New York has a new way of finding rental housing

As empty apartments pile up in big cities, real estate agents are increasingly turning to the TikTok platform to rent out homes to young people. Writes about it ABC7NY.

Citizens - or those who want to be - often visit sites like StreetEasy, Zillow, Compass, Trulia, and Craigslist to find apartments to rent. But some say they find apartments on TikTok, a fun video-sharing app where brokers can offer a closer look and potential tenants can virtually tour multiple locations in just a few minutes.

With thousands of people fleeing big cities, rents have plummeted during the pandemic. This is where TikTok comes in.

“Videos are just an explosive way to help people - even those considering moving here - and just make them feel comfortable,” said Cash Jordan, a broker at Union Square Property Management.

TikTok has an edge over real estate sites with its commenting feature, where you can create communities and discuss listings. Jordan had over 540 subscribers in the past year and said the response to his video was "phenomenal."

According to Alexander Zakharin, managing director of GZB Realty, New York apartment hunters are hoping for new deals: December 2020 was the busiest in 12 years for the New York rental market.

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Zakharin, who has over 78 followers on TikTok, said the majority of his clients are in their 000s who live with their parents and want to relocate.

Moving to a new apartment in a big city often comes with onerous fees for intermediaries, especially in New York. But now many building owners offer perks, such as paying a brokerage fee or a month or two of free rent.

Maddie Hiatt, a 25-year-old social media editor, found her apartment near Herald Square in New York while browsing TikTok. Hiatt said the process helped her find high-quality apartments that matched what she was looking for.

TikTok provides users with a more organic search experience as the app's algorithm fills the feed with videos tailored to the user's preferences and interests based on how the user interacts with the content on the platform.

Hiatt worked with Claudia Degteva, GZB's lease manager, who said she has been doing deals primarily through TikTok since August. Her colleague Abigail Dorsey also claims that "TikTok is expanding its audience enough to fill a full-time job."

Residents of Chicago, Illinois also find apartments on TikTok. Michael Scavo, founder and managing broker of ChiPads, a luxury apartment sales agency in Chicago, said his company receives an average of 15 to 20 leases a month from TikTok.

“TikTok puts content directly in front of the consumer, unlike other platforms like Instagram or Zillow, where they depend on the consumer and they have to search for content on their own,” Skavo said.

Dylan Haria, a 22-year-old financial analyst at Accenture, found his current apartment in Chicago through Scavo's TikTok account. “To be honest, I had no idea that TikTok could be used for this,” he said. Once I accidentally stumbled upon one of Scavo's videos and decided to take a chance.

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“His page is full of videos of buildings around Chicago,” he said. "TikTok is great because it shows more than a frozen photo."

Several well-known rental brands are gaining popularity.

StreetEasy has its own TikTok account, but most of the apartments featured in their videos are ads for sale, not rent, including the $ 9,2 million Pfizer mansion in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, and the $ 5,2 duplex. XNUMX million in West Village.

The trend shows that the real estate industry as a whole is benefiting from the ability to adapt to the changes that the pandemic has caused, and some of these changes could be a breakthrough that will outlast the pandemic by making the traditionally outdated process more accessible.

“We're finally getting to the heart of a business principle that the real estate industry has ignored for decades,” Zakharin said. "It's about 100% customer service and finding new ways to provide information."