If you find yourself relating more to Jonathan Swift than Taylor Swift, or Robert Kardashian than Chloe, then the world of real estate hashtags can be intimidating. 👀
#whydopeoplekeepusingthesepoundsigns?
Luckily, it doesn’t have to be. In fact, we’re going to walk you through everything you need to know about those weird “number signs” in plain English, as well as go over a real estate hashtag strategy that will help you 10x your followers on Instagram, Twitter, and beyond.
So turn your hat backwards, grab your favorite fidget spinner, and let’s get started at the beginning.
What Are Real Estate Hashtags Anyway?
Real estate hashtags are words or phrases preceded by a # sign, which popular social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest use to categorize posts into separate topics. Other users can then click on those hashtags to see all posts in that topic.
107 Top Real Estate Hashtags for Twitter, Instagram & Pinterest: 2022
OK, now that you know the absolute basics, let’s take a look at what you really came here for—the real estate hashtags!
While you may be tempted to just copy and paste our list and go right back to scrolling through the MLS, that would be a mistake. After all, great hashtags can be incredibly useful for getting your social media marketing off the ground, but learning how to use them is just as important as the hashtags themselves.
Yes, really.
So copy and paste if you must, but remember to come back to learn some powerful hashtag strategies to 10x your followers on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.
OK, that was my only lecture. Promise.
Here are the top real estate hashtags for 2022:
General Real Estate Hashtags
- #realty
- #realestate
- #homes
- #realtorlife
- #brokerage
- #realestate
- #listing
- #greatvalue
- #instarealestate
- #instalisting
- #Realtors
- #NAR
- #luxuryrealestate
- #mansion
- #HUDhome
- #foreclosure
- #househunting
- #makememove
- #luxuryliving
- #homegoals
- #housegoals
- #investmentproperty
- #emptynest
- #broker
- #realestateagent
- #locationlocationlocation
- #FSBO
- #ICNY
Listing Hashtags for Real Estate
- #houseforsale
- #homesforsale
- #virtualtour
- #luxurylistings
- #justsold
- #openhouse
- #offmarketlistings
- #pocketlisting
- #newlisting
- #homeforsale
- #renovated
- #marblecounters
- #eatinkitchen
- #motherinlawsuite
- #petfriendly
- #dogfriendly
- #catfriendly
- #condo
- #coop
- #twofamily
- #midcenturymodern
- #colonial
- #Victorian
- #bungalow
- #shotgunshack
- #starterhome
- #cashcow
- #caprate
- #dreamhome
- #fixandflip
- #turnkeyinvestment
- #curbappeal
- #justsold
- #selling
- #townhouse
- #brownstone
- #frontporch
- #parking
- #pool
Neighborhood Hashtags
- #walkableneighborhood
- #walkscore
- #HOA
- #treelinedstreets
- #downtown
- #uptown
- #yourneighborhood + style of home
- #yourneighborhood + real estate
- #yourneighborhood + home for sale
- #yourneighborhood + realty
- #yourneighborhood + life
- #yourneighborhood + living
- #closest big city + real estate
- #closest big city + home for sale
- #closest big city + realty
- #closest big city + life
- #closest big city + living
- #prettyarea
- #closetothebeach
- #greattransportation
Branding Hashtags for Real Estate
- #yourbrokerage
- #realestateexperts
- #referrals
- #yourpersonalbrand
- #reducedfee
- #discountbroker
- #your farm area + expert
- #your farm area + brokerage
- #your farm area + personal branding
Fun Real Estate Hashtags
- #wontlast!
- #callnow!
- #bringthedog
- #poochfriendly
- #freecookies
- #freewine
- #motivationmonday
- #thursdaythoughts
- #justRealtorthings
- #riseandgrind
- #condogoals
How to Use Hashtags on Social Media
OK, so far we’ve covered the basics for anyone new to social media and given you a ton of top real estate hashtags. Now, let’s go over some crucial best practices so you can actually use these hashtags to close more deals in 2022.
Don’t Use Too Many Hashtags
Since hashtags are such a great way to reach your audience and expand your social media reach, you may be tempted to cram your posts full of them. Don’t.
In 2022, social media sites are smart enough to tell when someone is using hashtags to improve their post, and when people are simply spamming the site. You might not get your post flagged or removed for having too many hashtags, but at a certain point they will simply ignore them.
While that should be reason enough to use hashtags sparingly, remember that your audience can see your hashtags as well. How do you think they’ll judge your post if it has a billion not very related hashtags? If you guessed like the spam you just turned it into, give yourself a pat on the back.
Understand That Hashtags Alone Won’t Make You Go Viral
I hate to say it, since you are likely just here for the hashtags, but the truth of the matter is that in 2022, hashtags alone will not make you go viral on social media. Sure, they might help, but what they will help with and by how much is an open question.
Some social media experts are openly negative about the value of using hashtags and say they do not help at all. A recent study from Mention found that engagement actually went down, and by a lot, the more hashtags were used in a post.
What’s the Ideal Number of Hashtags to Use on Instagram?
Before we decided to write this article, we knew this would be the first, second, and probably 75th question.
How many hashtags should real estate agents use on Instagram?
This is just one of those questions that will get you 10 answers if you ask five people.
Luckily, the answer is not as complicated (or as important) as you might think.
Instagram allows up to 30(!!) hashtags per post. Should you cram 30 hashtags into every single picture of your foster kitten you add to Instagram?
Well, no. In fact, please don’t do that. While you might not get penalized by Instagram (the jury is still out on whether or not they do this), it will make you look more than a little desperate to your audience.
Analysis by marketing insights company TrackMaven found that posts with nine hashtags got the most engagement on social media in general.
However, the Mention study we linked to above shows a STEEP decline in engagement with more hashtags used. Their data shows that posts with zero hashtags actually get the most engagement.
So what’s going on here? Well, if you look at the most popular posts and users on Instagram, you’ll notice that they are almost all celebrities with hundreds of thousands of followers. As you might imagine, they don’t need hashtags to get people to look at their posts.
So you don’t need to include exactly nine hashtags to get eyeballs on your posts. Also, since you’re probably not a celebrity, using zero hashtags is probably not the greatest idea either. Instead, just use as many as you think are actually relevant to your post.
If you’re trying to promote a listing or an open house, you might want to push your luck a bit and use a bit more, but just remember not to overdo it.
Remember to Use Hashtags That Target Your Farm Area
If you remember anything from this article or any of our articles on real estate marketing, let it be this: If you’re not targeting a local audience, you may as well not even bother. Think about it. You’re a hyper-local real estate expert, right? Your goal is very simple: to sell more houses.
The only way your social media posts will help you sell more houses is if they get in front of people who live in or want to live in your farm area. Period. Your Instagram could have 50,000 followers, but if none of them live in or want to live in your farm area, you may as well have zero.
How Local Is Too Local?
Just how local you go with your hashtags depends entirely on your farm area. For example, people who work in Manhattan can use hashtags down to the street level. For them, using hashtags like #parkavenue or #centralpark is a no-brainer.
If you’re in a more suburban or rural area, then chances are you’re not going to get as much traction out of using a hashtag like #highway101. Instead, focus on the larger area, or try to find small neighborhoods that locals will know and respond to.
Use Local Hashtags Sparingly
The goal of using local hashtags is to get your posts in front of people who live in, or are interested in, your farm area. Since you want a large audience, you might be tempted to stuff as many local keywords as possible into your posts. Don’t.
Trust me, trying to cram too many local hashtags into your posts won’t help you get seen by more people. Social media sites are smart enough to spot spam tactics like this.
One to three local hashtags should get the job done.
Remember to Have Some Fun With Hashtags, Especially on Twitter
One of the biggest mistakes we see real estate agents who are new to social media make is that they use hashtags like they’re filing a book in the library. While you do need to make sure your hashtags are helping categorize your post, remember that your audience can SEE them. You don’t want to come across as a bore, do you?
So remember to have some fun with hashtags. You might try sprinkling in some hashtags just to describe your mood (#happy) or to congratulate a coworker or friend on a promotion with #crushingit.
Holidays, the Super Bowl, and fleeting trends are also a great excuse to not just file your posts, but to show off your personality as well.
Use Hashtags to Highlight Your Listing’s Best Features
Another great way to use hashtags is to show off cool features of your listing, or maybe a bunch of listings you just love (with permission, of course).
For example, you might want to include hashtags like #fireplace or #countrylife for a secluded listing in the country, or maybe something like #duplex or #industrialchic for a new development of loft space downtown.
While these might not get you a ton of local traffic, they might help you get in front of followers who have similar interests in architecture, interior design, or DIY.
Find Popular Hashtags Your Audience & Competition Use
Since social media sites are, well, social, using popular hashtags that your audience or competition uses can get more (local) eyeballs on your content.
More eyeballs = more money.
So, how exactly do you figure out which keywords your audience and competition are using on Instagram? Simple. You spy on them.
Find Popular & Local Real Estate Hashtags on Instagram
I know you were expecting something a bit more high tech, but at the end of the day, the best and maybe only way to curate a local audience on social media is to figure out what they have in common.
Once you have a nice big list of keywords locals are using, you can then head over to Instagram’s search area and plug in some keywords. Once you do, Instagram will give you hashtags that use or are related to those keywords.
Find Popular & Local Real Estate Hashtags on Twitter
Luckily, Twitter makes the process of finding popular local hashtags easier. To the left of your Twitter feed, there is an ever-changing column called “# Explore.” This will show different popular and trending topics that are tailored to the content you post and the people you follow.
Since you post a ton of real estate content, follow real estate-related Twitter feeds, and have a ton of local followers … well, that little sidebar is your new best friend.
There are also a growing number of websites that claim to offer secret hashtags and get you a million followers in a week. For the most part, these sites are just pulling hashtags from Twitter trending topics. Not really worth the time or effort unless you want to pay money for hardcore analytics software.
Save Commonly Used Hashtags So You Can Copy/Paste Into Your Posts
Since data entry is probably not high on your list of priorities for the week, save yourself some time and wrist pain by copying hashtags you think you’re going to use a lot.
Even better, build up groups of hashtags that you can use over and over again on similar posts. Why reinvent the wheel every time you post about an open house or a new listing?
Hashtag Strategies for Real Estate Agents on Instagram, Twitter & Pinterest
For the most part, using real estate hashtags doesn’t vary that much among social media sites. You find popular hashtags, add them to your posts, and get found.
That said, there are a few quirks with the way each platform handles hashtags that are worth knowing. Here are a few ways each platform handles hashtags differently.
Unlike Twitter, Instagram allows users to follow hashtags that they like. While this might not seem very significant, it can actually help you build a regular audience for your content.
Let’s say you regularly use a hashtag about a local micro-neighborhood, or even a local street that is well-known. Users may stumble across these hashtags and then voila, your content will now show up in their feed. The best part is that since very few people should be using local hashtags, you won’t have much competition.
You can also add hashtags to your Instagram bio. Local and popular real estate hashtags work best here of course, but you might also consider creating your own unique hashtag for your personal brand.
#KellySampsonRealtor might just pull up your posts today, but if you encourage your followers to use it, it might pull up people singing your praise in the future.
Unlike Instagram, Twitter does not allow users to follow hashtags they want to see more of in their feeds. If you want to follow hashtags on Twitter, you need to use an app like TweetDeck.
Other than that, the only real difference between using hashtags on Twitter and Instagram is that hashtags count in your word count on Twitter. This is fine if you’re just tweeting out a picture, but can be a pain if you have a lot you want to say.
Pinterest, on the other hand, is a different animal entirely. Instead of focusing on social interaction and engagement, Pinterest works more like a visual search engine. Think of it as Google image search that you can curate.
While you have 500 characters to use in your pin description, hashtags count toward that total, so don’t overdo it. Four or five should be enough. Also, the first four hashtags show up beneath your pin in a search, so make sure they’re not spammy sounding!
You can find popular or local hashtags on Pinterest by searching #yoursearchterm in the Pinterest search bar. Generally speaking, you should target hashtags that are relevant to your pin, have a good amount of searches, and ideally are local.
Real Estate Hashtag Advice for Pinterest From Lily Stern
If you want to start using Pinterest to promote your business, then you could do worse than talking to Lily Stern, our amazing Digital Marketing Manager. After all, she’s the one that grew our Pinterest account to get more than 3 MILLION monthly views.
Here’s Lily on how to use hashtags on Pinterest:
“On Pinterest, you can use the search bar to see what topics are trending. Click the bar, and the trending ideas will appear. Find a trend that is relevant to your product/blog/topic and click on it. Once you do, a series of suggested searches will appear in boxes under the search bar. Use those suggestions as your hashtags (along with a hashtag for the trend you clicked on) to directly appeal to the people searching for things most relevant to your content.
Pinterest often sorts its content by date, so if you post something with a trending hashtag, a lot of people will see your new content! It’s a good way to instantly get in front of a new, larger audience that might not yet know about you or your content.”
If there’s one place that real estate agents should post but don’t, LinkedIn would be it. After all, unlike other social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, there are way fewer shiny things to distract your leads from your content.
Amazingly, you can (and should) also use hashtags on LinkedIn to try to narrow your target and show up in the right feeds. Keep in mind that your audience may be smaller, and not everyone is going to check LinkedIn multiple times per day like they might check Instagram, but the fact that LinkedIn is for professional development helps maintain a serious business like tone for your content.
Some basic hashtag tips for LinkedIn include not using punctuation marks, including hashtags in your copy, keeping your hashtags short, and not including too many.
Over to You
Have you found a great real estate hashtag that you want to share? Looking for more help using them? Let us know in the comments!
Tell us about you so we know what to send.
