The U.S. real estate sector continues to find itself in a delicate position as it grapples with sluggish home sales and persistently high prices. With Goldman Sachs predicting house prices to rise more than 4% next year, it's understandable that optimism in the current market climate is hard to come by.
However, despite this, there are new, innovative ways to market and sell properties—yet many are being overlooked by the traditional players who continue to dominate the industry.
Conventional approaches to real estate have served the industry well for decades, but since the 2007–2008 Subprime Mortgage Crisis, the sector has struggled to maintain its growth.
The industry is undergoing a profound change in the way property is being sold with the rise of new forms of marketing; email and cold phone calling have replaced outdated door-to-door tactics, and social media have, by and large, replaced newspaper advertisements.
As a result of the persistent uncertainty and ever-evolving technological landscape, traditional real estate techniques are quickly becoming outdated.
Harnessing the Potential of Artificial Intelligence
New forms of marketing can be seen in a multitude of ways. The industry has been unable to avoid the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI), from boosting productivity to analyzing large troves of data in mere seconds.
Leading companies such as Zillow are already utilizing AI to analyze photos, extracting details to generate accurate property value estimates for sellers.
This advanced technology is also being leveraged to 'stage' properties by removing existing furniture and creating 'listing ready' photos—removing the need for a designer. Developed at the Harvard Innovation Lab, VirtualstagingAI allows prospective buyers to, quite literally, picture themselves in the property with their belongings through generative AI (GenAI) images.
As we are already witnessing, AI's impact on real estate is considerable. McKinsey Global Institute says GenAI, which uses generative models to create new content, could produce $110 billion—$180 billion or more in value for the real estate industry.
TechTarget has also reported that the market for AI in real estate was valued at $164.96 billion in 2023, with projections hitting $226.71 billion by the end of 2024 and $731.59 billion by 2028.
It's undeniable that AI is on an upward trajectory in the U.S. real estate sector, set to become an indispensable tool for innovation and growth.
Social Media: The Future of Real Estate Marketing
It's not just Artificial Intelligence that has taken the real estate industry by storm—social media has also proven to be an effective tool in enticing buyers and, ultimately, selling homes.
Instagram is among the key platforms driving property sales, with notable accounts such as @Serhant leading the charge. As one of the most well-known Instagram accounts in real estate, boasting over 500k followers, Ryan Serhant's account showcases luxurious properties and expert insights, engaging audiences through visually appealing and informative content.
TikTok's algorithm-driven, short-form videos are also used for the same purpose. Such content provides executive summaries of properties, highlighting the advantages of each. This new form of content is particularly digestible no matter through which medium it is viewed, be it Apple iPhones through IOS, MacBooks, or other Android devices.
User-filmed content is also highly 'clippable,' making it extremely conducive to virality. It is not uncommon for property tours to go viral. This was certainly the case for a recent tour of an exclusive property development in McLean, Virginia, which garnered 5.5 million likes and 33 million views on TikTok.
Short-form content is also an effective way to highlight a neighborhood's community spirit and showcase the environment surrounding a home. This method is already being executed by media platforms such as American Dream TV (ADTV)—a leading U.S. property show created by TV personality and radio host Craig Sewing.
American Dream TV is also taking advantage of platforms such as YouTube to inspire its audiences by highlighting the community spirit and lifestyle of locations across the U.S.—insights that resonate well with homebuyers in today's market.
Bridging across both YouTube and Instagram, Compass, a real estate company founded in 2013, has also proven itself as an effective employer of social media to market properties. In a similar way to American Dream TV, its YouTube videos take a back-to-basics approach, shining a spotlight on real estate professionals to help them match buyers with their ideal homes.
Amid broader market uncertainty, compounded by the upcoming U.S. presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, these innovative approaches to property marketing offer a refreshing and optimistic outlook.
The time has come for traditional techniques to step aside and make way for the rise of AI and social media marketing to revitalize the industry and bring some much-needed hope to the sector.
