I have yet to succumb to the digital charms of TikTok. My aversion to this platform can be traced to multiple reasons: I am already spending too much time on other social media sites without getting very much in the way of professional or personal satisfaction from their contents; I don’t have the patience to sift through zillions of video shorts; and I am skeptical about sharing my data on a platform run by a company that might be in cahoots with the Chinese Communist Party.
Also – and perhaps this is the worst reason for staying away – I believe that I am not the right audience for this platform. I’ve read that 80% of the people on TikTok are between the ages of 16-34 – that’s not the demographic where I currently hang my hat.
Though maybe my negativity is misplaced. I’ve lately noticed a flurry of articles on how TikTok is the go-to place for real estate professionals trying to generate sales. According to an April article published by Vice.com, the TikTok hashtag #property has more than 3.6 million views. And a casual spin around TikTok’s real estate-related posting is turning up a surplus amount of pricey properties that seem to be priced beyond what the average Gen Zer could afford.
The problem in trying to get a handle on how efficient TikTok can be for real estate sales is the lack of concise data – there is no way to verify how many residential real estate sales per year can be attributed to the platform or to determine the median sales price for these properties.
It doesn’t help that nearly all of the media coverage of TikTok-based real estate professionals highlights extraordinary success stories. Typical of this is a December 2021 CNN piece about New York City agent Madison Sutton, who claimed 100% of her business comes from TikTok. Sutton, who was 25 years old when the article ran, specializes in off-market deals for “hidden-treasure apartments.” As she told CNN: “There were days I was getting two or four hundred inquiries for one apartment. What TikTok did, I couldn’t have expected or planned or calculated in my entire lifetime. It’s completely changed my life.”
Not to be cynical, but I suspect Sutton’s good fortune on TikTok is the exception rather than the rule. In my own casual searching, I’ve found real estate professionals who are using the platform for educational outreach and others who seem to believe their prolific video output enables them to indulge in self-parody. There are too many so-so video tours that fail to truly highlight a property’s worth within the tight time limits of the TikTok format, but occasionally there is a video that is too cute for words.
And that leads me today’s question: How are you using TikTok in your real estate business? Can you trace significant results to this format? But if TikTok hasn’t generated the business results you desired, what do you think the problem is? And if you’re not on TikTok, why not?
Feel free to respond in the comments section below. I am curious to learn how real estate professionals are using TikTok, or if they share my lack of enthusiasm for the platform.
Phil Hall is editor of Weekly Real Estate News. He can be reached at [email protected].
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