Deciding if a Platform Is Worth Your Time
Buyers and sellers shape opinions on Reddit, TikTok and YouTube before calling. Realtors who show up where trust forms can win earlier in the decision cycle.
WASHINGTON — New digital platforms tend to get attention in real estate long before it's clear whether they actually change how buyers and sellers make decisions. What matters isn't audience size or growth, but whether a platform reshapes how people search for information, evaluate trust or decide who feels credible enough to contact.
Many consumers now use Reddit, TikTok and YouTube as places to validate experiences, ask practical questions and form opinions well before reaching out to an agent.
“Buyers and sellers are forming opinions before they ever fill out a form, book a showing or speak to an agent. That doesn’t make traditional media irrelevant; it makes it contextual. Credibility is no longer earned in one place. It’s assembled across many feeds,” Audie Chamberlain said in Inman.
A major shift in the main technology or channel people use is worth your attention when it changes how they search for information, decide who to trust and determine who gets access.
“The test is simple. If you stop posting tomorrow, does your authority disappear? If the platform vanished, would your relationships still exist? If the answer to both is no, you’re probably chasing and contributing to the noise,” Chamberlain said.
Source: Inman (02/03/26) Chamberlain, Audie
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