These Instagram Bio Mistakes Are Preventing You From Getting Leads

The Broke Agents shares the biggest mistakes real estate agents make in their Instagram bios—and how to fix them to get more leads.
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BAM BBQ 2026

If you're still treating AI like a search engine, this is for you. BAM BBQ is two and a half hours of real instruction on AI for real estate, from conversations to content to systems. It’s free, virtual, and loaded with plays you can run the same week. Save your spot →

Every two weeks in our BAMx community we host something called BAMx Office Hours. During these sessions, Bobby Kawecki, head of video at BAM, and I get on Zoom with members and audit their Instagram accounts and YouTube channels. The most common mistake I see from agents starts before we even get to the Instagram feed: their bio is not optimized for search and is preventing them from getting leads.

Optimize Your Instagram Bio

In your Instagram bio, there are two things that are searchable: 

  1. Your Handle (aka your username) 
  2. Your Name (aka your display name) 

In one—if not both—of these, you should have some sort of combination of the following: 

  • Your name
  • Occupation (real estate agent)
  • Market

So many agents just have their name and then put their market or occupation in the lines below, and that is an ENORMOUS MISTAKE. Take Dan Oneil’s bio for example:

Dan-Oneil-IG-profile
Dan has some of the best content in the game, but his profile is not fully optimized to convert. His handle is his name and his display name is also just his name. Next to where it says Dan Oneil in bold, it should say, Dan Oneil | Long Island NY Real Estate, or some combination of name, real estate/realtor, and location. 

Right now, if you searched for a Long Island Realtor, Dan would not pop up on Instagram. 

Funny enough, his team member, Amanda Palmeri, has it perfect and is the first person who appears when you search “Long Island Realtor.”

Amanda-Palmieri-IG-bio
This matters because more and more people use Instagram as a search engine, and they might be looking for houses or agents on the platform. If you want to appear at the top of that search, you have to add your location and occupation in your handle or display name. Keep in mind the display name is way easier to change and more aesthetically pleasing.

Call to Action

Another problem I noticed with Dan’s profile is that his bio does not have a call-to-action or link. If someone were to come across it, he should have something there to capture leads or easily contact him. 

Look at this profile from Alyssa Mcintyre:

Alyssa-McIntyre-IG-bio
She’s got her name, occupation, and location all searchable. She also has a clean bio description, separated by emojis that show her personality and give a feel for what sort of content you’re going to get. Most importantly, she has a strong CTA: “Let’s Work Together,” with an arrow pointed down that takes you to her LinkTree. And from there, you can download her guides, join her newsletter, book an appointment with her, leave a review, etc.
Alyssa-McIntyre-LinkTree

Your Instagram bio should include these five things:

  1. Searchable handle and/or display name
  2. CTA with a link where people can book an appointment, join your email list, and learn more about you and your listings
  3. Show personality. What differentiates you from the other agents? What are your hobbies? What do you like to do? Establish immediate rapport.
  4. Clearly define what you do. What type of agent are you? Who do you work with? Do you have any accolades, such as experience, families served, transactions closed, etc.?
  5. What sort of content can viewers expect?

Take Marie Lee’s profile, for example:

Marie-Lee-IG-bio
It’s perfection. This profile is searchable and optimized to convert. 

If you want more tips on how to further optimize your profile, definitely tune in to this week’s Walk Thru Podcast.

If you want to participate in our Office Hours and dive deeper into our social media courses and customizable templates, become a member of BAMx

Here is an example of what we do: 

https://nowbam.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/OFFICE-HOURS-CLIP-1.mov
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About the Author

Eric Simon is the founder of The Broke Agent and co-founding Chief of Content of BAM. You can watch him weekly as a co-host of Over Ask Podcast and The Walk Thru. Eric also speaks at industry events across the nation and can hit his pitching wedge 190 yards.

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