Why Home Builders Can't Afford to Ignore TikTok

A bi-weekly round-up newsletter of the best new construction and real estate marketing, sales, and news in the industry.

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In This Issue:

💡 The Big Idea: Why home builders can't afford to ignore TikTok's powerful reach to future buyers.
🐝 Industry Buzz: The latest marketing and real estate news updates.
🧠 Get Your Learn On: Master 7 AI automations that separate winners from everyone else.
🏆 Quick Win: Create a virtual community tour series in just 90 minutes.
🧰 Tech Check: Use Post Planner to save major time on social media management.
🤖 A.I. Prompt Play: A custom prompt to create a trending design feature post.
📚 Recommended Resource: 3 Fundamentals That Make Your Home Builder Marketing More Buyer-Friendly.
🎙️ From The Podcast: Buyer Personas for Home Builders.
🏅 Marvellous Marketing: A standout social media post from New Home Source.
📈 Real Estate Market Update: A look at the market stats for September 2025
... and more!

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
"Love the easy-to-digest format. Gives me a quick pulse check on the industry and some new things to try."

The Big Idea 💡

Build It, Post It: Why Home Builders Can't Afford to Ignore TikTok 

Your competitors are already on TikTok, and they're reaching your future buyers before you even know those buyers exist. This isn't about dancing trends or viral challenges; it's about meeting home shoppers where they're actually spending their time. This insightful article from Outhouse reveals why establishing a presence on TikTok isn't a novelty. It's becoming a strategic marketing imperative for builders who want to stay relevant.

In this article:

☑️ Discover how TikTok creates opportunities to showcase homes in engaging, fast-paced ways.
☑️ Learn why millennials (now the largest cohort of home buyers) and Gen X are increasingly active on the platform.
☑️ Master strategies to build brand awareness, humanize your brand, and create authentic connections.
☑️ Understand how builders are using TikTok to participate in conversations, not just post content.

Industry Buzz 🐝

💪 Builder Confidence Hits Six-Month High as Future Outlook Brightens
Builder confidence climbed to 37 in October, up five points from September and marking the highest reading since April, according to the NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Even more encouraging, future sales expectations surpassed the 50-point breakeven mark for the first time since January 2025.

NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz noted that the HMI gain signals positive momentum for 2026, with forecasts showing single-family housing starts gaining ground next year. Mortgage rates fell from above 6.5% in early September to 6.3% in early October, and combined with anticipated Federal Reserve easing, builders expect a slightly improving sales environment ahead.

🏘️ Smart Home Market Poised for Explosive Growth Through 2029
The global smart home market is projected to surpass $170 billion in revenue in 2025, with household adoption reaching 77.6% this year and climbing to an impressive 92.5% by 2029, according to Statista.

Home builders are responding by integrating systems like Control4, which enables homeowners to manage multiple smart home features from a single platform.

🇨🇦 Canadian Housing Market Shows Resilience Despite Economic Headwinds
CMHC forecasts that Canadian housing sales and prices will rebound as lower mortgage rates and changes to mortgage rules unlock pent-up demand from buyers previously priced out of the market.

While slower population growth presents challenges, the combination of lower mortgage rates and 2024 mortgage rule changes should improve buying power for many households, boosting housing activity in the short term.

Variable-rate mortgages, tied to the policy rate, are expected to see larger reductions than fixed rates, making them increasingly attractive to homebuyers looking to enter or re-enter the market.

Quick Win 🏆

Create a virtual community tour series. Spend 90 minutes recording smartphone video tours of your communities. Show amenities, street scenes, and lifestyle benefits. Edit into short segments for social media.

Tech Check 🧰

Save major time on social media management with Post Planner, the social media scheduler built for engagement. Transform your content strategy by accessing viral posts and articles from top sources in your industry, then schedule them across your different social networks.

Post Planner's AI-powered automation and content curation features help you publish scroll-stopping content that actually gets clicks, while their post recycling feature ensures your best content continues working for you long-term.

AI Prompt Play 🤖

DESIGN CENTER EXPERIENCE

Goal: Generate excitement about the design selection process and showcase options

Prompt: Act as an interior design consultant and social media content creator. I am a [CITY] home builder looking to create an engaging TikTok/Reel series showcasing our design center experience. Create a 5-part series outline where each 30-60 second video highlights a different aspect of the selection process. For each video, provide: 1) An engaging hook that piques curiosity, 2) Key points to cover, 3) Suggested footage to capture, 4) On-screen text ideas, 5) Music style suggestions, and 6) A description that drives engagement. The tone should be exciting and informative, making the design selection process feel both fun and manageable.

Marvellous Marketing 🏅

Today's stand-out social post comes from @newhomesource on Instagram. This stunning luxury home reel perfectly showcases how high-end video production can transform property marketing. The cinematic quality, smooth transitions, and aspirational lifestyle imagery create an emotional connection that static photos simply cannot match.

While not every builder has access to professional videography teams, the lesson here is clear: investing in quality video content (even if it's well-shot smartphone footage with thoughtful editing) can dramatically elevate your brand perception and engage buyers in ways that traditional marketing can’t.

Real Estate Market Update 📈

US Market: According to NAR, existing-home sales rose 1.5% in September 2025. Month-over-month sales increased in the Northeast, South, and West, and fell in the Midwest. Year-over-year, sales rose in the Northeast, Midwest, and South, and remained flat in the West.

NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun noted, "As anticipated, falling mortgage rates are lifting home sales. Improving housing affordability is also contributing to the increase in sales."

Canadian Market: In Canada, CREA reported that home sales declined 1.7% month-over-month in September 2025, though it remained the best September for sales since 2021. Year-over-year sales were up 1.7%.

CREA Senior Economist Shaun Cathcart observed, "With three years of pent-up demand still out there and more normal interest rates finally here, the forecast continues to be for further upward momentum in home sales over the final quarter of the year and into 2026."

What We’re Reading 📖 

Break Through the Noise: The Nine Rules to Capture Global Attention by Tim Staples

Want to create video content that actually gets watched and shared? Tim Staples, CEO of Shareability, reveals the proven system behind getting videos onto YouTube's front page—his company has accomplished this remarkable feat 25 times. This isn't theory; it's a playbook built on billions of views and real-world success stories.

Staples outlines a practical nine-step approach for creating shareable video content that captures attention without requiring a massive budget. For home builders looking to leverage TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube, this book demystifies the algorithms and shows you how to create content that resonates. The case studies alone make this essential reading for any marketer serious about video content in 2025.

Just For Laughs 😂

Points of Interest 🧐

📆  On this day
On this day in 2013 the Mars Orbiter Mission, India’s first interplanetary spacecraft, was launched.

🛏️ Web Goes Down, Bed Goes Up
An Amazon Web Services outage not only affected major apps and websites, but also caused some smart beds to overheat and get stuck in the upright position.

🏨 Loo with a View
A Victorian-era public toilet in Oxford that served gentlemen for over 100 years has been transformed into The Netty, now regarded as one of the city's most unusual boutique hotels.

Whenever you’re ready, there are three ways we can help:

1. Complimentary 1-Hour Strategy Session: Let's get to know each other. We'll hop on a Zoom call to understand your goals and challenges and then provide actionable marketing recommendations tailored to your business. Walk away with strategies you can implement immediately. Schedule your no-cost strategy session.

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3. Complimentary Website & Marketing Check-up: Give your online presence a boost. We'll review your website and marketing channels, then conduct a 60-minute workshop to share our findings. You'll walk away with actionable tips to improve your digital marketing and attract more qualified leads. Sign up for your no-cost marketing check-up.

About Velocity23

Velocity23 is a growth agency and has been specializing in digital marketing for home builders for 13+ years. As one of the first HubSpot partner agencies to specialize in the home-building industry, we’ve helped builders across the country solve their challenges with content marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing, and marketing automation. Our experience has led to the development of the Growth Engine Framework™️, a marketing system that’s helped our clients achieve:

🖥 7.6M+ website sessions
🙋 125,900+ leads generated
🏠 9,825+ homes sold
💰 $3.4+ Billion in reported client revenue

If you’re experiencing marketing challenges or you want to sell more homes and grow your company, book a call today and let’s see how we can help.

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