We're All Millionaires on Realtor Instagram
“Most people can’t afford to buy a home; following real estate agents is something of a fantasy”.
When I asked L.A. real estate agent Rob Kallick how many transactions he could directly connect to his social media presence, his response was immediate: “It’s a tremendous amount of sales and clients for us.” If the name Rob Kallick doesn’t ring a bell, maybe the account @takesunset does—it’s where Kallick shares beautiful, architectural homes with his 137K Instagram followers.
“I’ve always taken the approach of build your audience before you need it. People reach out to us and say ‘I've been following you forever, I'm finally ready to buy’ or ‘I'm finally ready to sell.’ Social media allows you to be in our followers’ lives all those years, as opposed to sending them a postcard in the mail or a calendar every year, which is the old school realtor way,” he tells me.
In the past few years I’ve noticed myself following (and being algorithmically followed by) real estate accounts. There’s @takesunset, @thisoldhudson, @prewar_eva, and so many more. It seems that real estate agents have noticed that people love window shopping for houses online, even if they’re not actually looking to move.
When I watched the new Netflix show Owning Manhattan, I was amazed how much the word “social media” was mentioned—I counted over 15 times in just the first three episodes.
Real estate agents also make up a fair amount of my subscribers—one of the largest real estate brands in the country has over 150 employees who are signed up for Link in Bio.
Like Kallick mentioned, the real estate playbook has changed and social media is now a top priority for agents. Why send a postcard to engage potential buyers when you can post a video? The hashtag #realestateagent is used on 1.3M TikTok posts.
I explained to Kallick that when I worked at Bon Appétit, we knew if we posted a pasta photo it would always perform well, no matter what. I asked what @takesunset’s pasta is. He quickly rattles off, “I mean, everyone loves wood, natural wood, and wood-beam ceilings. Stuff from the 50s and 60s that is very authentic, not painted white, and has original natural wood to get really specific.”
Kallick also mentioned access. “Homes people have never seen before always do well—being able to go inside and show something that people have never seen before. I did a Reel maybe a month ago of a house in Beachwood that you can kind of see if you're up in the hills. You're like, what is that house? No one had ever really seen inside, and finally it came for sale.” That Reel has over 1M views.
I think access plays a big role in why these real estate accounts are so popular right now. Access not just to the big pink house on the hill, but access to any house.
According to Fortune, housing affordability is at 40-year lows, and mortgage rates are near 40-year highs. It’s hard to ignore the fact that the majority of my peers who I see liking and commenting on these accounts are not actively looking to purchase a home—largely because we can’t afford one.
You probably already know that millennials are struggling to buy homes compared to previous generations. In a survey I sent out to followers (that isn’t statistically significant so take this as directional), 70% of respondents answered the prompt “Which best describes the reason you follow real estate agents on social media” with “I am not in a position to buy a home right now, but I still like following." Still, 79% of them said they’d use the real estate agents they currently follow to help them purchase a home one day.
One respondent said, “This is a little hard to articulate BUT I think a lot of people engage with accounts like @takesunset or @cheapoldhouses to make themselves passively feel better, in a way, about this awful housing market we have now. Every post I see is filled with comments like ‘whoever buys this BETTER NOT tear down that bathroom!’, ‘shame on whoever chose that wall color’, ‘yeah house is nice but you’d have to live in XYZ neighborhood’ and is just a way to justify that a lot of people in our generation are not able to buy a home. [Commenting like this] gives them a leg up over whoever does end up buying the home—’Yeah, you have $2M but you don’t have taste’”
Another respondent said they follow real estate accounts because “most people can’t afford to buy a home, following real estate agents is something of a fantasy. It’s like porn—but for imagining a secure future 🥲.”
To be clear, some people are still buying houses in this market! The Take Sunset team did $173 million in sales in 2023 alone. But, aside from purchasing intent, my survey revealed that people also like following these accounts to:
Look at cool houses
Understand how much homes cost
See inside homes
Another big reason these accounts are popular: curation. It’s not surprising that as we look to online culture curators to tell us what to pay attention to, we’d also be looking to real estate curators to tell us what homes to buy. Zillow feels unwieldy and clunky—often filled with new builds that are devoid of any personality. These real estate accounts feel like they’ve cherry picked homes just for your tastes, using beautiful photos and storytelling to pull you in. Some of the most successful real estate agent accounts have some sort of specialization, whether it’s a focus on affordability, historical significance, mid-century modern architecture, pre-war buildings, or speed touring. And while @takesunset’s “pasta” might be natural wood-beam ceilings, another account’s “pasta” might be a grand entryway with a chandelier—regardless, all of these popular real estate agent accounts seem to have a distinct POV.
Another survey respondent talked about the way @maryregal (an agent on the @takesunset team) uses social to tell stories about homes: “Mary specifically highlighted a firehouse turned live/workspace in Altadena that you would have never known existed. She’ll show unique angles, how the light hits just ever so perfectly, and will share tidbits about the family and history of the home. It makes the space come to life through storytelling.” If we can’t have the home, at least we can have the story.
After my call with Kallick, I open Instagram to scroll through his account. I look at the comments:
“I only need one kidney”
“I would make some deals with a couple devils to make her mine”
“*SCREAMS IN PUBLIC*”
If Kallick’s motto is “build your audience before you need it”, then my generation’s is “follow your real estate agent before you need them”.
You can support free essays like this one with a paid Link in Bio subscription!
It’s likely an educational expense at your company—here’s a template for you to use when asking your manager. I personally think the Discord is worth the subscription alone.
Lastly, there are some great new jobs on the Link in Bio Job Board!
I loveeee real estate social. I'm constantly followed by homes in my own neighborhood by the algo. Also, gotta give MAJOR props to Mike Hege's team at Pridemore Properties for their viral "Gen Z eidt" of him showing properties - up to 72M views and has inspired countless riffs from big names in different industries.
I loved this! I often joke that browsing real estate is my main hobby. I get so many alerts from Street Easy and there’s no way in hell I’m affording 1m+ in NYC any time soon lol