Is Real Estate TikTok the Secret to Finding an Apartment in This Market? - Architectural Digest

In March of 2022, Ashley Kim, a virtual world merchandise designer, was surviving successful Providence, Rhode Island, portion finishing up her associated Master of Design Engineering astatine Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University. “I’m a immense planner, truthful I was starting to enactment things into question for my post-grad life, and moving to New York City had ever been my goal,” she recalls. Knowing however competitive real estate tin beryllium successful the city, she started reaching retired to friends who could connection tips and strategies for apartment hunting successful 1 of the astir hectic and fast-moving markets successful the country. 

Around that aforesaid time, Casey Han was experiencing a lodging alteration of her own: Her champion person and roommate was readying to determination retired of their flat successful Brooklyn to San Francisco, and Casey needed idiosyncratic to capable the country ASAP. While she knew a fewer communal friends who mightiness beryllium funny successful the space, she decided to database the flat online—only alternatively of posting connected StreetEasy, Apartments.com, or Facebook Marketplace, she made a TikTok video. 

Call it luck, fate, oregon conscionable a truly precocious algorithm, but the video soon made its mode to Ashley’s feed, and the 2 creators connected. After a little chat connected Instagram DM, they acceptable up a FaceTime telephone and soon decided to unrecorded together. “I deliberation what had cloaked maine successful immoderate signifier of assurance was that we were the aforesaid age, shared South Korean roots, intelligibly enjoyed the creation of cooking and holistic living, and liked to beryllium originative done contented creation,” Ashley says. Casey shared akin sentiments, and both agree that surviving unneurotic has been astir perfect.  

While it whitethorn not look similar it, stories similar this aren’t that unusual. As Gen Z’s unofficial search motor of choice, TikTok has go a invaluable instrumentality for thing 1 mightiness person erstwhile typed into Google—including uncovering an apartment. The hashtags #nycrentals, #brooklynrentals, and #nycrealestate person been viewed 42.5 million, 1.5 million, and 376.1 cardinal times, respectively. While notably a much wide hashtag, #nycapartment has racked up 2.1 cardinal views globally. Similar hashtags tin beryllium recovered for different cities arsenic good arsenic realtors, renters, and radical similar Casey and Ashley flock to the app arsenic a one-stop assets for uncovering a spot to live. 

Much similar the app itself, 2020 changed the people of existent property TikTok. “When the pandemic started, we weren’t definite what our responsibilities were arsenic agents and what we were allowed to do,” explains Madison Sutton, a existent property cause astatine Serhant. On her TikTok page, Madison posts some manner and existent property videos nether the username @thenycagent for her assemblage of implicit 100,000 followers. During the tallness of the pandemic, sharing video tours of the disposable units became 1 of the safest ways to behaviour existent property transactions, according to Madison. “It has been an absorbing happening to ticker the manufacture accommodate to; erstwhile I archetypal started doing it, everyone thought it was a spot ridiculous.” Clearly it’s not: In the past 18 months, Madison estimates she’s conducted astir 150 rental deals done TikTok alone, adding that she didn’t station those units connected StreetEasy oregon different platforms. It’s not conscionable a payment to Madison; that’s besides 150 tenants who person recovered their location connected the app.