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Simply looking to share the impressive view of a new property that had come into his hands, an agent didn’t quite anticipate the response he received.
Joshua McMillan, a sales associate of Junction Estate Agents in Brisbane’s inner city market, was brainstorming with the team about a new property under their purview when the agent became inspired by the view.
“It was an off-market listing that had been passed on to us from another agent because they couldn’t seem to shake it. We had exhausted all our usual options – your emails, your calls, your letters and whatnot,” he explained to REB.
The one-bedroom unit with an outlook over the Brisbane River had a lot going for it but was struggling to find the right buyer.
“I’m sitting there, and it’s got this beautiful view of the river, and I thought, I might just post this on my Snapchat story,” McMillan said.
The short snap mostly focused on the scene outside the windows but also included a brief tour and the essential details.
That was 5pm, “and a workday,” McMillian explained, meaning that he wasn’t focused on social media through the evening. Rather, he was given quite the surprise when he woke up the next morning to a slew of responses to the content.
Mostly, people were commenting that they agreed the property had a beautiful outlook. One showed even more interest, inquiring how to get in touch if they were interested in making an offer.
The sale progressed quickly from there.
The snapchatter in question was actually inquiring on behalf of her father, who was the official buyer, with the Sunshine Coast family looking to acquire a Brisbane City pad for when the daughter moved down to start university.
A more traditional line of communication was established, and father and daughter made a trip to the city to see the property in person, before putting in an offer and securing the sale.
McMillan described it as something of a “right place, right time” scenario, with the unique property meeting the perfect buyer through a marketing avenue that was maybe not conventional, but suited both parties.
He’s certainly planning on replicating the tactic in the future if the property is right, noting that when it comes to marketing on social media, it’s important that agents use whatever platform they gravitate towards.
“I feel like it’s easy to lose interest in the social media side of marketing, because it becomes a chore,” he observed.
“But when you actually gain genuine enjoyment from it, you’re inclined to put a bit more effort into it, and it works a lot better like that. I think that’s why some people do so well on social media, as opposed to others, is because they see the enjoyment side of it,” McMillian said.
His other tip is to keep the stakes low, not necessarily expecting social media to be the winning strategy.
“You think, ‘Hey this might come from it’, but at the end of the day, I’m still having fun doing it,” he said.
For those in his office who have seen his success and become Snapchat curios, however, McMillian is happy to advise.
“We’ve got our Tiktok professional and our Instagram professional – I’m happy to take the title of Snapchat professional,” the agent laughed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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