'TikTok changed my life.' Real estate agents find huge success on the app

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Last year, a Zillow survey showed that 36% of buyers would even purchase a property sight unseen. But despite all the desperate buyers willing to skip the in-person showing, most people still expect to actually see a home first.

During the height of the pandemic, real estate agents across the country discovered that social media platform TikTok was an ideal way to safely show prospective buyers homes. Now, some are saying the video app has revolutionized the way they sell real estate — and it is here to stay.

Madison Sutton is a 25-year-old agent in New York City. She specializes in off-market deals and what she calls “hidden-treasure apartments.” But during the pandemic, she was scraping the barrel for leads because so many people were moving out of the city.

Sutton created her TikTok account, @TheNYCAgent, in early 2020. She had “no expectations for it whatsoever,” citing the pandemic as the catalyst for starting her account. But as soon as she started posting apartment tours on the app, she said interest in her TikTok and her properties spiked.

“There were days I was getting two or four hundred inquiries for one apartment,” she recalled. “What TikTok did, I couldn’t have expected or planned or calculated in my entire lifetime. It’s completely changed my life.”

Sutton said 100% of her business now comes from TikTok, and her commissions have almost doubled.

Nearly three-quarters of TikTok users spend more than an hour on the app weekly, according to Statista. The endless scroll and use of algorithms keep users coming back for more. It’s this format that Sutton finds an asset. “Where else in New York City could you see 10 apartments in 10 minutes other than TikTok?,” Sutton said.

And while typical house hunters fret over scheduling in-person tours, online-savvy ones can view in-depth videos that Sutton makes with the flick of a finger.