This Family is Using Facebook to Sell Their House

Is Facebook the future of real estate? Probably not, but this family’s clever marketing might save them $30,000 in real estate commissions.

A family in Newfoundland, Canada has an interesting tactic for selling their $589,000 home—Facebook. Homeowner Lori Ralph is also offering a $1,000 bonus to anyone who ‘Shares’ her listing and brings the family a buyer. You have to admit, that’s a heck of a lot better than the $30,000 they’d pay a real estate agent.

“The power of social media is amazing,” said Ralph. “It can find lost dogs, lost children. It can locate criminals, so we said why not try the housing market and see how that goes.”

So far, her post has garnered over 6,500 shares. Guess a lot of folks want to get in on that 1,000 reward. Apparently, her decision to circumvent the traditional means of selling real estate has also attracted some criticism. In response, Ralph wrote: “I am not opposed to realtors, I think they do fantastic work, and I am in no way judging their rates. Media has a way of putting a negative spin on things.”

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153508710248813&set=a.10153337190343813.1073741828.541433812&type=3&theater

“I feel that this has spun a bit out of control. I was just exploring this as an option for selling my home. I am not opposed to realtors, I think they do fantastic work, and I am in no way judging their rates. Media has a way of putting a negative spin on things. I am not opposed to working with a realtor if they have an interested buyer. I would be more than happy to meet with them to discuss. I’m selling my house… Please share. If your share leads to the completed sale, I’ll pay you $1000!!!”

The media exposure has been beneficial, overall. “Right now, with this much exposure, we don’t feel we need to use a realtor,” Ralph told a local paper on Tuesday.