Snapchat Is Transforming How We Sell Real Estate

Finding a new place to live can be a real pain. You search for available units online for hours and as soon as you find one you like and set up a viewing, someone else has already taken it. But imagine the ability to look at a new set of units every week without ever leaving your home.

Felipe Ros was in a hurry to find a new apartment in Manhattan, New York, and a friend recommended he check out Snaplistings on Snapchat. He watched a live video of a real estate agent showing an apartment in the Lower East Side and fell in love with it. Ros contacted the agent directly through the app and signed the lease the following night. Now he tells people that he rented his apartment on Snapchat.

Snaplistings is an account on Snapchat in which real estate agents give a first-person look into apartments available for rent and sale in New York City. It currently has four agents who rotate Monday through Thursday to post live videos, answer buyer questions in real time, and schedule in-person viewings. They receive 10-30 messages per listing and have a high lead generation rate. This unique medium allows agents to create engaging, personalized content and build their brand recognition. Thousands of viewers tune in to Snaplistings every day and the response from agents, buyers and sellers has been highly positive.

The project was born in October 2016 after its founder, Dolly Meckler, visited her friend’s luxurious apartment in New York City and took snapchats throughout it because she loved it so much. It had a huge kitchen, a patio, and was newly renovated. Her followers liked it too because they quickly messaged back and asked her who the realtor was and where they could find similar listings. Meckler thought, why is nobody selling real estate this way? She pitched the idea to her friend Michael Hoffman and they created Snaplistings together using their experiences from working in social media at a TV station.

Real estate agents use Snaplistings to show a variety of living spaces, from affordable apartments to $6 million homes. Most leads are from a young audience interested in low-priced rentals and the expensive homes are more for entertainment. They recently posted a call to action asking viewers to email snaplistings@gmail.com if they know an agent interested in being featured on the app, but becoming a Snaplistings broker requires an audition. Meckler and Hoffman want to find young, charismatic brokers that haven’t established themselves yet and give them a platform to showcase their personalities. The service now has featured agents in Baltimore, Washington, New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Chicago. Meckler says their long-term goal is to spread Snaplistings nationwide and around the world.

Follow @snaplistings on Snapchat for a peek at the future of real estate.