From Foot Locker to 100+ closed deals per year (*in less than five years)
In 2019, Chris A. Williams had a problem. He had two jobs: selling shoes at Foot Locker and cleaning cars at Enterprise, but he wanted more out of life. He was 20 years old. He tried college, but like many young Americans today, he decided the math wasn’t working: too much debt and too few opportunities. He considered the military, but was quietly rejected due to a heart murmur. He felt trapped.
One morning, as he was clearing out another rental car, he had an idea; “If I can sell shoes, I can sell real estate.” Two years later Chris had a new problem; he was getting so many leads from social media that he couldn’t handle them all alone.
We spoke with Chris to learn the exact strategies he used to convert Instagram likes into leads and leads a team of 15 people in Virginia Beach. He also shared his advice for new agents and his thoughts on whether social media is still worth it in 2025.
Chris A. Williams: By the numbers
- Farm area: Virginia Beach
- Deals closed in the first year: 2
- Deals closed in year two: 24
- Number of agents in his team: 15
- Number of followers on social media: 26,000
- Favorite real estate software: kvCORE
- Favorite script: LPMAMA
Embrace the itch
Do you think you’ll become an Instagram sensation overnight? Think again. Creating light, fun content that resonates with your audience isn’t easy. Like almost all content creators, Chris had a hard time at first:
“It’s funny. When I look at the videos that I’ve put out now in 2020, I have to laugh because I’m like, this was bullshit. But at that moment I didn’t know any better. I went into a house and captured every detail of the house and posted it to my story.”
The trick to breaking through on social media is to embrace the cringe. If you’re not okay with looking uncomfortable at first, you’ll never make it. Just keep creating, and eventually you will find your feet and produce great content. Of course it takes time, but the only way out is through it.
You can also learn from Chris’s early video mistakes. Below, he shares his simple yet smart posting strategies for agents.
Find your ideal customer and create content just for them
Even if you manage to become a viral sensation overnight, converting those likes into leads is the real battle. A video with a million views won’t help your bottom line if it doesn’t generate leads. Chris’ advice? Develop an avatar of your ideal customer and create content just for them.
“For example, if you want military buyers, you want VA home loan buyers, and create your content specifically for them. Talk about VA loans and their many benefits, get people in uniform in the background, things like that, so you can really engage that audience – instead of trying to cast a super wide net because you’re not going to catch everyone with a super-wide net.”
Chris’s best video strategy: diamonds in the rough
After two years of struggle, Chris finally arrived at a video strategy that boosted his content and got his phone ringing. Instead of listing mansions that almost no one can afford, Chris started posting beautiful homes with prices that seemed too good to be true. They all had a catch: they were located in less than desirable neighborhoods or had other problems.
But the “diamond in the rough” houses he toured in his videos piqued his audience’s curiosity and caused them to ask themselves a simple question that so much good marketing depends on: What if…?
“So one little trick I did was I took something controversial about a house and put it in the post. In our area we have cities that are not that attractive, you know, that have a bad reputation, and people say, oh, I would never live in this city. So I purposely go on my MLS, I’m going to look for the nicest houses in that city, I’m going to record it and post it, and I’m like, “Hey, is this the nicest house in _________?” Would you like to live here?”
His videos also generated controversy, with the vast majority of comments on his videos being negative. But to the Instagram algorithm, engagement is engagement. The more likes and comments your videos collect, the more people will see them.
Don’t have time to write scripts for social media videos? Koffie & Contracten makes it easy. They have hundreds of viral video scripts and templates with irresistible hooks that increase engagement. It’s like hiring a great social media manager for less than most agents spend on coffee every morning.
Keep them guessing: never answer questions in the comments
Because these videos purposefully pique curiosity (also called a curiosity gap in marketing), people will start asking questions in the comments. What is the address? What is the neighborhood like? Why is this house so damn cheap?! Chris told us that answering these questions in the comments can degrade your video’s performance on social media and reduce your chances of getting leads. Here’s Chris on why this is a mistake:
“If I answer that question for one person in the comments, the next 1,000 people who watch the video will also get the answer, so they have no reason to contact me. But if I tell them to DM me for the information, anyone who has the same question knows to contact me to get the answer.
Stay the course
Like most content creators, Chris found success gradually and then suddenly. He got zero leads and few likes during the first two years of creating content. While playing Call of Duty one afternoon, he received a DM from a lead. Then another. And one more. By the end of the day he had four new leads, all from social media.
If you want to get leads on Instagram or other platforms, stay the course. Post consistently and trust that your efforts will one day yield results. You might be lucky and get leads right away, but this is rare. Just keep posting and you will eventually get leads. This is why. The vast majority of agents will give up. We see this all the time. An agent reads our social media marketing article and starts posting, but gives up a few months later.
“If you’re consistent, you can outlast everyone, and that’s the position you want to be in.”
Chris’s advice for new agents: go all in or go home
When we asked Chris if he thought part-time officers would make it, he didn’t mince words. He told us that even though he wasn’t making any money, he was still the first agent in the office and the last to leave. He put in more than 60 hours every week and kept posting on social media even though he didn’t see any results for the next two years.
Yes, but with caveats. Chris thinks that lead generation opportunities on social media are not what they used to be. There are many more agents looking for fewer leads, and most of them use the same strategies he does.
His advice for new agents (or, let’s be honest, older agents) considering social media as a marketing strategy? Be creative and stay consistent. It can be harder to stand out when so many agents are using the same strategies, but remember that almost all of them will drop out. Your mission is to survive them.
He also warned that officers should not rely solely on social media. Instead, your marketing strategy should be part of a healthy mix of approaches, including cold calling, print marketing and online advertising. Virginia Beach Realtors should take this advice with a grain of salt. It’s possible that Chris wants to keep all the social media leads to himself. 😉
Your turn
Do you know an agent who is doing well despite all odds and has actionable insights to share? We look forward to hearing from you. Contact us here: [email protected].
