The real estate agents turning to social media snips into sales

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A real estate agent from small town rural New Zealand is amassing tens of thousands of views and attracting international buyers with social media advertising.

Traditional forms of property advertising have long been declining in popularity, but Instagram and TikTok are driving a new kind of business.

She's not into singing or AI gimmicks. What you get is the real Heatha from Harcourts.

You'll find her in front of the camera at the property she's selling - her opening is always the same.

"Hi, Heatha from Harcourts here."

From Waipukarau, a small Central Hawke's Bay town with fewer than 5000 people, Heatha Edwards is already relatively well known locally. But after less than six months of trying out Instagram video advertising, she had people from around Aotearoa calling out her name.

"I get all sorts of comments from all over the place.

"I'm just fascinated, that from a very small town, I get sort of 40,000, 100,000 views and more and more and more followers, which you sort of think, that's not real, is it?

"That's not going to translate into any business?

"Boy, am I wrong."

Heatha from Harcourts.

Photo: Supplied

While her 5000 followers had nothing on Tim Payne, New Zealand's newest online superstar, she was seeing results.

"I've had clients call from Scotland, I've got clients in Australia that are flying over to come and see one of the properties with a view to putting an offer on it.

"So yes, it does translate into genuine buyers and genuine business."

Most surprisingly, she said it was reaching people well outside of her target audience and location.

"I was just down in the Harcourts conference and people are shouting out hello 'Heatha from Harcourts'.

"This is people that aren't in real estate. This is 16-year-old kids, this is ladies in their 20s.

"I wouldn't have thought they would have even known but apparently, they do.

It's now something she leant on when it came to offering an advertising package because it got eyeballs on the house.

"To me it's all about the properties. At the end of the day, that's my job, I take it seriously, that's what I do."

Edwards said some photos get over edited and change the feel, whereas videos were real.

"I can't stretch something out to look like a 20-seater banqueting hall when it's an average dining room in an ex-state house."

But it's also instantaneous. She cringed over showing her age but said when she first started 32 years ago it was a different story.

"You took your camera and you took photographs yourself and then you took it down to the chemist and then you waited for seven to 10 days to get the photos back.

"And then you'd put one photograph in the local newspaper and wait for a week to have that printed and delivered."

Edwards said the newer ways of advertising also helped people narrow down what they wanted to look at and saved couples spending their weekends trudging through open homes.

Charlie Brothers, from Ray White in Manukau City.

Photo: Supplied / Ray White

Charlie Brothers, from Ray White in Manukau City was also seeing benefits with his new foray into TikTok.

He was also steering clear of the exaggerated AI style, relying on personality and confidence to build his brand.

But he also wanted to build others up.

"I think sometimes people are just too worried about what people might think or they don't look right or the language ain't right or the confidence.

"Just get a camera and record yourself."

His focus was to bring more young Polynesian people into the gig.

"When I started real estate, I think I was probably one of the only half a dozen people that did real estate."

Otago University marketing professor John Williams.

Photo: Supplied / Otago University

Otago University marketing professor John Williams said the move to social media was explained simply by an old adage.

"The best place go fishing is where the fish are.

"It's all about where the audiences are."

And those audiences, he said, were online - even the ones you did not expect.

"Even the grannies, those in their 60s, 70s and 80s they're totally all-over online media.

"There's less and less reason for them to continue to advertise and print because their target audience has actually shifted to be online"

It also offered a chance to build a personal brand and create interaction in the ways more traditional or print media could not.

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