TL;DR: A real estate social media manager can be an agency, a freelancer, an employee, you, or software. This guide compares them for real estate agents on local relevance, listing posts, approvals, scale and cost, and says who each one fits best. Xara’s Social Media Manager is one of the software options. It keeps posting when there’s no new listing, and its limits are listed next to its strengths.
Social media is part of how clients find and judge a real estate business. In NAR’s 2025 REALTORS® Technology Survey, 75% of respondents used social media in their business, and 39% said it produced their highest number of quality leads. Keeping a social media presence going takes real time, which is why the question of who manages it comes up.
What a real estate social media manager does
A social media manager handles the social side of your digital marketing: content planning, captions, visuals, scheduling, comments, results, tracking mentions through social listening, and sometimes paid ads.
For real estate professionals, three requirements sit on top. The social media content needs local expertise, it needs to follow listing activity, and it needs to stay within Fair Housing rules and your brokerage’s brand standards. A post about a home that has gone under contract confuses people, and a statistic without a date misleads them. Any option below should cover all three.
Titles you’ll see, from specialist to content creator
The role goes by many names: social media specialist, social media coordinator, social media community manager, content creator, content writer, digital strategist.
How the options compare for real estate marketing
Providers cover different pieces of the job, so start with the parts you need help with. The table compares the options on the points that matter most in real estate.
| Agency | Freelancer | DIY | Software and automation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where ideas come from | Their team’s research, plus your input | One person’s research, plus your input | Your own conversations and local knowledge | Templates, data and rules, such as listing feeds |
| Local relevance | Depends on the briefing and their real estate experience | Depends on the person and how well they know your area | Highest, since it’s your knowledge | Depends on the data the tool uses |
| Control and approvals | An agreed process, usually with a review step | Direct, with one person | Total | Varies: approval queues, auto-post or both |
| Posting and scheduling | Done for you | Done for you, or handed back | You, or a free scheduler | Automatic |
| Listings and status changes | Usually requested one by one | Requested one by one | Manual | Automatic only if the tool connects to your MLS |
| Between listings | Planned into the monthly calendar | Planned if you brief them on it | Whenever you find the time | Automatic, if the tool creates local content between listings |
| Scale across a brokerage | Possible, priced by account or package | Hard beyond a few accounts | Not realistic | Built for it when the tool has brand controls |
| Effort from you | Briefings and approvals | Briefings, feedback and follow-up | All of it | Setup, then review |
| Cost model | Monthly package or retainer | Hourly, per project or monthly | Your time | Subscription |
These are typical patterns, so confirm each point in writing before you sign.
Agency
What you get
A team that covers content strategy, writing, design and scheduling. The Social Broker publishes a custom strategy, weekly carousels, reels and stories, on-demand posts for announcements and testimonials, captions in your voice and monthly performance reviews, with packages from $997 a month plus setup fees. Other agencies add public relations, such as local press.
Where it falls short
You pay for the team’s capacity whether or not you have news that month, and listing posts usually mean sending each request over. Quality depends on how well they learn your area, so expect a briefing phase.
Best for
Realtors and teams who want a done-for-you service and have a monthly budget for it. Ask: what does the monthly fee include, and what happens when I need an urgent listing update or an extra video?
Freelancer
What you get
Direct contact with one person who writes your content, often on flexible terms: hourly, per project or a monthly retainer.
Where it falls short
Capacity and skill rest on one person, so illness or a full client list affects your calendar. Real estate experience varies widely, and each listing post needs a handoff.
Best for
One real estate agent or a small team with a clear brief and time for regular feedback. Ask: can you show real estate content you’ve created, and how would you keep my posts specific to my area?
DIY
What you get
Full control and the best local knowledge, since the client questions, area knowledge and photos are yours. A free scheduler such as Meta Business Suite schedules social media posts on Facebook and Instagram.
Where it falls short
It costs time, and weeks full of showings and closings are the first to lose posts. Research, writing, design, scheduling and replies all land on you.
Best for
Anyone who enjoys creating content and can protect a regular slot each week. Our 30-day calendar and what to post guide give you a structure to start from.
Social media marketing software and automation
What you get
Scheduling, drafting and posting of social content handled by a tool, in three kinds:
- Schedulers publish what you give them, so you still supply the ideas, captions and images.
- Writing and design tools, including AI generators, draft posts from your prompts. A generic prompt returns a generic post, and you verify every fact.
- Real estate automation connects to your MLS and creates posts when a property changes status, and some tools also create posts between listings.
Where it falls short
The personal side stays with you in every kind. Check which social media platforms a tool supports and whether a person approves posts before they go out.
Best for
Anyone who wants steady posting in the weeks with no new listing, and brokerages that want one brand across every agent. Xara’s Social Media Manager is built for this: it keeps posting local market, neighborhood and buyer and seller content between listings.
An in-house social media specialist for your business
A real estate brokerage can employ a social media specialist, coordinator or community manager. They know the company, run your social channels and can shoot content at events. They usually report to the broker or a real estate manager. One person covering a whole brokerage hits a capacity limit, and salary, benefits and tools make it the least flexible cost. The role works best alongside software that handles the repeatable posts.
Signs it’s time to get help
- You spend hours on social media with little to show for it.
- Listing posts go out late, or not at all.
- You want video, more platforms or paid ads and lack the time or skills.
- Several agents want content and nobody owns it.
How to hire a social media manager for real estate
Whether you choose a team, a freelancer or an employee, ask these before you commit:
- Ideas. Will they research your local market and use your actual listings and client questions? Ask for case studies and references.
- Listings. When a home goes under contract, who notices, who creates the post and how fast does it go out?
- Accuracy and compliance. Who checks property details, statistics, Fair Housing language and brokerage branding?
- Approvals. Do you see posts before they publish, and how quickly can you change one?
- Ownership. Who owns the accounts, logins and content if you part ways? Use business permissions for access and keep passwords private.
- Comments and messages. Posting and replying are different jobs, so confirm who replies to potential clients.
- Leads and reporting. What do they report on leads and inquiries each month, and what do they do with it?
Where Xara’s Social Media Manager fits for agents and brokerages
Xara belongs to the third kind of software: connected to your listings, and built to keep posting when nothing new has hit the MLS.
What it does
It builds a profile of each agent’s business from their website, online profiles and a few questions, plans a social media calendar, writes captions for Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn separately, creates the visuals, turns listing photos into property videos and schedules the posts.
Xara already creates and posts content when a home’s status changes, and Social Media Manager covers the weeks in between with local market content, neighborhood information, and buyer and seller education.
At Collier & Associates, a brokerage with more than 250 agents, Xara produces roughly 650 pieces of marketing a week, and 31% of campaigns are posted to social media automatically, according to its customer story. Those figures cover the brokerage’s listing marketing as a whole.
What you control: approvals and company brand
You decide whether each post waits for your approval or goes out automatically. Agents and admins can review the queue and edit or remove any post.
The brokerage sets brand rules once, and every post carries the brokerage brand, so your real estate brand stays consistent while agents personalize within those guardrails.
A performance dashboard shows reach, engagement and which topics do best.
What stays with you: content creation, community and direction
It makes property videos from listing photos, but it doesn’t film you or a neighborhood, attend showings, run paid ads or answer your comments and messages, and it posts to Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn only.
If you want someone to film and answer comments, a team or an in-house specialist fits better. Your direction and your voice stay yours. Xara doesn’t track which post led to which inquiry, so judge results with the methods in our social media hub.
How to choose
- Choose DIY if you enjoy it, your market is a niche only you know, and you can protect the time.
- Choose a freelancer for hands-on content help on one account.
- Choose a full-service team if you want strategy, content and posting handled on a monthly budget.
- Choose software when you want steady posting in the weeks with no new listing, or when a brokerage wants brand control across every agent.
- Combine them. Software handles the repeatable posts, and you keep the personal ones.
Whichever you choose, set the social media strategy first. Our social media hub covers the basics.
Social media manager FAQs
What is the best social media platform for real estate?
Facebook and Instagram are the strongest starting pair, with LinkedIn added when referrals matter. The social media hub explains how to choose.
Can a real estate social media manager generate leads?
Social media can contribute to lead generation over time through inquiries and referrals, but no provider can promise to drive leads from a post. Ask how they measure results, and compare them with what your new clients say about how they found you.
What’s the difference between a scheduler and a social media manager?
A scheduler publishes content you provide. A social media manager, whether a person or a system, also plans topics, creates captions and visuals, and handles listing updates.
How much does a social media manager for real estate cost?
It depends on what’s included: freelancers charge hourly, per project or by retainer, agencies usually charge a monthly package, employees cost salary and benefits, and software is a subscription. Ask whether urgent posts cost extra and whether the fee covers research, writing and design or only publishing.
What is the 5-5-5 rule for social media?
There’s no single official version. One popular real estate version asks for five posts, five comments and five story replies a day, which is a coach’s minimum with no research behind it.
What is the 3-3-3 rule in real estate?
One widely reported version, covered by RISMedia and Florida Realtors, asks agents to call three people, send three handwritten notes and share three useful resources each month.
How much does a realtor make off a $300,000 house?
It depends on the agreed commission and the split with the brokerage. Redfin put the average buyer’s agent commission at about 2.4% in 2025, which on $300,000 is roughly $7,200 for that side before the brokerage’s share.
Build a social media presence your market recognizes
Your online presence as a real estate professional is the sum of every post, reply and piece of content, so keep the personal parts with you and move the repeatable work to whoever or whatever fits.
See how Xara would handle the repeatable work for your team and listings.
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