How TikTok is Changing the Real Estate Investing Game (And How to Use It)

The old ways of buying, selling, and marketing real estate investment properties could be undergoing a massive shift. 

According to the recent NextGen Homebuyer Report, 59% of potential homebuyers believe it’s not a good time to buy despite strong homeownership aspirations. The report also revealed that trust in traditional financial institutions decreased from 61.5% to 40% between 2024 and 2025.

Meanwhile, young homebuyers are actively looking for homes and home buying advice on social media platforms. According to the NextGen Homebuyer Report, 40% of Gen Z and 30% of Millennials now use social media for some of their home buying research. This highlights one of today’s biggest real estate trends: the shift towards digital-first engagement.

With 33% of all U.S. adults reportedly using TikTok and 18-34 year olds spending substantial time on the platform, your potential buyers are likely already there. In this guide, we’ll share Tiktok strategies for real estate investing that could help you generate leads, build your brand, and potentially close more deals. 

Is TikTok good for real estate marketing?

Is TikTok just for dances and Gen Z? Is it a waste of time for serious real estate professionals?

Let's address this head-on. The perception that TikTok is only for teenagers doing viral dances is steadily becoming outdated. While the largest segment (30%) of US TikTok users are 25-34 years old—prime homebuying age—and 55% of users are under 30, the platform has steadily matured since its inception. According to Industry Dive, 35-44 year olds now make up 19% of TikTok users, and 55+ users make up 14%. 

More importantly, using TikTok for real estate marketing has been a successful tactic by some savvy investors. According to a recent interview conducted by HousingWire, Kina DeSantis built her real estate brokerage from zero to $89 million in sales volume over four years using TikTok and Instagram. She did that by being a helpful information source - answering people’s questions about down payments, market conditions, and home-buying processes.

Tiffany Da Silva, a Central Florida-based REI who was recently featured on our blog, has also had significant success marketing her business on TikTok. She has been able to amass almost 250,000 followers on TikTok by posting before-and-after transformations of her rentals, as well as educational content on house flipping.

How TikTok could uniquely benefit real estate professionals

When it comes to digital marketing for real estate, TikTok is potentially one of the most powerful platforms available today. The TikTok algorithm ranks engagement above follower count, meaning content quality matters more than audience size on TikTok. 

For real estate agents (REAs) and real estate investors (REIs), the real magic of TikTok could be its ability to deliver hyperlocal targeting based on a user’s location settings. 

Essentially, your TikTok content could reach potential sellers and buyers  in your local community, regardless of how many followers you currently have.

So should you consider using TikTok for real estate marketing? Yes, TikTok could offer great potential for both real estate investors and real estate agents alike. But success on the platform almost always requires being intentional and using it as a tool for teaching and connecting with people, rather than just posting content casually without a clear strategy.

More potential buyers & sellers are starting their search on social media

For a large number of potential homebuyers, the homebuying journey no longer begins with a drive through a neighborhood—it starts with a scroll on a phone. 

According to the National Association of REALTORS®, the very first step 43% of all potential buyers take is to look for properties online. As of 2024, just 21% of potential homebuyers reached out to a real estate agent as their first step during a home search.

While the data shows that Millennials and Gen Z buyers are increasingly more ready to buy homes, their purchasing habits are much different from that of the previous generation. 

67% of Gen Z respondents in a recent survey by ServiceLink planned to buy a home in 2025. According to this same survey, unlike the previous generation, 71% of these Gen Z buyers discover products via social media, and 58% are factoring influencer advice into purchasing decisions. 

Yes, buying a home differs from purchasing consumer goods, but the research pattern is relatively the same. Potential Gen Z homebuyers might find your property (and you, as an REI or REA) through Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or Zillow long before they could meet you in person.

“The single most significant change I believe TikTok has brought to real estate marketing is the exchange of readily available information on any topic. I personally got inspired to buy my first property at a tax deed sale after seeing a TikTok video about it” - Tiffany Da Silva (@Beautyandabuilder)

Recent data revealed that 40% of Gen Z and 30% of Millennials are using social media specifically for homebuying research. They're watching TikToks about neighborhood trends, scrolling through property content, and educating themselves on market conditions before ever contacting an agent.

What does this mean for your business? If the largest and next-largest generations of potential homebuyers are on TikTok, you should consider being there too. A passive approach to social media marketing for real estate means you might not just be missing out on exposure; you could be missing out on a massive pool of potential leads.

Defining your real estate investing TikTok strategy 

Some of the most successful real estate professionals using TikTok do not try to be everything to everyone. They focus on a specific niche. By creating content for a very particular audience, you could build a much stronger connection with them, which in turn could make it easier to get future opportunities.

So instead of "Real Estate Agent in Miami," consider trying "First-Time Homebuyer Specialist in Coral Gables" or "I Sell Luxury Waterfront Properties in Biscayne Bay." This kind of specificity could help you stand out and forge a genuine bond with the right audience.

Create your buyer persona

Having detailed buyer personas could help create video content for real estate. With a buyer persona, you clearly define who you serve, their challenges, their goals, and the questions they are asking. 

To create this, you could do market research to develop a deep, almost personal understanding of your ideal customer(s). Your buyer persona might cover the following:

• Demographics: Age, income, occupation, location
• Pain points: What challenges do they face in their real estate buying, selling, or investing journey?
• Information needs: Are they researching down payments, neighborhoods, schools, or investment returns?
• Psychographics: Values, lifestyle choices, and motivations

For example, Tiffany Da Silva built her real estate brand by targeting aspiring real estate investors interested in home flipping, home renovation, and tiny home solutions. By niching down, she built a loyal and highly engaged community.

Why this matters

If you want to create TikTok content that goes beyond entertainment and achieve some success on TikTok, truly understanding your audience could be the key. Focusing on content that solves specific, real-world problems for your ideal client might also help you attract the right kind of leads.

What should I post? The three pillars of real estate TikTok content

A number of real estate professionals have been able to build reliable, lead-generating content strategies for TikTok by focusing on three content categories: education, entertainment, and market insights. 

Pillar 1: Educational content that helps to build trust

Consider creating content that answers the specific, pressing questions your ideal clients are asking. As a real estate agent for example, you could create a Q&A series addressing first-time buyer mistakes and down payment requirements. This could position you as a trusted expert for people actively seeking home buying information in your area.

Tiffany adds that the top 3 real estate TikTok ideas/video content formats she’s seen the most success with are: “storytelling videos, renovation of the before and after of flips, and green screen explanation videos.” 

Pillar 2: Property tours that stop the scroll

With property tour videos, you should consider focusing on creating emotional connections rather than just listing features. Try using hooks that drive curiosity or excitement like “Can you guess what $500K gets you in Texas?” 

Instead of basic property descriptions, consider highlighting special features like luxury kitchens, hidden studies or infinity pools to potentially stop the scroll and make people interested in what you have to show and say. You also want to keep your investment property tours between 15-30 seconds with quick cuts between rooms to maximize completion rates. 

Pillar 3: Market commentary

Your potential clients are looking for a trusted expert they can also connect with on a human level. And on TikTok you should consider blending professionalism with true personality. 

As a real estate professional looking to build their brand and business through TikTok, you could share updates about things like local market conditions, average prices, days on market, and maybe your own deals. But you want to do this in a way that feels natural and approachable, like you’re sharing advice with a friend.

Atlanta-based real estate agent Glennda Baker, who uses strategies like this, has seen impressive growth on TikTok. She grew from 122 followers to 565,000 in 2021, and generated $241,000 in gross commission income from the platform that year. As of now, she has amassed over 870,000 followers on TikTok by sharing solid market insights in a conversational, friendly way.

How you could turn views into qualified leads

While going viral on TikTok is great, the real measure of success is turning those views and likes into actual clients. You may need a strategy in place to help guide your audience from passive viewing to active inquiry. 

Implementation tactics

Here are some TikTok strategies for real estate professionals to consider if they want to turn views into real leads.

1. Optimizing property tour content for conversion

You might consider using strategic text overlays in your property tours to highlight key features and build intrigue. This could involve displaying details like “asking price, square footage, HOA fees, year built, and property tax range,” or using on-screen text such as “Wait for the hidden office” to encourage viewers to keep watching. Keeping tours between 15-30 seconds may also lead to higher video completion rates, which could signal quality content to the algorithm.

2. Crafting clear calls-to-action

When someone watches your property tour or educational video, they may already be an interested lead. You might make it easier for them to take the next step by trying to end most videos with a CTA. A simple “comment with your biggest real estate question” could encourage engagement, while a direct CTA like "Comment GUIDE for my buyer checklist" might help move viewers into your sales funnel.

3. Developing multi-platform lead funnels

Connecting your TikTok profile to Instagram and YouTube could help to create multiple touchpoints for your content and potentially build a stronger, more recognizable brand presence. You might also consider using tools like Linktree or Beacons to help optimize your link-in-bio and potentially direct traffic to your website, lead capture forms, or downloadable guides.

4. Build engagement that converts

For the TikTok algorithm, comments could be a strong engagement signal. Therefore, you might aim to generate as many as possible on your videos. Responding thoughtfully to every comment could also help create a sense of personal connection with your followers.

5. Use hashtags strategically

You might consider mixing broad real estate hashtags like #RealEstateInvestor with niche-specific ones that have fewer than 100,000 views, such as #[YourCity]Homes. If you serve a local audience, you may find that using more hyperlocal hashtags could offer better content discovery opportunities. Otherwise, you might skew towards broad hashtags and niche-specific hashtags that are not tied to a specific location.

Consistency and measurement

To potentially get consistent leads through TikTok, consider adopting a structured workflow over random posting. This means you should plan your content ahead of time with a content calendar and diligently track your performance.

Try aiming for 3-5 posts per week to keep your brand top-of-mind and signal to the algorithm that you’re an active creator. Instead of guesswork, you could periodically check your TikTok Analytics to track watch-time, saves, and profile visits. Retire formats that fail to meet retention benchmarks and double down on real estate TikTok ideas that already perform well.

Time blocking is your best friend. Instead of trying to squeeze content creation into random moments, you could dedicate specific chunks of time to TikTok activities. This could transform TikTok from a potentially frivolous activity into a core real estate marketing strategy that may deliver dependable results.

Conclusion

While TikTok could offer strong opportunities for real estate branding and marketing, you should consider also maintaining a presence on other social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The ultimate goal is to use platforms like TikTok to grow assets that you control directly, such as a leads list. This helps to ensure your business can continue to thrive even if social media algorithms or platform policies change.

Start where you are, use what you know, and build systematically. Looking to build your network as a real estate investor? Read our guide “6 Steps to Effective Real Estate Networking.”