Ames actual property agent Elli Jennings shares one of the best of Iowa on TikTok
That is one in an occasional collection on Iowa influencers who’re discovering new methods to inform the story of the state by means of social media.
Elli Jennings may simply be a newcomer on the upcoming sixth season of the Netflix present “Promoting Sundown,” a actuality tv streamer in regards to the drama-tinged day-to-day lives of brokers at a Los Angeles-based actual property agency.
Besides she lives and works within the Midwest. The Story Metropolis native is a second-generation specialist on her household’s legacy actual property workforce at RE/Max Actual Property Heart in Ames.
“I all the time joke that there’s ‘Promoting Sundown’ — in Iowa; we may name it ‘Promoting Silos,’” Jennings stated throughout an interview earlier this fall at Hobnob Espresso & Wine Bar within the Resort Fort Des Moines.
Jennings makes use of the snappy video sharing app TikTok to showcase life and enjoyable issues to do in Iowa whereas providing home-buying suggestions and creating new income streams for Jennings Actual Property Staff.
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The Iowa State College alum’s movies are set to surpass 1 million TikTok likes, and she or he boasts greater than 32,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok mixed.
Now, she’s turning clicks into chilly, arduous money: In response to Jennings, enterprise has doubled throughout the previous 12 months, and 70% of her new shoppers come from social media platforms similar to Instagram and TikTok.
A life story first written in Story Metropolis
Jennings grew up on a sprawling farm in Story Metropolis, a rural city about 20 minutes north of Ames. Her dad and mom, Invoice, a farmer, and Traci constructed an Ames-based actual property workforce throughout her childhood.
As a toddler, Jennings participated in theater performances that planted the seeds of an outgoing on-line persona that emerged years later.
She watched as her dad and mom attended open homes with a whole lot of shoppers and carried “on the market” indicators by means of entrance yards, however by no means dreamed of that profession for herself.
In Might 2017, Jennings graduated from Roland-Story Excessive Faculty and enrolled at Iowa State with plans to main in a male-dominated discipline: agribusiness.
“I assumed I used to be going to be a girl in ag gross sales as a result of there aren’t quite a lot of ladies in ag gross sales,” Jennings stated.
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In spring 2018, her dad and mom requested her to run an open home, and she or he discovered two shoppers from the exhibiting. As a substitute of passing the pair of shoppers over to an agent, Jennings determined to maintain the leads and immerse herself in central Iowa’s aggressive actual property trade.
Turning to clicks throughout the pandemic
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, as tens of millions had been confined to their properties, Jennings started posting on TikTok.
The video sharing app, that includes brief “SNL”-style sketches and Technology Z’s dance traits, rose to mass prominence throughout the pandemic’s peak.
In response to a June 2021 information report from market analysis firm eMarketer, TikTok customers between 35 and 54 years outdated jumped to 36% in 2021 — up 10 proportion factors from 2020, when the pandemic started.
At first, Jennings was skeptical of the video platform, which was dominated by a primarily youthful viewers earlier than the pandemic. She began by posting foolish day-in-the-life tales on the app, with no plan to focus on shoppers.
In her first TikTok put up, Jennings positioned pillows on her mattress earlier than fluffing and folding her comforter in a cheeky influencer-style mockumentary information to creating one’s mattress. The caption: “making my mattress in 15282927261 steps!”
A whole bunch of likes adopted, and as consideration grew, the 23-year-old noticed enterprise alternatives in Iowa-based content material about hometown satisfaction and metro-area house gross sales.
“I used to be nonetheless closely counting on workforce leads or previous consumer referrals, however as soon as I began doing TikTok, I believe I simply have a knack for once I make content material, and it sort of got here simple for me,” Jennings stated about turning into an influencer throughout the pandemic. “I’m unsure at what level I noticed you could generate enterprise by means of this platform.”
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Jennings has created web buzz by highlighting metro space properties on the market. Latest posts embrace a $280,000 Des Moines home, a $220,000 Beaverdale abode, or a 3,000-square-foot new construct in Norwalk in the marketplace for $510,000.
Alongside actual property content material, Jennings interacts with TikTok customers by including sassy retorts to commenters who troll Iowa. In a single video, Jennings responds to the remark, “I refuse to step foot in Iowa,” by pretending to rub her faux tear-filled eyes whereas a singer croons, “I am heartbroken.”
The farmer’s daughter not too long ago posted a video the place she delivered a pink Crumbl Cookies field to her dad and his crew out within the discipline in early October throughout the begin of harvest. The caption: “America wants farmers!! And cookies!” set to the Luke Combs observe “Center of Someplace.”
“I don’t recall a precise second, however I discovered one thing resonated from the those who comply with me and I established a model,” Jennings stated.
‘Social media is nearly organising a mini actuality present’
In response to Iowa-based social media advertising and actual property insiders, TikTok scrolls and Instagram swipes are essential to producing consumer leads.
Jen Stanbrough, who leads the Des Moines Space Affiliation of Realtors as board president, has been promoting properties within the area since 2006 and stated the usage of social media as a advertising software is rising within the trade.
“Throughout the board, if you wish to develop your model recognition, you’re going to have to make use of these traits,” the 43-year-old RE/Max Precision actual property agent stated.
Stanbrough in contrast brokers like Jennings who showcase their lives on social media to tv stars on actuality reveals, such because the ABC relationship competitors “The Bachelor” or Bravo’s standard franchise “Million Greenback Itemizing,” which follows actual property brokers promoting luxurious properties in main U.S. cities.
“There’s some sort of fascination that folks have with gaining perception into different individuals’s private lives and even their profession,” Stanbrough stated. “Social media is nearly organising a mini actuality present.”
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Stanbrough, who began her personal actual property profession at age 27, stated the only real unfavorable impression of brokers sharing personal and public components of the job is potential questions of safety. She stated brokers ought to nonetheless be cautious when connecting with patrons on the web.
Drake College Faculty of Journalism and Mass Communication assistant promoting professor Ryan Stoldt, who teaches about promoting rules and shopper consciousness, stated that throughout industries, 9-to-5 employees are turning day jobs into content material alternatives as social media creators.
Stoldt stated that by posting each day movies, actual property brokers keep high of thoughts for potential patrons and sellers who’re looking for a specialist. Influencers are capable of create relationships with a youthful technology of customers that conventional advertisers can not, he stated.
“We additionally see that conventional commercials may appear just a little extra formal to that technology,” he stated, “however influencers are constructed by means of a private relationship.”
Stoldt stated that how content material is created may probably change in America in mild of TikTok’s ties with China in addition to billionaire Elon Musk’s current buy of Twitter, however prevalence amongst customers is longstanding.
“We’re going to see a spot the place creators can construct relationships with audiences and people audiences are utilizing that as a type of belief to speculate,” Stoldt stated. “It’s about establishing authority with teams of individuals.”
Sharing love and life with the world (and Iowa)
Jennings’ mix of an actual property agent’s private {and professional} life — like sharing an inside take a look at one’s marriage proposal on TikTok or a behind-the-scenes tour of an open home — provides a next-gen lens to actual property’s future.
Her use of TikTok has the identical impact as attending to know shoppers by means of introductory pamphlets, word-of-mouth suggestions or an internet site biography.
On her TikTok collection “Instagram-able Locations in Iowa,” the unofficial metro space tour information provides followers a behind-the-scenes go inside native companies, similar to Des Moines-based winery Jasper Vineyard and bouquet flower selecting at The Vinery in Nevada.
Episode 1 of the digital collection featured Boone-based Rail Explorers, the buzzy social media-friendly vacationer attraction that includes railbikes on practice tracks within the former mining city.
The put up obtained greater than 70,000 likes, 23,000 shares, 12,500 saves, and 1.4 million views whereas Jennings responded with security suggestions, “There are seatbelts,” paired with a happy-faced emoji.
In a single fall-themed put up that generated 2,755 likes and practically 21,000 views, Jennings toured picturesque Storybook Orchard in her hometown of Story Metropolis.
“It’s so charming this time of yr with the autumn colours,” Jennings stated whereas selecting up a pumpkin within the TikTok video. “However the factor I like probably the most about this family-owned orchard is that it’s quaint, quiet, and no admission charge.”
Jennings, who’s engaged to Shawn Shindelar, garnered practically 90,000 views for a point-of-view put up about rising up whereas going to soccer video games in Jack Trice Stadium and the outstanding function that Iowa State has performed all through her life.
“POV: You had been born in Ames, Iowa and introduced house to a home behind Jack Trice Stadium — your loved ones by no means missed a sport. 23 years later, you might be engaged, an ISU alum, and likewise purchased a home proper behind the stadium, so that you stroll to the video games and it by no means will get outdated. ISU is house.”
Jennings and Shindelar met throughout their freshman yr at ISU after Shindelar dropped his pencil in entrance of her after class. “It was on goal, however Shawn won’t ever admit that it was!” Jennings stated.
In April, Shindelar dropped to 1 knee throughout a springtime proposal of their yard on the house the duo shares on a quiet tree-lined avenue in Ames close to the stadium. In Might, the pair turned enterprise companions, Jennings stated.
Subsequent yr, the duo will marry, they usually anticipate pals and kin to journey from states so far as Georgia. There is no phrase on whether or not iPhone cameras for TikTok content material might be current on the wedding ceremony.
The place to search out and comply with Elli Jennings
Recognized for: Showcasing dreamy central Iowa properties and snapping again at commenters who make enjoyable of Iowa
Day job: Actual-estate agent, Jennings Actual Property Staff at RE/MAX Actual Property Heart in Ames
TikTok:@ellijennings; greater than 25,000 followers
Instagram:@ellijenn; greater than 7,000 followers
Jay Stahl is an leisure reporter at The Des Moines Register. Comply with him on Instagram, Twitter, or attain out at [email protected]