Crowd-Sourced Flipping: The House That Social Media Built

[Tom Majewski]

Thought some of you may find this interesting... 

A realtor and a contractor in Connecticut have teamed up to flip homes, and are finishing the houses based on crowd-sourced decisions. They present their social media followers with a series of curated options for a specific area of each house, and their channels vote to decide on a lot of the finishes of the home - paint colors, carpets, door knobs, light/lamps, kitchen layout, etc, etc.

The social media houses aren't especially lucrative, as they only do about 2 per year. They both have "regular" jobs in addition to this -- she sells houses, he fixes them. However, this experiment in crowd-sourcing has resulted in a sort of local semi-celebrity status, with numerous mentions in area magazines, blogs, and whatnot. Which, of course, then drives a lot of business to their regular gigs by way of earned media.

It's also been a super successful way to promote the flipped homes to potential buyers. I believe every house has had a contract on it before construction was finished, and the house was ever officially 'up for sale.'

Check them out here:

• http://thehousethatsocialmediabuilt.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/thehousethatsocialmediabuilt/
• https://www.instagram.com/housethatsocialmediabuilt/