The word on the grapevine is that real estate listings with professional photography sell 32% faster. That same grapevine tells us that 90% of buyers browse properties on the Internet, and when you think of photos and the Internet, you think of Instagram. With 2 billion active users consuming visual content monthly, there’s no better place to promote your business and listings.
If you want professional Instagram tips for real estate agents, you’re at the right spot. We’ve got fifteen of them for you, plus some neat tricks to help you boost engagement and keep the profile running smoothly.
The Essential Instagram Tips for Real Estate, Explained
Our tips for running an Instagram profile as a real estate agent will help you improve your existing one or build an entirely new one. They will also help you tap into the local crowd and improve your reach on a global scale. The goal is simple — get maximum exposure for maximum ROI.
1. Craft a Bio with Keywords, CTAs, and Local SEO
Your Instagram bio is prime real estate — make every word count. You want to tell people who you are and what you do right off the bat. Consider doing keyword research to add local and industry terms ("Luxury Miami Realtor") for SEO visibility and a quick summary of your business.
Also, be sure to switch to a business account to unlock Meta’s Ads Manager, which you can use for paid advertising, analytics, and contact buttons that can boost your conversion rate. In fact, through the MAXA Designs platform, you can directly share materials with your Instagram business account.
Keep the text clear and action-driven: “Find your dream home in LA. DM for listings!” Most importantly, insert a link — use Linktree or a custom website landing page to direct followers to listings, contact forms, or booking pages.
2. Develop a Recognizable Visual Style
Consistency in visual presentation is crucial since it helps you create a visual identity that makes your brand instantly recognizable. When building that identity and signature look, you need to choose a cohesive color palette, typography, and aesthetic and stick to them whenever you publish posts, stories, or reels.
Moreover, your visual style must reflect your business. For example, a high-end realtor specializing in luxury homes might use sleek black, gold, and white tones with minimalist typography that resonates with the crowd they are targeting.
Adding your logo, tagline, or even a unique hashtag increases branding efforts, and you can even create marketing templates with all of these features to facilitate the design effort needed when posting on Instagram.
3. Use Story Highlights as a Visual Portfolio
Instagram Story Highlights serve as a permanent, easy-to-navigate portfolio that showcases your expertise. See them as a place where you can group all your current and past listings. Therefore, it’s essential to organize them properly. For example, you can opt for categories like “Featured Listings,” “Client Testimonials,” “Market Updates,” and “Neighborhood Tours” to guide potential buyers through your services.
Through the Highlights section, users can see your track record, and that can be a significant boost to your credibility. Also, you can add CTAs to your highlights so that viewers can contact you instantly. This way, you are turning leads into more closed deals.
4. Leverage Reels for Market Updates and Property Teasers
Instagram reels have an average engagement of 0.50% per post, while photos stand at 0.45%. They also drive more comments for all types of pages, including those for realtors, which is why they are so important.
Use them to share quick market updates, just-listed property teasers, or behind-the-scenes content that keeps potential buyers engaged. For example, a 15-second Reel featuring a panoramic drone shot of a new listing, overlaid with key details and a CTA like “DM for a private tour!” can generate immediate interest and inquiries.
5. Create an Educational Mini-Series on Real Estate Tips
If you approach buyers with more than just shiny visuals, you’ll have better chances of establishing yourself as a trusted source for all things real estate. Education content is there to help you with that.
Consider posting real estate tips through a mini-series of Instagram Reels or Stories. You can cover topics like “First-Time Buyer Mistakes to Avoid,” “How to Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage,” “Home Staging Tips That Sell,” or any other trending topic.
6. Share Market Insights with Data-Driven Infographics
Real estate is all about numbers. Market trends, total sold properties, and mortgage rate changes are the marketing materials people seek. Through visually compelling infographics, you can make that complex data easier to digest.
For example, a carousel post comparing median home prices over the last six months with a caption like “Thinking of buying? Here’s where the market is heading — DM me for insights!” can be a worthy option for an infographic.
7. Use Geotagging to Target Local Buyers
Geotagging is one of the most helpful tools Meta has released. At least when realtors are concerned. Geotags help your content reach buyers who are actively searching in specific areas. For example, when you geotag landmarks and hotspots in your posts, Stories, and Reels, you can connect with the local crowds. For example, by posting a walkthrough of a charming townhouse with a geotag like “Chelsea, London” and a caption such as “Steps from King’s Road — this gem won’t last long! DM for a private viewing,” you can prompt viewers to act.
8. Host Live Virtual Tours with Q&A
Who says you can’t do an open house or a property showing in the digital world? An interactive virtual tour is where you walk viewers through a listing, highlight key features, and respond to inquiries on the spot. The best part — you can do it via Instagram Live.
For example, a 30-minute live session touring a penthouse with a CTA like “Drop your questions in the chat or DM me for a private tour!” can generate engagement and build urgency based on the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) and attract serious leads.
9. Collaborate with Designers and Staging Experts
Real estate agents usually see themselves as staging experts and professional designers. In truth, some really are, but it’s not a standard skill for most. Thankfully, you can partner with interior designers and home staging experts to take your property presentation skills to a whole new level and attract higher-end buyers.
Consider showcasing before-and-after transformations, styling tips, or expert insights through Instagram Reels and Stories to add value to your audience.
10. Plan Content Around Seasonal Market Trends
One of the most valuable Instagram tips for real estate agents we can give is to reflect the seasonal changes in the market on your Instagram profile. Here’s one of the ways. Create a Reel: Spring Market Alert featuring “Why Now Is the Best Time to Sell” with stats on rising demand in springtime. This will get the audience invested.
Marketing features that allow you to automate the process can help with this as well. For example, with MAXA’s Social Media Scheduling Tool, you can plan your posts through the calendar function and schedule their posting on multiple social media accounts, not just Instagram.
You should tailor your posts to seasonal buyer and seller behavior. If the property features a patio with a barbecue set, post that during summer. Help your followers envisage themselves hanging there with friends. That will motivate them to reach out.
11. Run Hyper-Targeted Instagram Ads
The average click-through rate for real estate is in the neighborhood of 0.99%, which isn’t a number you should take lightly. Thanks to Instagram’s advanced ad targeting, business account holders can reach the right audience based on location, interests, income level, and online behavior.
This allows you to place listings directly in front of buyers and sellers actively searching your market. Consider using carousel ads to showcase multiple properties, story ads for quick attention grabs, and lead-generation ads to collect inquiries.
12. Share Client Success Stories Visually
There is nothing like a good client testimonial to build trust in your services. Through Instagram, you can share them in a visually engaging way, such as branded graphics, video snippets, or before-and-after shots of the buying or selling journey.
The options are virtually endless. A photo of happy clients in front of their new home will also do, especially when combined with written testimonials to serve as a caption.
13. Use Polls and Quizzes to Boost Engagement
Instagram also offers some interactive features that contribute to user engagement, such as polls and quizzes. You can use Instagram Stories to ask fun and insightful questions — for example, a poll like “Which kitchen style do you prefer: Modern or Classic?” to spark conversations and discussions.
You can also create quizzes like “How much do you think this home sold for?” to test your audience’s real estate knowledge.
14. Offer Exclusive Listings for Followers
Giveaways and exclusive awards are something that influencers do, so why should real estate agents be any different? You should give your Instagram followers a VIP experience by offering them early access to new listings before they hit the market.
Use Stories and Close Friends lists to share sneak peeks, behind-the-scenes tours, or “Coming Soon” posts to create a sense of exclusivity.
15. Track Competitors and Adapt Winning Strategies
Keeping an eye out on the competition can help you find potential loopholes in their strategies and capitalize on them. Also, you can always take a leaf out of their book and try to mimic their strategy that’s clearly working.
Use Instagram’s “Save” feature to keep track of high-performing posts and spot trends in what resonates with audiences. For example, if a competitor’s market update Reels are driving high engagement, judging by the number of likes and comments, you can test a similar format with your own unique insights and see if that will work for you.
5 Biggest No-Nos of the Real Estate Instagram Marketing
So far, we’ve seen the best Instagram tips for real estate agents. Sadly, not all realtors will follow these. Some constantly make big mistakes when it comes to real estate Instagram marketing. These are some of the biggest ones.
Ignoring Engagement by Failing to Respond to Comments and DMs
If people react to your posts and post comments, failing to reply will undoubtedly chase them away. This behavior will send a clear signal that you are just using your Instagram to promote your listings, and people will feel like you are taking advantage of them. It would be even worse not to reply to DMs where potential buyers are asking about the properties. Make sure to respond to queries and keep communication alive.
Posting Low-Quality Photos and Videos
Instagram is a visual-first platform; blurry, poorly lit, or unedited photos can instantly turn off potential buyers. Real estate is all about presentation, so investing in high-quality images, professional photography, and well-framed videos is non-negotiable. For example, a dark, cluttered listing photo can make a beautiful property look unappealing, and we’ve seen more than one instance of such images.
Overloading Captions with Irrelevant Hashtags
There’s no denying relevant hashtags can help your post appear when people search for something on Instagram that also appears in your post. However, stuffing captions with generic or irrelevant tags (#love, #instagood, #followme) does more harm than good. Instagram prioritizes relevance, so stick to targeted real estate and local hashtags like #FloridaLuxuryHomes or #LondonPropertyMarket. Attaching more than 10 to 15 hashtags is just spammy.
Inconsistent Posting Without a Clear Content Strategy
Posting sporadically — or only when you have a new listing — won’t keep your audience engaged. A strong Instagram presence is all about posting consistent and strategic content. The strategic part refers to listings, client testimonials, educational posts, etc. Balancing everything is the key.
Ignoring Local Market Trends and Audience Needs
It’s plain and simple — if your content doesn’t reflect local real estate trends, it will make your posts feel irrelevant. Sure, generic tips for home buyers are good-to-have posts, but what buyers and sellers want more of are insights that apply to their specific market, not just general advice.
Conclusion
Instagram isn’t just about posting pretty pictures. That is unless you are an aspiring model or influencer. If you are a realtor looking to score leads and close deals, it’s a different game for you. By implementing these game-changing Instagram tips, you’ll be one step closer to achieving those goals.
Success on Instagram requires consistency, high-quality visuals, and strategic marketing —and that’s where MAXA Designs comes into play. From creating custom-branded social media templates and automated marketing tools to integrating Instagram into your overall marketing strategy, MAXA has a solution for you. Contact us today and see how their innovative tools can help you dominate Instagram and beyond.
