- Stephen Udoff rented an $80,000-per-month Billionaires Beach house to a client who'd never been there thanks to a Snapchat walkthrough.
- The client thought the Snapchat story gave her a better idea of what the house looked like than the online photos.
Stephen Udoff / Facebook
Pull out phone. Open Snapchat application. Walk through Malibu house valued at $80,000 per month. Land tenant.
If only all rentals and home sales were that easy.
Apparently for Stephen Udoff, one deal was.
A real estate agent with Partners Trust in Malibu — who uses the name #SunsetSteve because of his constant social media posts of sunsets — Udoff had some help from another agent, but Snapchat was the primary medium to rent the house, he says.
How it went down, according to Udoff, was actually quite simple:
In an interview with Gary Vaynerchuk’s team, Udoff described his process for social media, which includes changing posts between Snapchat and Instagram for variety.
Vaynerchuk, as you may very well know, is somewhat of a social media guru — perhaps the social media guru. He recently spoke at Inman Connect San Francisco 2016 about how to separate yourself from the pack with your social media content and how to market yourself and brand as a media company, no matter your business model.
But back to Udoff and this luxurious summer rental.
How to rent an $80,000 Malibu house on Snapchat
Udoff’s listing came from a section in Malibu called Carbon Beach, otherwise known as Billionaire’s Beach. He originally posted the listing back in May for $85,000 per month, but things seemed to be moving slowly.
Before doing a recent open house, he decided to do a Snapchat walkthrough. He filmed entering the front door, the various rooms and kitchen, views and more.
There was another agent with him who had a client looking for a place; the Snapchat story made its way to that client.
“The client immediately fell in love with the property. She rented it out for around $80,000 a month, sight unseen,” Udoff told Vaynerchuk’s team.
The client thought the Snapchat walkthrough gave her a better feel for the property than the online photos.
Other ways of marketing your property
What did we do before Snapchat? Well, there are mailers and door-knocking, cold-calling and networking.
And YouTube and Vimeo. And Instagram. And Facebook and Twitter.
Really, there are seemingly countless ways to market your property on social media. If you aren’t using most, if not all of these, then you could be missing out.
Although Udoff could have hired a film crew to make a spectacular video, all he needed was a personal walkthrough to show potential clients what it will look like when they pull up to their house on Billionaire’s Beach.
Follow Stephen Udoff on Snapchat @SunsetSteve.
