- MLS-connected Homesnap Pro is piloting a product that allows agents to automatically create Facebook ads targeted to their contacts and the homeowners adjacent to a new listing or Just Sold.
- Facebook is an underutilized agent marketing channel, Inman has found.
- Homesnap Pro's ad product is just available in the Washington, D.C. area now, but will be spreading to other MLSs that offer the mobile app soon.
Homesnap Pro, an MLS-integrated real estate agent productivity mobile app, is piloting a new product that allows agents to market their listing wins with Facebook ads.
The app knows right away when an agent posts a listing or sells a home because it’s tied to MLSs in the 18 markets where it’s currently available.
With Homesnap Pro’s Facebook ads, agents can automatically broadcast those events to their spheres of influence and nearby homeowners.
Sample Homesnap Pro Facebook ad.
Ads are targeted to agents’ contacts in the app and to homeowners in the listing’s same ZIP code and, if agents pay more, to adjacent ZIP codes as well. Ads run two to three weeks on average.
Agents get access to ad performance data when they wrap, showing demographics of those who viewed the ad.
Homesnap Pro Facebook ad performance stats, sample.
For $50, agents can target one listing in one ZIP code; $100 gets one listing targeted to three ZIP codes; and for $150, homeowners in five adjacent ZIP codes see the Facebook ad, according to Homesnap CEO Guy Wolcott.
Facebook is a powerful and, Inman has learned, underutilized real estate agent marketing tool. Homesnap joins a handful of firms who have recently developed Facebook marketing tools for agents, including Adwerx, Curaytor and real estate marketing platform Kunversion.
Homesnap’s testing the product first in its Washington, D.C., home market, but it plans to spread to others soon. The product will only be available in those MLS markets where Homesnap’s agent-only “Pro” app is live.
Seven of the nation’s largest MLSs currently offer the “Pro” app to their members, including Arizona Regional MLS, MLSListings (Silicon Valley) and Metropolitan Regional Information Services (mid-Atlantic). The company will announce partnerships with seven more MLSs soon, according to Homesnap Vice President of Marketing Gayle Weiswasser.
Homesnap Pro is typically only available through MLSs, though it is offered through brokerages to gain inroads in new markets, she said. The tech company has been offering free access to the app to MLSs and their members for the first year to gain marketplace traction.
Homesnap consumer vs. agent apps
Homesnap also has a consumer-facing app, which allows users to take a photo of any home to access information about that home, whether or not it is for sale, including its value, last sale date and price, listing history, “bird’s-eye-view” lot boundaries, similar active listings, recent comparable sales and local schools.
The agent-only Homesnap Pro app offers agents the following:
- Real-time access to agent-only MLS information
- One-tap messaging with clients and other agents
- Customized email marketing to clients and contacts
- Instant comparative market analysis (CMA) generation right from the smartphone
- Complete details on every agent in the area, including a portfolio of recent sales and an analysis of sales history such as price reductions and days on market
- In-app integration with ShowingTime showing scheduling for participating listings
- In-app agent safety features, including a “safety timer” and one-tap distress alert
Homesnap, which rebranded from Sawbuck Realty in 2013, started as a brokerage, but the firm’s now squarely focused on becoming a technology vendor, Weiswasser said. “We only have a handful of markets remaining where we will be converting our broker-member model to the vendor model,” she added.
