How home brokers are gaining internet celebrity as real estate influencers

There is a practised flamboyance about Ravi Kewalramani, a real estate broker, as he sweeps through rooms at a South Mumbai 2BHK, rattling off architectural features — “10.5 feet height”, “vintage granite tiles”, “old-world balcony” — while an iPhone cameraman keeps pace.

No reality show deal yet, but his home tour videos have brought the 43-year-old stardom online. In the past four years, he has found 1.1 million Instagram followers, 920,000 YouTube subscribers, and dozens of HNI patrons. Kewalramani doesn’t spend long on the apartment where we meet: It’s a rental, going for Rs 2.75 lakh per month. He is saving energy to show off outright sale properties, priced at Rs 5 crore and up.

Robust demand for high-end homes among some in India, and equally robust curiosity among others about what these homes look like, has been allowing small brokers to hit impressive numbers as content creators. In 2023, Mumbai entered the world’s top 10 luxury residential markets, according to Knight Frank India, and city homes costing more than Rs 10 crore had their biggest half year of sales in 2024, per India Sotheby’s International Realty. Besides, the fact that reliable information can be hard to come by in the still-murky sector means people are paying attention to real estate agents who are prominent.

Kewalramani started filming homes “for survival” when the pandemic threatened to put the brokerage out of business, editing the early slapdash videos on his own. Now his views across platforms exceed 300 million, though only about 10 per cent of the sales leads generated online convert to serious offline discussions.

The online fame of real estate agents is a sign buyers want the sector to be as transparent as possible, reckons real estate entrepreneur Mayank Agarwal. His Instagram account has gained more than 835,000 followers after he began posting cautionary videos (at times with actual alarm bell sounds) on possible traps in real estate shopping. Agarwal had burnt fingers acquiring a plot of land in 2014. His social media account isn’t just public service. His internet persona directly fuels sales at his two ventures — Edstate, an edtech platform for realtors that recorded revenues of Rs 1.5 crore in its first year, and the consultancy, The Green Cottage, which sold properties worth crores through online leads. The first of his videos to go viral, “Things to do before you buy #4”, was viewed over 100,000 times. “It may not sound like much, but that is enough eyes to fill two cricket stadiums.”

Two cricket stadiums worth of eyes also follow Mohammed Abrar Teli, a third-generation broker who runs his grandfather’s door-to-door real estate agency as a mainly digital one today. Not everyone online is sold on dreams of sea-facing balconies and private pools, he finds. Left out of the property-buying boom as unemployment levels in India remain steady, sections of the audience respond to videos of lavish listings with eat-the-rich mockery.

When Teli pitched a Jogeshwari building as going for “sirf (only) Rs 305 crore”, followers scoffed: “Rs 5 kam hai, warna le leta”, “Bhai, mujhe uske baad Taj Mahal bhi kharidna hai”. To keep more people happy, the broker brings up budget homes — of Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore — after every few posts. He has embraced “sirf” as a tongue-in-cheek catchword now.

Having started with virtual walkthroughs on YouTube 12 years ago, Teli expects this way of selling homes will grow because people can see and understand properties better. His customers from West Asia, the United States, and Canada are transacting purely based on videos and trust.

That trust, in his case, was gathered by the generations involved in this work before him. Social media fame opened new doors. He is now selling through broker partners pan-India and in Dubai. “Now we can reach A-list developers,” he says, noting that such builders are willing to pay for videos.

Developers, on their part, are watching with interest. “Influencer marketing is evolving, with more specialised and niche influencers emerging, speaking to specific segments of the market. The real estate sector is no exception,” says Atul Bohra, Group CEO at Kolte-Patil Developers. Bohra wants to boost the firm’s marketing strategy with influencer-led tours and honest reviews. “This approach not only helps build trust and connect with potential buyers, but also provides a platform to highlight the distinctive features and lifestyle offerings.”

Varsha Morekar, from the outskirts of Mumbai, quit her full-time role in corporate real estate to launch her own virtual walkthrough company in February. She was inspired by the Dubai market. “People respond better to regular people than big stars paid to advertise,” says the 28-year-old, who has amassed 28,000 followers so far. She finds the online real estate marketing scene in India has yet to match the maturity and glitz of its Gulf counterpart. A rare woman in a largely male domain, Morekar says she used to get off-colour comments on her posts until “people realised this is a serious account”. Most women brokers quit when they get married, says Morekar: “You don’t get weekends off and there are no holidays.” 

Ritesh Wani has a pharmacy degree, but the 21-year-old manages realtor influencers, including Morekar and Bhawesh Kaware — the latter is famous for touting properties based on how close they are to a D-Mart. It was only after influencers began video tours, says Wani, that platforms 99Acres and Housing.com added them. Though it is hard to get an accurate estimate, those with a large following earn in the ballpark of Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh for collaborations. There are also invitations to speak at conferences and podcasts, says Agarwal.

As a policy, everyone agrees it is wise to avoid collaborating with builders who have delayed projects for years. “We do not want to lose the home buyers’ faith,” says Kewalramani. His office vets clients, even big-name politicians and movie stars, with a long form to fill. People come for the pleasure of looking at tricked-out apartments but the only way to get them to stay and do business, he says, is by being thorough.

Once low down the pecking order in real estate, brokers have been acquiring licences, registration and polish. Morekar expects their rise to continue as buyers get more aspirational and knowledgeable. 

The influencer recently bought her first home.