Real estate
Why buyers pick an agent before they pick a house
Ask someone how they chose their agent and the answer is almost never that they compared several. They knew someone, or they knew of someone.
That is the entire game, and it explains why so much agent marketing misses. Listing photos and market updates are aimed at people who are already selling. The decision was made before that.
The list is shorter than you think
When a household starts talking about moving, there is usually a mental list of one or two agents. Not a shortlist drawn up after research. A list that already existed.
Everything about building a name is about being on that list before the conversation starts. Once a seller is interviewing agents, you are competing on commission and presentation. Before that, you are competing with nobody.
Market updates are the weakest content you can make
Every agent posts them, which is the first problem. The second is that almost nobody outside the industry cares about aggregate numbers.
A person thinking about selling does not want the average days on market. They want to know whether they should replace the carpet, whether it is stupid to list in December, and what happens if they buy before they sell. Those are the real questions and they are strangely absent from most agent feeds.
Answer the embarrassing questions
The best performing agent content is almost always someone explaining, without condescension, something a first time buyer is afraid to ask.
What a condition on financing means and what happens when it fails. Whether you can back out. What the deposit is actually for. Why the inspection matters more than the paint. Why a house that has sat for two months might be the better buy.
These are also the exact phrases people type into search, which means they keep working long after they are posted. That is the same logic behind writing for the questions people actually ask.
Be the same person you are in a kitchen
The agents who struggle with camera are usually trying to sound like an agent. The ones who do well sound like themselves explaining something to a friend.
This is genuinely easier. It is also the thing that transfers, because the seller sitting across from you later is meeting the person they already watched.
How it works with listing video
Listing video sells one property and expires at closing. Brand content compounds and does not.
Both have a place. But an agent making only listing videos rebuilds their marketing from nothing every time a deal closes, which is why the two do different jobs.
Common questions
How do realtors get more listings?
By being the name that comes to mind before anyone decides to sell. Sellers rarely compare agents in a structured way. They think of one or two people they already have a sense of, and being one of those is what content does.
What should a realtor post about?
The questions people are too embarrassed to ask, explained plainly. What a condition actually means, what happens if financing falls through, why a house sat, whether to fix the kitchen before listing. Market updates are the default and are also the most skippable thing on the feed.
Do realtors need to be on camera?
For personal brand content, largely yes, because the product is you. It does not require being polished. It requires being the same person on camera as at a kitchen table, which is easier than performing and works better.
How often should a realtor post?
Consistently enough that you are not forgotten between transactions, which is the actual problem. A rhythm you can hold through a busy month beats a burst during a slow one.