Seattle-area real estate agents go where homebuyers scroll

Alexis Weisend, Tribune News Service

Lights. Camera. Sold. As new generations of homebuyers enter the housing market, real estate agents are adapting their marketing strategies to win their attention — and business. Agents, once popping up on highway billboards and showing up at community events to draw homebuyers and sellers, are now building influencer-like presence on social media. Marketing real estate online isn’t new, thanks to giant websites such as Zillow and Redfin, which have for years offered a platform for agents and properties with professional photos and videos. But some real estate agents are now taking to Instagram Reels and TikTok to build a base of followers and potential buyers.

Those agents offer raw, entertaining virtual home tours that are often boosted by polarised remarks from commentators who may be just curious. Still, agents say this marketing approach does ultimately yield legitimate buyer leads. “I’ve never gotten someone to work with me through an open house,” said Monica Church, 30, a popular YouTuber turned Seattle real estate agent, “but I get several people a week who reach out to me through my social media.”

This shift toward using social media has turned hundreds of real estate agents, like Church, into “micro-celebrities.” Church has 186,000 followers on Instagram, and she posts videos of home tours and tips for Seattle buyers. Seattle-area homebuyers are not alone in connecting with agents through social media. Millennials and Gen Z nationwide use all the tools available to them in the homebuying process, real estate agents say. A RE/MAX report last year found 41% of Gen Z and millennial buyers and sellers surveyed use social media to learn about real estate. One in five used AI chatbots for real estate advice. The influence of those tech-savvy generations on the market has been on the rise over the last decade.

Baby boomers still make up the lion’s share of homebuyers nationwide at 42%, but millennials alone have surpassed Gen X buyers, according to a 2025 National Association of Realtors report. Millennials make up 29% of buyers, while Gen X trails at 24% of buyers. Gen Z has just begun to emerge at 3%. Although new buyers may use social media to initiate their homebuying journey, most follow in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents by using real estate agents. Nine out of 10 millennials use a real estate agent, according to another NAR report. The pandemic boosted the rising trend. With scarce open houses, buyers were poised to seek out home tours and agents on social media, agents said.

Despite becoming an agent in the middle of the pandemic in 2021, Church has made 81 transactions since then — a rate above the national median. In 2023, the median number of transactions per agent was 10 a year, according to NAR data.

“If it weren’t for social media, I wouldn’t have sold a single house,” said Church. Seattle agent James Savereux, who earned his real estate broker license during the pandemic, shares a similar experience.

Delivered weeknights, this email newsletter gives you a quick recap of the day's top stories and need-to-know news, as well as intriguing photos and topics to spark conversation as you wind down from your day. Business was slow for Savereux, 29, until he posted on TikTok a video of himself touring a $1.9 million home for sale in Woodinville in 2022. He panned the camera around each room quickly while making quippy remarks, like Facetiming a friend. He noted the large kitchen island and griped about the property’s spider-guarded barn before asking viewers’ thoughts on the price. The video garnered around 6,100 views. ‘I was like, ‘Whoa, this kind of works,’” Savereux said.

Since then, he’s amassed 11,000 followers on TikTok and almost 42,000 on Instagram, where millennials frequent more often, he said. Savereux knows agents who pour cash into drone shots or high-quality cameras. But people would rather see raw, realistic videos of homes they might buy, he said, which is why they go to social media. In between videos of home tours, he posts memes about Washington’s cities and neighborhoods, which sometimes garner hundreds of thousands of views. Savereux has found ways to make his videos of homes stand out as well. One video shows him as an AI baby. Some videos are of unusual homes, such as castles or underground bunkers. Others invite viewers to share what they think about the price of a home with an extremely low or high price for Seattle.

“If you want something to go viral ... show something interesting, something funny or something that is controversial and gets people upset,” he said. “The more comments you get, the more attention you get.” Sometimes, Savereux purposefully doesn’t mention the downsides of properties, such as high homeowner association fees, to spark a flame in the comments, he said.

“People love to correct you. ... It increases attention,” he said. “And the more attention it gets, (the more likely) the video is spread to an actual buyer that would be okay with whatever it is.”

Although his clients may not always buy the exact home they saw on social media, they’ll often work with him to find another home, he said.

The properties that agents tour on social media can be homes they’re selling or homes represented by other agents. The listing agent is often included in the caption. But it may not always be clear to the average social media user when an agent is representing the property they’re selling or just touring, since the strategies for drawing attention to both can blend.