Join field visionaries Pete Flint, Spencer Rascoff, Ryan Serhant and a lot more at Inman Connect New York, Jan. 24-26. Punch your ticket to the upcoming by signing up for the smartest men and women in real estate at this ought to-show up at event. Sign-up listed here.

When Kelli Griggs, an agent with Navigate Realty in northern California, first shown 7652 Kona Court in the town of Placerville in February, she knew the residence experienced a exclusive touch to it. But she in no way predicted the amount of notice her listing would get. 

Dubbed simply just “The Room” the 4,400-sq.-foot household contains a cavernous, all-white room with floor-to-ceiling shelving resembling a business warehouse, which the property’s owner, an more mature lady who passed absent, used as storage for her collection of hundreds of textbooks, DVD’s, and VHS tapes. The assortment filled the shelves to the best and took nine months to remove, Griggs told SFGate. 

Following the listing was shared on Zillow Gone Wild — the preferred social media site that curates zany genuine estate listings for an audience of almost 2 million — thousands of social media buyers fixated on the room, and the listing acquired protection in news outlets from as significantly absent as Australia.

Social media consumers ended up awed by the sheer measurement of the storage location.

“‘The Room’ is even larger than my house,” one consumer wrote on Twitter.

“The Room” at 7652 Kona Court docket. Image: Zillow

Griggs located herself fielding a barrage of job interview requests from reporters in search of to address the dwelling, and claims she ended up having a bit much too cavalier when speaking about the home’s tremendous storage component — to the point that her consumer was offended. 

Having been as a result of the viral listing wringer, Griggs now cautions agents tasked with promoting similarly eccentric households from becoming way too offhanded when describing clients’ homes, in particular when factors of it had been customized built by the vendor, or arrived from the heart. 

Unconventional listings have grow to be a well-known car for viral written content in modern several years, with properties these types of as a duplex in Tahoe loaded with  elaborately dressed mannequins, an amusingly rounded South Carolina household, and a pyramid-shaped home in North Carolina all attracting focus online.

“Choose each and every phrase you say incredibly diligently,” she explained to Inman in an job interview. “It was crafted for just one individual, so when you have an anomaly or anything strange or distinct and anyone places a large amount of target or electricity on that, it can be a very little bit offensive for the seller.” 

Though 7652 Kona Court docket stays on the market right after virtually 7 months — due in component to it becoming positioned in the evacuation zone of the Mosquito Fire — Griggs claimed she’s happy she spared no price in advertising proper out the gate, which includes paying out for a professional listing photographer and taking the time to create out a thorough and initial listing description that mentions “The Room” but does not make it the major focus. 

“Having fantastic media that can go viral that persons can use suitable out of the gate is important,” she claimed. “If you have bought an abnormal residence just commit the dollars upfront and do your most effective work.”

Agents like Griggs who have stated unconventional residences that went viral shared with Inman their recommendations for advertising and marketing properties with nontraditional features just after going through firsthand what comes about when a distinctive listing collides with the online.

A dwelling with a cave

For Lori Largen, an agent with JB Goodwin Realtors in San Antonio, Texas, exploiting a home’s quirk as the key offering point has been an successful strategy. When Largen was tasked with advertising and marketing 24811 Creek Loop in San Antonio — a property on a 2.56-acre whole lot that happened to arrive with private access to a subterranean pure bridge cavern — Largen noticed an opportunity to entice focus to her listing. 

“Do you like Organic Bridge Caverns?” her listing description starts. “If so, get a look at this 1-of-a-form, park-like residence. This ought to-see assets features a cavern of its own.”

The listing picked up awareness on social media and drew national push, with Largen currently being interviewed by stores such as Newsweek and the New York Article. Just after remaining listed for sale in early July for $950,000 the dwelling was bought in mid August for $877,000. 

The cavern beneath 24811 Creek Loop. Picture: San Antonio Board of Realtors

The listing bought so a great deal interest that Largen a short while ago located herself speaking to a stranger on a prepare in coastal Ireland who experienced observed protection of the dwelling, and introduced it up when Largen stated she lived in Texas without having being aware of she was the agent who had stated it. 

Although Largen place the property’s subterranean characteristic entrance and middle, she compensated equivalent attention to the property’s other natural capabilities, like its 2.56 acres of land together with extra than 110 Oak, Magnolia, and Mountain Laurel trees, primarily given that the household alone was in superior problem but in require of updating. 

“Compared to some of the houses in the surrounding community it wasn’t the nicest a single,” she explained. “But it was the nicest home — and it had its own cave.”

Nowhere to go but up

When extolling the alternatives of a residence, nevertheless, it is important to ensure those options are in arrive at, as Griggs uncovered when she advertised the car or truck storage prospects of “The Room” — a use that was not in point possible she afterwards figured out. 

“Be careful of marketing what could be,” she explained.

Even though some homes all but require some creativity, such as the fully subterranean property in Deer Creek, Illinois, that Keller Williams agent Angie Powers offered in May perhaps that went viral soon after it far too was shared on a variety of social media web pages which includes Zillow Gone Wild. 

The basement residence at 213 N Mason Road. Graphic: Zillow

“I promoted it with a bunch of diverse concepts on how you could use it,” she said. “It currently was getting used as an investment residence but you could make on top rated of it due to the fact it was a basement property, so I just threw out a bunch of various ideas people could do to it.”

Email Ben Verde