to click on the link in the bio.

Ideas for Your Instagram Real Estate Posts

You have many ways to use Instagram for real estate. Images and videos coupled with captions, user tags, hashtag search, location tags, etc. provide a huge number of combinations and ideas to use on the platform for business purposes. Here we have gathered a handful of ideas to help you get started and inspire you to think of some more brilliant ideas on your own.

1. Property Listings Images

The visual nature of Instagram makes it a great platform to share listings. It is possible to share up to 10 photos in a single post which will allow you to cover a property quite well. in fact, you need to post a lot of photos. Inside, outside, doesn’t matter. You are trying to make a sale or at least provoke some interest. One image won’t cut it. However, having many photos in no way means forget about quality. Randomly snapping photos and sharing them in a single post does not make for quality content. You must have a standard and ideally (if possible) have professional help for photography.

2. Property Videos

What’s better than a photo? A video. Videos can be used in many different ways like slideshows, walkthroughs, previews, drone (air) videos etc. Whatever you go with make sure you don’t resort to aim and shoot methods with your cell phone. It is possible to shoot great videos using a cell phone but you still need great editing. You can always ask for help from a local videographer.

Instagram doesn’t allow videos more than 60 seconds long although with a trick you can split video to 60-second parts and post them as slides in a single post. It is always a good idea to upload them in the IGTV section of the platform.

3. Virtual Tours

This one is complementary to the listing videos mentioned above. Virtual tours, being a new added value in real estate marketing, consist of a 360 degree and 3D simulation of a property which can be controlled by the audience on their screen.

You can share a sample video rendering of the virtual tour and ask your audience to try it on your website. If you need to post a link you can use the bio for a temporary link to your virtual tour.

Virtual tours provide many benefits that the actual visiting of the property fails at. For example:

a. Convenience

In virtual reality, many homebuyers can visit a place at the same time and you don’t sacrifice any of your time.

b. Time

The homebuyer is free to browse the property at their own pace without being pushed through by time limitations.

c. Presentation

Virtual tours capture details of every nook and cranny in the house and are a great presentation of the house.

d. Uniqueness

Being a new cutting-edge technology that is really cool to use, virtual tours can be used to differentiate realtors from others. Instead of the same old listings images now the audience can control the camera and browse any part of the house. How cool is that?

4. Coming Soon Properties

To trigger anticipation and draw the audience’s attention it is a good idea to post images of the properties yet to become available. Don’t wait for the property to be ready. Go ahead and introduce the property in advance. When it finally becomes ready, you will have a number of deals waiting for it.

5. Introduce Yourself/Your Team

Many agents set up great social media accounts and post valuable content, yet they forget about a fundamental principle: Familiarity. They might say “familiarity breeds contempt” but that is definitely not the case in real estate and in business in general.

Your audience needs to know you as a person to develop and establish a personal level relationship. This is vital for trust-building that is ultimately required for being chosen as a realtor.

It is a good idea to share a post and introduce yourself or your team. Tell your audience who you are. What your expertise is. How will you be able to help your audience? The more they get to know you, the more likely they are to ask for your help.

6. Aspirational Real Estate Images

People love chasing their dreams even if they are out of their reach. Real estate is no exception. People love viewing luxury properties and imagining living in them. Inspiring photos can guide people to start thinking about making their dreams happen. And a move into a new home may be a start.

7. Local Market Stats

People want to know market news, especially if they are local and own (or are thinking of owning) property. It is a great opportunity to provide your audience with some valuable data and information. This lives up to the point of content marketing where you add value, inform and educate your audience. More than this, it is a great chance to prove your expertise on the market and introduce yourself as someone reliable in the real estate market.

8. Neighborhood Guides

People may not consciously realize that the neighborhood is just as important as or even more important than the property itself when considering options to buy or rent a home. Sharing neighborhood guides in the form of video or slides will inspire your audience to think of moving to a new house and at the same time will prove your expertise and introduce you as an agent who knows what they’re doing.

Roomvu offers branded neighborhood videos for agents in Agent Profile. These videos share insightful information about different neighborhoods which can be shared easily with your audience to showcase your expertise and stand out in the crowd.

For more information, read the article below:

9. Tips and Tricks

In order to fulfill your responsibility in educating your audience (yes that’s a responsibility if you want them to trust you and reward you with their business) provide them with educational and valuable tips. This makes them a smarter homebuyer or home seller and proves whatever claims you have about your qualifications.

10. Contests

Another cool post type to share on Instagram is a contest post. This, of course, requires you to have a contest and ask your audience to participate in it with your post. The goal of contests to increase current audience engagement. You can also attract new people by asking your audience to share the contest and ask others to join. Post a picture of the winner and tag them if possible. Have a prize-worthy of entry and follow through. Failing at rewarding will ruin your reputation and best-case scenario people will ignore your contests.

11. Closing Photo

Buying your first home can be a memorable and unique experience. It can be quite inspiring to post images of people in front of their first home with their happy faces and beautiful smiles. The point here is not to make this about yourself. Make it about the homebuyers and how happy they look. This is emotionally relatable and sparks a desire in your audience to have the same feelings.

12. Open Houses

Last but not least, you can share open houses and upcoming events on your Instagram account to let people know when they will take place. While sharing the post ask your audience to share it with their friends or even better mention the post in a Story that will make it visible to ALL their friends.

Follow the Best Instagram Accounts

If you are a new agent to social media and Instagram for real estate agents, in particular, you don’t have to figure out everything yourself. In fact, it is okay to learn the best practices from already successful agents who have made it big time in the market.

Following people with successful accounts and learning from them will inspire you to think of your own impressive ideas and put the different features of Instagram to work.

There are many people with lots of followers who are considered influencers of the field. Go through their accounts and try to find what they have in common.

Branding is another feature you need to have in mind to incorporate in your efforts in marketing. How is each of these agents different? What is the unique quality that makes them different?

There are some accounts that educate other agents as well. Going through these pages will provide you with a solid avenue of information to keep you updated.

Chelsea’s page is one of those which tries to provide followers with tips and tricks in the field of real estate and make them better at what they do. Chelsea’s account is just one example of numerous other accounts ready to educate you in your career as a realtor.

Fredrik Eklund is currently (July 2020) one of the most followed U.S.-based realtors on Instagram. Further to the posts on properties, Fredrik posts some inspirational stories to emotionally move his audience and also some personal posts to let the audience behind the scenes and build trust.

Tips to Grow Your Network on Instagram as a Realtor

There are many things to consider when using Instagram for real estate to promote and expand your business. However, many of these tips are easy to forget and sometimes easy to neglect. Here we will come up with a few tips that enable you to make the best out of the platform:

1. Quality Always: Images and Videos

Instagram, especially if used on a cellphone, makes it easy and particularly tempting to just take your phone, go around the house and shoot random photos or videos. We recommend that you avoid such impulsive urges to post immediate images. You need to have a standard set for yourself. Always use high-quality images with proper framing and scales. Poorly shot images and videos will do more harm than good.

If you find it hard to learn how to shoot proper images and video, ask for professional help.

2. Be consistent in Design

Going with different colors and designs for every single post might sound like a fun idea but the truth is you really don’t want to do that. One of the things you need to do with your brand is to have a consistent design in all of your posts to introduce that design as your brand so when people see those colors and designs they will recognize you. Furthermore, having a consistent pattern will make your page aesthetically eye-catching.

Chad Carroll's Instagram — From Chad Carroll’s Instagram

3. Keep it Going

What you are doing on Instagram for real estate and other social media platforms is a part of a bigger practical science called Content marketing. A key principle to content marketing is keeping a healthy and steady flow of content for your audience. This rule doesn’t require you to post every day or every week but needs you to have a consistent pattern for sharing content with the audience.

You can go every day or every other day or even once a week but whatever it is, keep the pattern. your audience will be expecting your content at those times even if you have not declared when you will be posting. If you go silent or fail to have a regular pattern you might lose some of your audience. This brings us to the next point in number 4 below.

4. Don’t go Overboard

Keeping a regular pattern on when you post content on Instagram for real estate does not mean posting all the time. Posting too much and too frequently will take up your audience’s news and story feed and it will be quite annoying regardless of how valuable your content is.

Don’t be aggressive with continuous posting. There is a reason Instagram has provided its user with an option to MUTE certain people. Let’s hope your audience won’t have to use it on you.

5. Plan Ahead

When marketing with content it is advisable to have a calendar for the content you will be producing. As mentioned in the previous point you need to have a steady flow of content production. To keep this flow steady and to have a clear image of what comes next you need to develop a calendar. The calendar for the Instagram account can include entries like focus, media type, release date, hashtags, etc.

6. Use Hashtags#

Hashtags were brought to life in 2007 by a product designer named Chris Messina in Silicon Valley. Although Twitter took the idea in the app later in 2009. Nowadays some believe the hashtags are the new SEO. They use the same keywords as in SEO but are used more to classify and tag content, although they can be searched in different app’s search engines.

Using hashtags on Instagram is a must as it allows your content searchable by whatever keyword you have in mind. This means people who are not following you can find your content if they search for the hashtags you have used in your post.

However, using hashtags can be a double-edged sword if not used correctly. Let’s have a look:

a. Number

You can use up to 30 hashtags per post. But should you? Probably not. Hashtags are labels you can put on a post. Using 30 labels on a post doesn’t seem necessary. It sounds desperate and will flag your post as spam!

It is believed that 11 hashtags is a great place to start but most posts on Instagram use between 1 to 3 hashtags.

b. Variety

Don’t use the same set of hashtags for all of your posts. Hashtags are supposed to classify your post not be a part of your brand. Repeating hashtags for posts will mark your posts as spam and Instagram loses its patience easily here.

c. Name

You can use your name as a hashtag and use it in your posts. This might not sound sensible as nobody will search for your name if they don’t know you but once you have got yourself a name out there this will be your exclusive keyword to find your content

Here is a list by Zillow for popular hashtags in real estate:

#realestate
#realty
#broker
#forsale
#newhome
#househunting
#property
#properties
#investment
#home
#housing
#mortgage
#foreclosure
#selling
#listing

7. Who to Follow

There are certain people suggested by Wishpond you need to follow on Instagram. You might be the one producing the content but you can also follow and keep in touch with them. It is always nice to keep in touch with your audience and engage with their content sensibly. Like relevant posts and comment on exceptional ones. It is possible to go overboard with liking people’s posts and constant comments imply someone with a lot of time on their hands.

a. Past Clients/ Current Clients/ Potential Clients

Keeping in touch with your audience is a key activity you need to do always. Also expanding your network should be a priority. Always look for new connections, but here you need to be a bit careful. You should not spam friend requests especially to the people you don’t know. Once enough portions of your requests are rejected or you exceed a number in sending requests you will be temporarily blocked.

b. Local Business Owners

In order to expand your network and create awareness of your brand, it is a good idea to connect to local businesses as well. this will make them remember you whenever they or somebody needs real estate services. Also, you will appear in the suggested friends’ list of their followers. As you will be targeting the same group of people, this can help you get discovered by their audience and increase your network.

c. Influencers

Influencers are people who have a large audience and therefore are able to influence their followers. You will increase your brand credibility if you manage to do business with influencers.

8. Encourage Engagement

With every post, you need to ask your audience for a clear action to take. It can be to:

Share your post with a friend,
Mention a friend in the comments,
Leave comments,
Ask a question, etc.
Contact you

A post without a call-to-action will probably not trigger desirable action by the audience. Ask them to do it. See how keyadvantageteam ask their audience to contact them:

When your audience shares your content with others you can be happy that your content has been effective and lives up to the content marketing standards. The content you produce needs to be valuable for your audience. When people find your content valuable they share it with others who might find it valuable too.

9. Handle Questions and Comments

Social media is mainly used to create awareness of the brand and for direct relationships with the customers. The comments on social media and your weblog are the only place where customers can directly address you, ask their questions, give you a compliment, or in some cases report a problem.

Regardless of the purpose of the comment, you need to have an agile and swift approach in replying to these comments; this will make the commenter feel good about your business and show them you care and also will have the same impact on others who see you care about others’ comments and will encourage them to leave comments too.

Sometimes you may receive negative comments. Try to handle them with care. Tell the person you understand them and will do all your best to help them. Never be rude or disrespectful to commenters as that is a sure way to lose the respect of others. Even if they have started first!

10. Don’t Be Disrespectful

As a general rule of thumb, you don’t want to be a tough guy in social space. Making fun of your competitors and degrading what they do is not professional at all and will backfire badly. Also, never show off or try to look down on others. If you believe you are different, show it to people in the quality of service you offer. Forget about the bragging rights. Take on a professional yet serious approach. Avoid negativity.

Remember your audience doesn’t care about you. They care about themselves. Who you are doesn’t matter. What you can do for them to solve their problems matters.

11. Be and Look Professional

The way you talk to your audience, the language you use, how you handle connections, the content you share should all be part of a professional tone. Avoid sharing content like jokes and memes that are not related to your business. You can share some fun content provided that they are related to what you do.

12. Don’t Post too Much About Your Personal Life

Instagram is a fun place to hang out and share the good times you have with friends and family. it is okay to post some personal content on your business page as well to create a sense of trust and build a more personal relationship with your audience. However, you need to be careful as this can become quite tricky. There is a fine line between letting your audience get to know you as a person and looking unprofessional by going too personal on your business page.

Some people go overboard and develop a one-sided closer relationship with their audience on their business page, sharing too much of their life and to their surprise see they are not getting enough leads anymore. They lose their core audience or it gets replaced by new people who are interested in personal interest instead of business.

13. Stay Away From Fake Followers

When you are new on Instagram you won’t have many followers and might feel bad about it. Some people get tempted to buy fake followers. There are many services these days that offer many followers for a cheap price. There is a reason for the price too. They are fake.

Apart from the fact that Instagram removes fake accounts every now and then and has been steadily cracking down on them since 2018, it is easy to realize fake followers as there will be little authentic follower engagement. If you have 200k followers and get 4 comments, something has definitely gone awry with your account.

Furthermore, you are on Instagram to generate leads. Fake accounts won’t be doing any business with you. Don’t cheat on yourself.

You can set up your Instagram to automatically share your new posts to your Facebook and Twitter accounts provided that you have already connected to your accounts on these platforms. This will free you from reporting your content manually again.

15. Don’t Give Up

Content marketing is not a short-term strategy to produce instant results. It is a long-term investment where you slowly educate and inform your audience. This way you will be expanding your audience and proving yourself as a trustworthy agent who can be used in case any of your audience needs real estate services

If you are not getting the results you were hoping for don’t give up yet. Sit back and review what you have done so far. Try to find your mistakes and correct them or the chances are you have not given it enough time. If you are pretty sure you have done everything you were supposed to, just give it a little bit more time. It will work. It has for others.

Use Instagram Ads for Your Real Estate Business

You can use the outbound marketing features of Instagram to expand your reach so that more people further to your own followers see your content. This is done by Instagram ads. The visual nature of the platform makes it a great choice to use paid ads. Ads can be very effective but do not forget that your content needs to be valuable and compelling itself. Depending on ads alone with mediocre content won’t achieve much.

Ways to Advertise

According to Instagram Business, you can advertise on the platform in 6 different ways:

Stories
Photos
Videos
Carousels
Collections
Explore

Narrow Your Audience Down

It is possible to narrow down the audience of your ads by these criteria:

Location: cities, states, provinces or even countries
Demographics: information like age, gender, language, etc.
Interests: apps they use, accounts they follow, ads they click on
Behaviors: activities your target audience does on Instagram and Facebook
Custom audiences: Using your own list of phone numbers or email addresses
Lookalike audiences: new people who are similar to your current customers
Automatic targeting: automatic targeting based on signals including location, demographics and interests.

Instagram Ad Tips

Instagram Ads tips:

1. Set Goals

You should not be doing anything unless you have a clear goal for it especially if you are spending money on it. Before running ads on Instagram sit and think about why you are paying for ads/ what are you hoping to get out of it? Your goals should be clear, actionable, and measurable.

2. Promote Your Best Pieces of Content

In order to benefit from Instagram ads, it is better to use the content that is already doing well in your account. Well-performing posts mean you have done your homework well on them and they will produce the same great results if promoted by paid ads.

On the other hand, if some of your posts are not doing well it means your audience has not found them interesting. Increasing the reach of such posts will not do magic. The problem is still there!

3. Think About the Audience

There are many great ideas to think of for your ads. How to design them and where to use them. But the fundamental point to have in mind is that your ads should appear valuable. You should not take the approach of what you need to get out of the ad first. Think of your audience. Why should they click on the ad?

Considering your audience is a priority in marketing. What does your audience want? What is their problem? What do they need help with? Try to directly address your audience and their needs and offer a clear solution to their problems.

4. Go Local

Your clients come from where you are. It is kind of impossible to convince people to fly for 10 hours and buy a house from you far away from where they live. So while going for ads use the location criteria and set it for your neighborhood, city, etc. this goes by the scale of your business’s reach. Do you cover the whole New York? Go for it.

5. Use Targeting Options

Choosing a specific location for your ads is not enough. You need to narrow down your audience even further. You may generate leads by using ads but not all leads are the same.

Your focus should be on attracting some qualified leads. Those who are most likely to do business with you. Therefore, try playing around with different targeting options and make sure you have defined your target audience the best way possible for the platform.

6. Take Advantage of Carousel Ads

What do listings posts on Instagram have in common? They have many photos for the same property, or at least they allow the audience to browse and explore the property well. One-shot won’t be giving away much of perception on the property

Instagram carousel ads allow realtors to do just that. These ads feature a series of images that can be swiped right to show more images. One might think that this feature was added to Instagram with a real estate mentality in mind. Using carousel ads should be your priority.

7. Use Video Ads

Real estate is all properties and the better your present properties the more your chances of getting leads. Images do a good job of showcasing a property. Nobody will argue against that. But videos do it much better. Choose your best-performing video and feature in video ads. It will be worth your while.

The Takeaway

Instagram is owned by Facebook and is one of the most popular social media platforms these days. It is a very nice option for real estate social media marketing. The visual nature of the platform has made it an ideal space for realtors to promote their services. Currently, not a lot of realtors are using Instagram which can be used for your advantage in terms of the amount of attention you will receive. Using social media for real estate is a must. And using Instagram for real estate centers your brand and properties on a highly visual and interactive platform.

Roomvu offers many services regarding the media realtors need to produce and post online. Property photography, videography, floor plans, market updates, and many other real estate media are created at an affordable price in a very short time.

roomvu Instagram Automation

We get it. Social media takes time and energy. In order to establish a strong presence on Instagram, you need valuable content which is accurate and produced professionally. A decent video takes +10 hours to create which is a luxury many agents cannot afford.

We took notice and thought of a solution. roomvu Content Factory and social media automation platform addresses the exact issues. It not only takes care of the regular publication of the content across social media platforms, it also uses IA to create valuable and insightful content. Join today and start your presence on Instagram.

How can I use Instagram for real estate?

1. Quality Always: Images and Videos
2. Be consistent in Design
3. Keep it Going
4. Don’t go Overboard
5. Plan Ahead
6. Use Hashtags#