For Generation Z real estate agent Mitchell Tebo, getting soaked on social media has translated into homes sold.
Tebo, 23, a Massachusetts native now based in York, quickly wearied of traditional methods of finding clients when he got his real estate license in January. Cold calling could be fruitful, but it often led to rejection. He felt like he was wasting people’s time while struggling to “build his brand” at a time when small agents are finding it hard to break into the industry.
He found a way to stand out on social media. With his girlfriend handling videography, Tebo started to upload video tours of his listings to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook.
The wackier the video, the more eyes he got on a listing. Before long, he was flipping off bridges, launching himself into lakes and doing cartwheels through condos to gain traction. Some of Tebo’s videos have garnered hundreds of thousands of views.
“I’d say 30 percent of the houses I’ve done videos on have gone under contract with that within about a week doing the video,” Tebo said, adding that that could be a coincidence or a sign of a robust real estate market.
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Tebo is one of a handful of Maine real estate agents under age 35. While his work is flashier, many other Maine agents are investing in video and social media as a way to reach younger prospective homeowners who have largely been priced out of the hot market.
Augusta-based Pouliot Real Estate creates videos and has a podcast featuring newsmakers. Malachi Winslow, a 24-year-old realtor who does business from Augusta to Wells, said that his robust online following has often given him an edge over other agents vying to represent homes at a time of low inventory.
“It used to be that experience was a value proposition, but the truth is, I can get 25,000 eyes on someone’s property in a weekend,” Winslow, also an associate broker with Keller Williams, said. “Some of these older agents — who are fantastic people — they just aren’t able to get that kind of exposure.”
Both Tebo and Winslow said they get direct messages, calls and texts on their listings because someone saw their social media content. Both are taking time creating social media content because they said they’re catering to an emerging demographic of clients.
“The social media thing is obviously growing, and it’ll continue to grow as millennials grow into becoming first time home buyers and Gen Z, eventually,” Tebo said.
It might be some time before that investment really pays off. National statistics show young millennials, born between 1990 and 1998, only make up 6 percent of homebuyers, Paul McKee, the president of Maine’s chapter of the National Association of Realtors, said. On the listing side, that demographic is 17 percent of those selling their homes.
The largest share of those buying and selling homes right now are young baby boomers, McKee said. Those national statistics hold up in Maine, he added, suspecting that it has a lot to do with affordability.
As demographics shift and more house hunting is done online, McKee agreed with Tebo and Winslow’s projection that a social media presence might become more important. Since a survey of most Maine realtors found less than 4 percent were aged under 35, McKee still thinks experience is going to trump internet savvy for some time to come.
In other words, he does not plan to start a TikTok account any time soon, saying he does not quite get social media.
“I think social media is one way for people to try to connect with other people, but at the end of the day, it gets down to who you know,” McKee said. “I’ve got my story, and I don’t need social media for it.”
