All good things must come to an end. Sometimes that even means moving on from your gorgeous Ponte Vedra property to your next adventure. 

Not sure how to start? Here are things you can do yourself before you list (AKA “presell”) and start the “Days On Market” countdown timer (or have a professional realtor like Navy to Navy do it for you).

#1—Video

Let potential buyers tour your home and your neighborhood. Take them for a walking tour. Adding in a 360 shot from Google street view lends depth to posts. 

Facebook: Invite potential buyers to tour your home without the risk of muddy footprints. Keep the camera steady and take a walk about your premises. Tell a few stories or add in some easy listening style tunes (and cite the artists!) to keep the energy going. And no more worries about the Facebook police for using music. Woohoo! 

Bonus: Upload to YouTube and share/embed away!

Want to keep extra simple? Make a video slideshow of some great photos of your home. Try using Adobe Spark or Canva to make an easy slideshow that you can just as easily save as a video.

Dare to be daring? Panoramic shots and connecting to Google Street View can make an impressive combo with little muss or fuss.  You can even do a killer 360 view like this one!

Instagram: Do a fun series of around the house videos. Keep your videos short and sweet, and don’t be afraid of hashtags. If you still want to use longer videos but also want to use Instagram to get attention, no one says you can’t link to your o-so-awesome Facebook video in the description of your Instagram vid. 

Don’t be afraid of stories or going live. 24 hour bites can be enticing and who wouldn’t want to see the fabulous sunset from your back patio?

#2—Photos

More than static, you get angles, color comp, and can even use online tools like Canva or Stencil to create incredible, enticing images.

Facebook: Aside from videos, photos are the most tried and true way to get eyes on you (and your home). Since we’re talking about pre-selling rather than active listing, you have the advantage of sharing candids along with more polished (read: staged) photos. 

Instagram: Filter or not filter, that is the question! And the answer may surprise you. Using complimentary color filters on your home’s photos can greatly adjust the tone. Play into cool blues and let your home appear whimsical and restful in a midday photo. Lay warm tones over an early evening shot and give your home the appearance of a passion-filled getaway.

Twitter: Perhaps a surprising contender but Twitter not only syncs up well with heftier social media platforms like Facebook as well as bite-sized updaters like Instagram. Don’t be fooled, however. Twitter isn’t just the perfect link feed. Integrating photos, videos, and even gifs are easier than ever on Twitter. Drop your most popular images here and be choosy with your hashtags. 

#3—Tell a Story

Did you fall in love here? Did you discover your favorite food here? Create a great memory? Share. Humans love stories. Feed into your audience’s “need-to-know” as often as possible.

Facebook: Arguably the best social media platform for long form aside from Tumblr, tell your story. People don’t buy things. They buy memories. They buy potential. They buy hope. And what is a home if not the place to house those very things?

Twitter: Get connected. Boldly use your @ and # and connect your experiences with favorite restaurants, charities, or locales and draw people in. “I absolutely loved volunteering with @PVwildlife and learning all about the #marinelife in our waters. #seasnailsanyone?” 

Be clever, be silly, be kooky. Don’t be inauthentic, don’t lie, and don’t let any bad times overshadow the good ones. (That’s life advice you can put on a pillow right there.)

#4—Sharing Culture/Local & Connected

Active in the community? Love the local library? In touch with the beach bums who know the best time to visit the beach is early morning or late evening when the sun has mellowed out?

Twitter: Much like tip #3 above, use Twitter to connect with the local culture. Use a mix of photos, text, and general engagement to make you—and by extension your home—stand out. 

Instagram: You didn’t think I would talk kitsch without bringing up the empress of food selfies, did you? Much like Twitter, connect with the local color. Unlike Twitter, spend more time talking about you and your property and your experiences. Was there an amazing boardwalk party less than a 10 minute bike ride from you? Share it. Own it. Love it. While it may sound hooky, wax a little poetic. 

LinkedIn/Facebook: Double feature! This sub-tip (tip-tip?) works well for both Facebook and LinkedIn. 

Joining groups centered around people interested in

a) real estate

b) purchasing properties

c) in love with the Ponte Vedra area

d) some combination of all three 

can yield helpful keywords, potential connections, and an in to the group at large. 

Being an active member in a group is one of the simplest ways to connect with like-minded folks. Do some talking, post about how awesome your property is (after mingling for a few weeks and getting the OK from the admin(s), and remember to always be kind and courteous.

Know what hashtags are trending on each platform you intend to post on. A little bit of Google-fu and presto! Popular keywords at your fingertips. Keep in this in mind: While Instagram and Twitter are pretty much ruled by the almighty hashtag, each platform has its own culture and identity. 

So how do you figure out what to use when and where? Glad you asked! Here's a handy list of hashtags to get you started!

Google-fu hot tip incoming! 

Search using quotation marks. This tells Google to search only for that term such as “Ponte Vedra Florida” and only in that exact way. Couple this with a more general term like “on Instagram” (but without the quotation marks). This allows Google to troll for the appropriate items.  

Twitter/Instagram: Best advice? Do not drown your posts in #hashtags. Pick your top 3-5, use them, and rotate with more targeted hashtags that suit each post. You can read more about the differences between Twitter and Instagram here. 

Facebook: Hashtags can be helpful here; however, these are better navigators for small groups than the major trawl of an entire social media network. If you’re in some sort of Ponte Vedra community group, using hashtags here can be invaluable for two reasons. 1) Hashtags will make searching your posts more easy to locate. 2) Occasionally using something funny or clever with your usual tagging method in the group will get you noticed.

#6—The Final Countdown

While hashtags are cool, the real shining star of social media? Content. The key to making algorithms and audiences happy? Consistently updated content. So what better way to celebrate the impending active market than a pre-sell countdown?

Here’s the skinny: 30 days before on the market date, start your countdown. Each day, do something evoke emotion in your audience. Tell a story (like when you first moved in), an interesting factoid (Ponte Vedra takes its name from a 12-arched Roman bridge, the Pons Vetus), an interesting tidbit (did you know that Ponte Vedra is slightly north of a turtle nesting beach?).

Instagram: This is a great place for eye-catching visuals to shine. Be sure to couple this with smart but simple hashtags. This will allow you to crosspost more easily to Twitter while remaining consistent with your tags. Recommendations: Use sequencing tags (#day1 on the first post, #day2 on the second post, #day3 on the third, etc.), locale tags (#pontevedra, #florida, #atlanticbeaches), tags related to your fact/story/tidbit (#turtles, #floridaturtles, #babyturtles), and countdown tags (#countowntosell, #day4of30, #realestatecountdown, #countdowninthe32082). Simple and straightforward does not mean boring or uncreative or anti-fun. 

Twitter: Make use of the (relatively) new 280 character limit. Using interesting tidbits can help bring eyes to your tweets which can mean interest in your home. Visuals are still helpful here but due to Twitter’s much smaller pictures, Instagram is still a better choice. Note: While you can absolutely have your Instagram auto-feed to Twitter, you do no have to. If you’re more comfortable simply copying your post details, go right ahead! But be sure to a link to the related post on Instagram. You want to remain as social media accessible as possible.

#7—Boosted Posts

Or what I like to call “the genial advert”

Feel like you have a good handle on the tips above? Then it is time, young padawan, to maximize your potential—pre-selling potential, that is. Without sending you down an analytics rabbit hole, see what posts you’ve made that have done well. Take a quick look at likes and comments on your posts, find the ones that have the most, and get ready to BOOST.

Now what is boosting, what does it do, and why do you care?

All fantastic questions.

The short answer: Boosting literally boosts the visibility, and thereby popularity, of your posts. Friends will see your posts more frequently, typically with first priority. While each social media platform has its own particular way (and costs) for boosting posts, the same basic ideas work for pretty much all of them.

Here are some suggestions on post types to boost:

• Short walk through videos

• If something is under construction/reconstruction, show the blueprints + the intended result

• Facebook panoramas of favorite rooms or property features — if you have a killer garden, show it off!

• Couple an eye-catching photo with a quick blurb about why you’ve loved living in Ponte Vedra

• If you have undeveloped property, get a great shot at sunrise or sunset—ideally over the water—and let your inner creative run wild. Talk about what you imagine being built here. If you’re feeling brave, ditch the photo + blurb combo and make a quick video. 

• Select posts with good interaction (shares/likes)

• Boost posts with popular (but applicable) tags

Calculating your theme formula  

Connection + location + culture + scenery + experiences + any unique festivals/interesting charities that are a big to-do = ENGAGEMENT

Keep in mind that you may not be able to integrate every proposed variable of this formula. And that’s OK. Instead, present quality and maintain genuineness. 

Think back on why you called Ponte Vedra your home and why you fell in love with the area. Your feelings. Your reasons.

If you can recall those, it will be a thousand times easier for someone else to feel the same way you did—and hopefully want to make your old home their new home. The start to their new adventure.

A word to the wise: Boosting posts is not free. Start with setting your frequency, picking your niche audience (and research who that would be!), and sticking with a small budget of a $1/day to rouse curiosity and interest. 

Summary

• Videos — Keep ‘em short and sweet. It’s better to have quantity than length.

• Photos — Share good shots. While it’s OK to use filters of complementary colors, don’t go crazy.

• Tell a Story — Totally fine to share a little piece of your heart. People are more compelled by the humanness of stories than a great view and location alone.

• #hashtagsavvy — Simple, on topic, and easy to find. If in doubt, do a quick search online for the most popular tags for your area + what real estate agents are using.

• Countdown — If you’re counting down to the day your list your property officially on the market, treat it like a party that everyone is invited to. Where to be discerning: At the seller’s table.

• Boosted Posts — While you will have to fork out a bit of cash—how much is up to you—to get posts boosted to begin with, the eye-catching factor cannot be denied. Use your most popular and engaging posts and you’ll see an increase in interest come on market time.

Navy to Navy Homes

4540 Southside Blvd, Suite 702

Jacksonville, FL 32216

904-900-4766