Selling a house usually means an ad in a estate agent’s window or a listing on a property website.
But one family has taken a more social media savvy approach to finding a buyer for their property.
Ed and Rose Henderson have turned to Twitter and Facebook to sell their four-bedroom detached house in Prestonpans. The property is going for £189,995 – a £10,000 reduction.
Mr Henderson, a 36-year-old web developer, is moving with his family to California in October and after a year of relying on estate agents, he decided to take a more proactive approach.
He blogged about the property, adopting a humorous first-person perspective from the house’s point of view. He posted the pitch on Facebook and Twitter – and whipped up a storm of interest on social media.
Mr Henderson told STV News: “I have no complaints with my estate agents but they can only do so much and about three weeks ago I decided to try something different. We’re moving to California in October so we’d like to have it sold before we go. Short of handing out leaflets on the street, there wasn’t much more I could do but then I thought: I have skills in social media, why don’t I write a blog about this?”
The “house’s blog”, posted on edhenderson.com, reads: ”I am sad, my family are moving away and while I would love to go with them, they can’t take me as its very far and I am too big to go on the plane. I am looking for a new family to live here with me and enjoy my quiet street, huge back garden, generous bedrooms and lots of storage space.
“What will it cost? The Hendersons would be looking for a very competitive price, £189,995, in return, I would love you as much as I love them. Plus Ed will leave a case of beer in the garden shed.
“I am a new build, in Prestonpans, East Lothian (very close to Port Seton & Cockenzie). I am only 5 years old and Ed, Rose, Jack, Toby & Noah (The Hendersons) are the only owners I have ever had, so everything is snagged and nicely setup for a brilliant new family to come and live here.”
Mr Henderson explained: “It’s ironic but I thought writing the blog from the house’s perspective sounded more human. It became fun to update it and add more jokes. I shared it on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with everyone I could. I think it was liked and retweeted for two reasons: it’s a house for sale and that always gets people interested and because it was a novelty having the house talk for itself.”
So far, more than 3,000 people have viewed the blog post and Mr Henderson hopes it will help move the process along.
“We move to California in October. We hope this will help us sell the house but if not we’ll have to get ready to let it out,” he added.
Mr Henderson’s oldest son Jack is a social media star in his own right. The seven-year-old attracted acclaim with his website jackdrawsanything.com, where he displayed his drawings of everything from action heroes to footballers to raise money for the Sick Kids Hospital in Edinburgh, where his three-year-old brother Noah has received treatment for bronchitis.
By Stephen Daisley
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