Social Media is Rewriting the Rules of Real Estate Marketing
August 25, 2025
A new Seattle Times article highlights what we’re seeing across the country: today’s homebuyers, especially millennials and Gen Z, don’t discover agents through billboards or open houses. They discover them the same way they discover restaurants, products, and fashion trends — by scrolling.
Agents like Monica Church, with 186,000 Instagram followers, are proof that social-first marketing is no longer optional. She puts it simply:
“I’ve never gotten someone to work with me through an open house. But I get several people a week who reach out to me through my social media.”
Real estate has always been a relationship business, but the platforms where those relationships begin have shifted.
Millennials and Gen Z buyers: Nearly half say they start their home search on social media — a massive shift in how people discover and trust brands.
Content-first marketing: Quick home tours, mortgage tips, and neighborhood memes now outperform traditional ads.
Entertainment as the hook: Just like HGTV once captivated viewers, Instagram Reels and TikToks now fill that role — only more personal, raw, and interactive.
For new agents, social isn’t just an add-on. For many, it’s their entire pipeline. As one young Seattle agent put it: “It’s actually been my only source of generating leads.”
But here’s the catch: producing content like a creator is a second full-time job.
Top-performing agents say they spend half their time filming, editing, and posting just to stay visible. Not everyone has the bandwidth — or the creative edge — to do that on top of client calls, showings, and contracts.
This is where AI changes the game.
At Official AI, we believe the next wave of real estate growth will come from AI-powered content creation. Instead of juggling a camera and editing software, agents can:
Turn listing photos into polished videos in minutes
Generate engaging social posts that look like creator-led content
Stay consistent online without burning hours each day on production
Focus on relationships while their content keeps working for them
One of the best recent examples comes from Ryan Rockwell, a Seattle-based agent who used Official AI to transform listing photos into a high-energy video. The clip took minutes to make — and went on to outperform many of his traditional posts on Instagram, driving fresh leads directly from social.
In short, AI makes it possible for any agent — not just influencer-agents with massive followings — to show up like a creator.
The Seattle Times story makes it clear: the billboard era is over. Homebuyers aren’t waiting for Sunday open houses. They’re swiping on Reels, double-tapping on kitchen tours, and DM’ing agents directly.
For agents, the question isn’t “Should I be on social media?” — it’s “How do I keep up with the pace of content today?”
That’s exactly the problem we’re solving at Official AI: making high-quality, authentic, creator-style content accessible to every real estate professional, at scale.
In today’s market, the homes that sell fastest aren’t just the ones with the best views.
