The future of real estate entertainment may very well be on social media. Estate Media, the media company co-founded by “Million Dollar Listings Los Angeles” star and realtor Josh Flagg, closed on a $1 million seed round and has made over $6 million in revenue, TheWrap has exclusively learned.
Total funding is now at $2.65 million. Estate Media’s backers range from Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen and creator Connor Flannery to big names in the world of real estate like New York City-based team Hudson Advisory, “Zillow Gone Wild” creator Samir Mezrahi and broker, author and reality TV star Tracy Tutor. Since its launch two years ago, the brand has amassed over 2.5 million followers across social media, 250,000 newsletter subscribers and over 20 brand partnerships in the luxury, finance and design space, according to the company.
“After years on ‘Million Dollar Listing,’ I saw firsthand that real estate isn’t just about buying and selling. It’s more about storytelling. We created Estate Media to be the most trusted destination for real estate industry and its fans,” Flagg told TheWrap.
The personality-driven media company boasts over 25 of the best known realtors and personalities. “It’s kind of like what Magnolia Network did for lifestyle, but we’re making it for real estate,” Flagg added.
One of those realtors is Tracy Tutor, who has over 461,000 followers on Instagram and who is also a cast member on “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles.” She’s now also a star on Estate Media’s “Mansions & Martinis” alongside Flagg, a show that has over 71,000 followers on YouTube with a first episode that was viewed over 2 million times across all platforms.
“There was this hole in the marketplace for something like Estate Media. I’m represented by one of the largest agencies in Hollywood, and there really wasn’t a space for me,” Tutor told TheWrap.
She noted that though she had a distinct perspective as an experienced realtor in California, she wasn’t getting collaborations or brand opportunities that aligned with her personal brand. That changed once she aligned with Estate Media. Tutor sees the disconnect in traditional media as a symptom of an industry that doesn’t really understand the appeal of real estate.
“Every American has to own or rent a home, or understand the very basic nature of how to buy and sell real estate once you’re over the age of 18 …. Yet somehow Hollywood can’t seem to figure it out. Enter Estate Media. It’s a really cool opportunity for so many people, from a consumer standpoint, to learn, be entertained and not be confined to the parameters of what cable or network stipulates,” Tutor said. “For me, it’s been incredibly successful, so much so that my agency is not happy about it. But you know what? You sleep, and you miss out.”
What sets Estate Media apart is that it’s a media company designed both by and for real estate agents that just happens to have a consumer-focused vertical. The company primarily reaches consumers in three major ways: through content on Facebook and Instagram, longer form content on YouTube and through its newsletter. Facebook is a priority because it still remains a major platform when it comes to real estate, but the real focus is Instagram.
“It’s almost the new park bench or business card for real estate agent,” co-founder Griff O’Brien told TheWrap. “If you’re getting a referral, if you’re promoting a property, it really does live on Instagram.”
Largely, Estate Media’s YouTube content is more consumer-focused and lives as a sort of HGTV or Bravo rival. That’s where you’ll find videos like “LA Real Estate Royalty Left Speechless by this $23.5M Beverly Hills Masterpiece” or “Inside The Obamas’ $39M Martha’s Vineyard Estate: Just Listed for Sale.” It’s YouTube’s prominence in search that makes the platform so vital to the company.
Finally, there’s Estate Media’s newsletter business, which spotlights the company’s talent and highlights different niches in the space. To ensure these two audiences are catered to, Estate Media has pages for both its realtor and hobbyist consumers.
“Our brand is half B2B for the industry. We reach over half a million realtors, so more than a third of all realtors in the U.S.,” O’Brien said. “We’re very purposeful about ensuring that we’re not posting something that is by agents, for agents only to a broad consumer audience and turning them off, and then vice versa.”
Prioritizing social has also allowed the company to experiment in real time and move quickly. A good example of that is “Laughs and Listings,” where Flagg is joined by comedian guest hosts. Once the series launched, the team used the comments section to gauge what parts of the show viewers liked and which guest comedians they wanted to see on future episodes.
“The benefit of social is it allows you to test in real time. You don’t need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars creating a pilot episode,” O’Brien said. “Traditional television fairly stagnant when you look at the ratings of ‘Million Dollar Listing,’ for instance. But when you can gauge in real time, not only what people are watching but sharing, that has informed our programming strategy.”
