As soon as he got his real estate licence, Brandin Strasser reached into his toolkit and started making posts on social media.
“Most of them were just house tours; I didn’t talk too much because I didn’t feel like I had that confidence in real estate yet,” the Edmontonian said in an interview with CBC.
The house tours soon evolved into talking about his personal life as a way to build connections with his audience, which mostly consists of millennials and generation Z.
Based on those demographics, he primarily focuses on TikTok and Instagram based on those demographics.
As mortgages and inflation reach all-time highs across Canada, Strasser and other Albertans selling real estate are using social media platforms to convince young Canadians to take the plunge into the housing market.
Edmonton-based real estate agent Brandin Strasser wants to encourage younger buyers that real estate is attainable for everybody. (Aaron Sousa/CBC)
Strasser has been with cloud-based brokerage REAL Broker since April 2022.
He said TikTok, in particular, is a great platform for what he calls organic growth.
“Other platforms, they’ve kind of matured in the place where you have your influencers established on Facebook and even Instagram somewhat, whereas TikTok seems to be a lot more open forum and friendly to new accounts just getting out there,” he said.
Strasser said millennials and gen-Zers often feel discouraged over the high costs associated with buying a home. He wants to encourage younger buyers to recognize that it’s not all “gloom and doom,” as he believes real estate is attainable for everybody.
“It really just comes down to showing that there are options and setting realistic boundaries that your first house doesn’t have to be a mansion; your first house can be modest,” he said.
Recent figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association put the average price of a single detached home in Toronto at $1.2 million, and close to $1.7 million in Vancouver. In Edmonton, a typical single-family home can be purchased for about $425,000.
Umar and Atefah Khan purchased their Calgary condominium in May 2022 after Atefah found Calgary-based agent Tyler Hassman on TikTok. Originally from Toronto, they were newly newlyweds who spent a lot of time moving back and forth between provinces.
But they moved to Alberta permanently once they realized a mortgage was cheaper than rent.
Umar Khan said finding a real estate agent with a large social media presence helped the pair feel a connection with their agent even before their first phone call.
“I feel like platforms like TikTok, Facebook and YouTube are going to be the way the younger generation resonates to [real estate agents],” he said.
Calgary-based real estate agent Tyler Hassman believes the best way to reach young buyers is through social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. (Submitted by Tyler Hassman)
Hassman has garnered more than 62,000 TikTok followers from his own home tours, which showcase everything from the cheapest condominiums to $15-million show homes.
“People are commenting like crazy, like, ‘As if you can get a fully detached home for 400 or let’s say $500,000,’ and they’re blown away,” he said.
When Hassman became a real estate agent almost two years ago, he wanted to explore different areas of marketing and move away from traditional techniques like door-knocking, cold-calling and mail flyers.
He wondered why other agents weren’t taking advantage of newer social media platforms, noting the influx of people moving to Alberta from Ontario and British Columbia.
“The best way to reach them was going to be [through] social media,” he said.
100 deals in 2 years
Hassman’s focus on social media has made an impact, he said. He said he and his team have closed on more than 100 deals over the last two years — based solely on his videos.
“It’s absolutely blown me away, the amount of homes we’ve been able to sell and the people we’ve been able to reach,” he said.
Heather Thomson believes social media has had an astounding impact on consumer spending. (Submitted by Justine Milton)
Heather Thomson, executive director of the Alberta School of Business at the University of Alberta, said social media has an astounding impact on consumer spending.
“I think the pandemic kind of took the need out of the middleman,” Thomson said.
“There isn’t the need to work with advertising or to work with a media source to get that content out there – they can do it themselves.”
Thomson said consumers want to connect to a person and a value system when they engage with sales professionals through social media.
When real estate agents use these tools, they’re strategically selling themselves and their experiences, she said.
Thomson believes it may reach a point where professionals working in forward-facing industries like real estate could lose out on sales opportunities if they don’t engage with these newer marketing tactics.
“There’s so much value to add to the everyday consumer to make sure that they feel like they’re learning something and they feel like they’re connected to that person,” she said.
Strasser thinks TikTok and Instagram will play a huge role in the growth of the real estate industry as a whole.
“I think that’ll help a lot – break down a lot of negative stereotypes around real estate agents.”
OTTAWA – The Canadian Real Estate Association says the number of homes sold in August fell compared with a year ago as the market remained largely stuck in a holding pattern despite borrowing costs beginning to come down.
The association says the number of homes sold in August fell 2.1 per cent compared with the same month last year.
On a seasonally adjusted month-over-month basis, national home sales edged up 1.3 per cent from July.
CREA senior economist Shaun Cathcart says that with forecasts of lower interest rates throughout the rest of this year and into 2025, “it makes sense that prospective buyers might continue to hold off for improved affordability, especially since prices are still well behaved in most of the country.”
The national average sale price for August amounted to $649,100, a 0.1 per cent increase compared with a year earlier.
The number of newly listed properties was up 1.1 per cent month-over-month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
MONTREAL – Two Quebec real estate brokers are facing fines and years-long suspensions for submitting bogus offers on homes to drive up prices during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine Girouard has been suspended for 14 years and her business partner, Jonathan Dauphinais-Fortin, has been suspended for nine years after Quebec’s authority of real estate brokerage found they used fake bids to get buyers to raise their offers.
Girouard is a well-known broker who previously starred on a Quebec reality show that follows top real estate agents in the province.
She is facing a fine of $50,000, while Dauphinais-Fortin has been fined $10,000.
The two brokers were suspended in May 2023 after La Presse published an article about their practices.
One buyer ended up paying $40,000 more than his initial offer in 2022 after Girouard and Dauphinais-Fortin concocted a second bid on the house he wanted to buy.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
MONTREAL – The Quebec Professional Association of Real Estate Brokers says Montreal-area home sales rose 9.3 per cent in August compared with the same month last year, with levels slightly higher than the historical average for this time of year.
The association says home sales in the region totalled 2,991 for the month, up from 2,737 in August 2023.
The median price for all housing types was up year-over-year, led by a six per cent increase for the price of a plex at $763,000 last month.
The median price for a single-family home rose 5.2 per cent to $590,000 and the median price for a condominium rose 4.4 per cent to $407,100.
QPAREB market analysis director Charles Brant says the strength of the Montreal resale market contrasts with declines in many other Canadian cities struggling with higher levels of household debt, lower savings and diminishing purchasing power.
Active listings for August jumped 18 per cent compared with a year earlier to 17,200, while new listings rose 1.7 per cent to 4,840.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
