How to Automatically Post Real Estate Content to Instagram Using AI

Staying consistent on Instagram is one of those things that sounds straightforward until you’re actually doing it. Coming up with something relevant to post every day, creating an image, writing a caption that doesn’t sound like AI wrote it — that’s 30 to 60 minutes of work per post if you’re doing it properly. Multiply that across a week and it starts to add up fast.

I was already consistent on YouTube. Instagram kept slipping because my attention was elsewhere. So I built an automation that handles it for me.

The system reads local real estate news, summarizes the article, writes a clean Instagram caption, generates a custom image, and posts to my account automatically — every day, on a schedule I set. No manual input required once it’s running.

Here’s exactly how it works.

The Tools in the Stack

Everything runs through Make.com, which is the automation platform that connects all the pieces. Make has a free tier that gives you enough monthly operations to run this workflow without paying anything. The other tools you’ll need:

rss.app — to create a custom RSS feed from any real estate news source
ChatGPT API — two API calls: one to summarize the article, one to write the Instagram caption
OpenAI image generation (DALL-E 3) — to create the post image
Instagram via Facebook — to post automatically

For API costs: you’ll need to deposit around $5 into OpenAI’s API platform. At the current rate, writing an article summary and caption costs a few cents. That $5 deposit covers well over a year of daily posts.

The full blueprint, including all the prompts, is available as a free download. You can drop it directly into Make.com and plug in your own API keys.

Step 1: Set Up Your RSS Feed

The RSS feed is what determines what news your automation reads. I use rss.app to create a custom feed. The process is simple: go to the site, search for your source (I searched “Austin Business Journal” and “Austin real estate”), and it generates a feed URL you can pull from.

That feed URL goes into Make.com as the trigger. Whenever there’s a new article on the feed, the automation runs and processes it into a post.

You can customize the source to whatever is relevant to your market. A local news site, a real estate trade publication, a neighborhood blog — anything with an RSS feed works.

Step 2: Summarize the Article

The first API call goes to ChatGPT using the cheaper GPT-4o mini model. I send it the article URL with a prompt: summarize this article in a way that’s useful for agents to share with clients.

The reason I do a separate summarization step before writing the caption is that it gives the caption-writing prompt better, more focused input. The summary strips out the fluff and keeps the key facts. The caption then has something concrete to work with.

The model setting that matters here is temperature. I use 0.7 — high enough to add some natural variation to the writing so it doesn’t sound identical every time, but not so high that the output becomes unpredictable.

Step 3: Write the Caption

The second API call uses a different model — GPT-4o, slightly more capable — and a prompt I’ve refined specifically to avoid sounding like AI.

The prompt explicitly tells ChatGPT: you are a social media ghostwriter for a real estate agent. Write in a natural, direct tone. Avoid cliche marketing buzzwords. Do not use phrases like “let’s dive into this” or “this revolutionary solution.” Just explain what’s happening and what it means.

I also include a specific call to action in the caption. Right now it’s a phone number and email. The next version will be “DM me [keyword] to get the [guide name]” — which is a proper Instagram automation trigger that delivers a lead magnet directly in the DMs.

The caption also includes the article link. On Facebook this creates a preview card with an image and headline, making the post take up more visual space in the feed. On Instagram it’s less relevant, but having the source link available keeps the content credible.

Step 4: Generate the Image

The image uses DALL-E 3 via the same OpenAI API. I’ll be honest — the image generation is the weakest part of this workflow. DALL-E’s output for real estate content looks generic. I’ve been experimenting with other image generation tools and will update this workflow once I find something better.

For now, the image serves its purpose: it gives the post visual content so it doesn’t go out as text-only. And it’s generated automatically without any input from me.

Step 5: Post to Instagram

The final step connects to Instagram through the Facebook Pages API. This requires that your Instagram account be connected to a Facebook Business Page — which is a standard requirement for any business account. If you’ve run Instagram ads before, you’re already set up this way.

The Make.com module takes the caption from step 3 and the image from step 4 and posts them together. The scheduling is a simple cron job inside Make: I have it set to post Monday through Sunday at 11:15 a.m. You can set whatever schedule you want.

From the moment the automation triggers to when the post appears on Instagram takes under two minutes.

What the Output Looks Like

I ran a test for the video demonstration. The automation pulled a news article about a new mixed-use development coming to the 6th and Lamar area in Austin — the Aana project. The caption it generated read: “Exciting news for Austin real estate. The Aana project is coming to the 6th and Lamar area, bringing a fresh mix of mixed-use space with residential and retail elements. Have any questions about how this affects your real estate plans? Reach out at [contact info].”

Solid caption. Reads like a person wrote it. The article link was included. It posted automatically to my Instagram account.

That’s the baseline version. Now here’s where it gets more interesting.

How to Turn This Into an Actual Lead Generation System

A daily news post is useful for staying top of mind, but by itself it doesn’t generate leads. To convert this into a lead machine, you need to change the call to action.

Instead of “call me at this number,” the caption says “DM me GUIDE to get [specific resource].” When someone DMs the keyword, an Instagram automation (via ManyChat or a similar tool) responds automatically with the lead magnet. You get the lead. They get the resource. No manual work on either side.

The way to think about this is to match the content to the lead magnet. An article about rate drops triggers a caption that offers a first-time buyer guide. An article about investment properties offers an investor checklist. The content is already being generated automatically — you’re just connecting it to the right offer.

I’m building this version out now. When it’s done, I’ll post it in the community.

The Instagram + Facebook Combined Setup

This workflow is the Instagram version of the Facebook automation I built first. The underlying structure is the same: RSS feed to Perplexity or ChatGPT summarization to caption writing to posting. The difference is the output platform and some prompt adjustments for tone and format.

If you’ve already set up the Facebook automation (covered in the Facebook daily content post), getting Instagram running takes about five additional minutes. You’re connecting to the same API keys. The only new step is linking your Instagram account through the Facebook Business Page connection.

Getting This Running Yourself

The blueprint for this automation is a free download — linked in the video above. You download it, import it into Make.com, connect your accounts, drop in your API keys, and it runs. Total setup time once you have your accounts in order: under 15 minutes.

If you want to extend this with the AI avatar video version — where instead of a text post with a static image, you’re posting a 60-second reel with your AI clone reading the news summary — that’s the next layer. I covered the AI avatar setup in a separate post.

For a full breakdown of the tools involved in all of this, the tools page has what I’m currently using. And if you want to follow along as I build out the DM automation piece, sign up for the newsletter. For a full breakdown of the automation tools I use, check out the AI tools comparison.