Selling a House to Millennials? Bring a Camera, and Fake Eyelashes

DAWN ELIZABETH STUDIOS

Just as he was about to close a sale, Colorado real-estate broker Marvin Martinez found himself coping with a crisis. A beauty crisis.

His client, in her 20s, knew the broker would post a photo on the “Colorado First Time Home Buyer” Facebook page, which now has 85,000 followers.

The problem: She needed fake eyelashes. And not just any fake eyelashes; a specific set she had at home.

Mr. Martinez offered to make a trip to Walgreens but was rebuffed. The client went home, changed her outfit, got her own fake lashes and about an hour later, emerged for the shoot, soon after signing the papers.

“We just waited, that’s all,” Mr. Martinez, 54 years old, said. “What else could we do?”

As millennials buy homes in greater numbers, new wrinkles are emerging in an age-old process. Gone are the days of popping a champagne cork once the purchase and mortgage forms are signed. Today, more first-time buyers rush to share their newfound status as homeowners across social media.

That has led some to craft elaborate photo shoots in or outside a first home. These often feature props such as “First Home” signs or heart-shaped hand poses around new keys. Others are captured dancing in their bedrooms or giving piggyback rides through the front door.

Real-estate agents are taking note, and playing along. People 36 and younger, or the millennial generation, were the largest group of home buyers, at 34%, from July 2015 until June 2016, according to a National Association of Realtors report. And roughly two-thirds of those buyers were also rookies, according to the March report, the most recent generational data available.

Joey and Morgan Cabibbo in their new home.

DAWN ELIZABETH STUDIOS

Joey Cabibbo and his now-wife, Morgan, were so excited about their new home they posted a photo of themselves on Instagram sitting on their front lawn with the “SOLD” sign “before we even got the keys,” Ms. Cabibbo said.

A few days later—after garnering around 100 likes and more than a dozen comments—they did a photo shoot with photographer friend Dawn Richardson around their newly built home in Boerne, Texas. Pretty soon Mr. Cabibbo was flinging Ms. Cabibbo over his shoulders in their driveway. Then he gave her a piggyback ride in front of their wooden garage door and stone three-arch entry area.

In October, it was Ms. Richardson’s turn in front of the lens. When she and her husband bought their first home, she had one of the photographers she works with document the event.

Despite 95-degree Texas weather, Ms. Richardson donned a gray sweater and dark blue skinny jeans. Never mind the heat. “I wanted that cozy feel,” she said.

“AHH!! #Adulting,” she wrote on her blog when posting the pics.

Although they are intentionally sharing news of their purchase, some buyers are surprised by the attention they get.

Home buyer Nicole Salas, 28, her husband Jay, 27, and their younger son posed for pictures with a custom toolbox at the title-insurance company where their closing took place.

After their real-estate agent posted the photo in July, 550 people liked it. “I noticed a lot of people had commented, so I was like ‘Do these people know us?’” Ms. Salas said.

Blair Pomeroy and her husband, Matt, had a photo shoot in 2015 showcasing their new home in Florence, Ky.

One of her favorite photos came from an idea she spotted on Pinterest. Before the couple posed for pictures in their bedroom—pre-furniture—they tested a paint sample by drawing an outline of a house. She added “home sweet home” above the painting and three hearts coming out of the fake chimney. The couple later used the photo for their housewarming-party invitations.

Not all the attention is positive. Some of the pictures posted by HomeSmart Realty Group in Greenwood Village, Colo., have been labeled “fake news” by other Facebook users. Their beef: They can’t believe so many millennials are buying their first home.

“Its [a] scam people,” one person commented in late October. Another wrote on a first-time homebuyer’s post: “I don’t understand how something like this could be a home for a first-time buyer. This is something you would really have to work for. Unless you’re related to daddy mcbigbucks.”

Past clients have then commented that, yes, they did indeed buy their home and sometimes post additional photos as proof.

While the purchases may be real, what people post is sometimes an altered reality. About three years ago, photographer Jennie Simison did a first-home photo shoot in San Antonio.

The buyers wanted to get the raw look of their new home, so they just had camping chairs in the house. But the front of the house, which had yet to be landscaped, was too raw. So Ms. Simison photo-shopped grass onto the area where their lawn should have been, and onto their neighbor’s, too.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., Maria Hernandez’s husband, Domingo, wasn’t able to make the final walk-through of the home they were buying. No matter. Ms. Hernandez FaceTimed her husband as she walked through the house.

Later that day, she posed with a toolbox in front of the house—and her husband’s image on the phone next to her. The picture got 273 likes.

However people react to the pictures, real-estate agents have discovered they are good for business. Corey Maurice Gilmore, an associate broker at Capstone Realty in Huntsville, Ala., said social media has a “huge role” with first-time home buyers he works with.

“It’s kind of like a domino effect: I see a lot of people, a lot of circles of friends, buy houses around the same period of time…because they are seeing their friends make home purchases,” he said.

He’s also learned some new tricks of the trade. More than a year ago, Mr. Gilmore photographed a couple who bought a house in Madison, Ala. The wife quickly texted him: “I hate those pictures,” she wrote, begging him not to post them on Facebook.

Mr. Gilmore said he now takes at least 10 pictures of new home buyers, making sure they will have plenty to choose from.

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