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Reddit just passed Facebook as a third most visited website in the US and they go back and forth. Sometimes it's Reddit, sometimes it's Facebook. And almost every agent I know is still pouring most of their time into a platform that's not even in the top 10 in the U.S. These are the top four sites in the US right now. Google, YouTube, Reddit and Facebook, in that order. Three of those four aren't social platforms. They're search engines. Real ones. People show up to ask questions and guess what they find. Answers. That single fact should change how you think about content, presence and where the next buyer or seller actually lives online. You see, most agents built their playbook around scroll surfaces, Instagram Reels, TikTok loops. And I'm not going to tell you they don't work because they work for us. We get business. But Facebook posts that beg for enlightenment, that made sense in 2019, it made less sense in 2022, and in 2026, it's actively misallocating your attention. So Google, YouTube and Reddit hold the top three spots in the United States because people aren't scrolling them, they're typing questions into them. Questions about neighborhoods, questions about mortgage rates, questions about school districts, commute times, 18 agent recommendations, and whether a city is even worth moving to. Here's the part nobody's talking about, or at least I haven't seen it much in our world. Reddit didn't pass Facebook because it got cooler. Which, you know, I don't know, but it's not as cool as Facebook. Maybe I'm just old. It passed Facebook because of AI ChatGPT perplexity. Claude and Google's AI overviews quote Reddit constantly and you see it on Google where they do the AI overview at the top. Go to the right and then you'll see some of those outputs are from Reddit directly. Now, when AI answers, is Thousand Oaks a good place to retire or what's it really like living in Charlotte? It pulls from Reddit threads. Consumers figured out that AI was using Reddit as the source, so they followed the trail. They went straight to the well. You could say now there are thousands of threads in R Realestate or r first time homebuyer and every local city subreddit full of people asking real questions about your market. And in most of those threads, there's not a single agent in the conversation. I know because I read through them. Think about that. The most visited forum in the United States is hosting, buying and selling conversations about your city. And you're not Even in the room. Now here's how I'd reorganize the priority list if I were starting today. Google business profile, local SEO, aeo, they sit at the top. That's your front door. Every best neighborhood search every real estate agent near me, search every map result. That's where it starts then and maybe almost as equal, I would say YouTube long form video about neighborhoods, school districts. The real cost of living in your city is exactly what people search for and exactly what AI rewards when it builds. An answer then number three would be Reddit, right? Find the subreddit for your specific city or your region. Show up not to sell, but to answ. Answer. That is the key, right? Hey, here's the answer. Now I'm a real estate agent. This is my thought. Call me be the agent who knows the difference between two of my areas, Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks. The agent who tells someone the truth about Mello Roos in their target neighborhood. The agent who explains what a flood zone designation actually means before they put in an offer. And guess what you can do with that information once you have it. If you see those questions being asked, job would be to create more content so that it shows up on Google and it shows up on YouTube. So long form videos for the for the answers you're giving here. Now, Facebook stays in the rotation. It's just not the headliner that it was at one point. But dang, the top most visited website in the US is number four and number three in the world. It's pretty big. And now I want you to start looking at how you can use it. And here's why. When you put all four together, it's important to add them to your arsenal of how you approach real estate. Because even though the top three are search portals, Facebook functions in a similar way in a community setting. And I mean, think of what you use Facebook for. If you're using it. You're going into a community to find out information about things you love or things you're interested in. And you're looking at Facebook to find people that are familiar to you. Say, hey, I wonder what my grandma's doing. I want my sister, my brother, my cousin, my friends, and whatever. Now that's a slight platform shift from where it used to be. And the agents who are shifting early and paying attention is going to be key because you're staying on top of those things and you know exactly how to use them now. I've watched shifts happen over the years, and you have too. There are shifts happening in your Market, there are shifts happening online. And I want you to pay attention to this because here is the biggest opportunity you have. The shift that's happening gives you an opportunity to get in there. Because the moment you start creating content that's being pulled into Google, YouTube is being pulled into ChatGPT, and ChatGPT is pulling from YouTube, Google, Reddit, it's coming together, right? So I would consider one of these, two of these, three of these places out of the four places that you should really put your attention to. And I know some of you don't even know or haven't jumped into Reddit. Take some time to read some of the Reddit threads, right? Moving to Westlake Village with two kids. What should I know? And in that thread, the top answer probably isn't from an agent, right? It's from a stranger, from that has seven upvotes. Maybe not even doesn't live there anymore. But the way upvotes work, it's like, oh, that was a useful answer. Click up. Oh, that was a useful answer. That makes sense. Click, click, click. And then people continue to continually push that up, right? And that stranger is shaping your market right now. And you're not. One action today, I want you to do this. Pick one subreddit for your market. And if you're like, tristan, how the heck does Reddit work? You can do one of two things. One, just jump right into it. Figure it out. May not be the route you go, or go to your AI of choice, ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude Grok, or even Perplexity, and say, hey, can you explain to me how Reddit works? Because I want to start using it today for real estate, because I'm a real estate agent in. And then put your city, you start getting to where you want to get to a lot faster. But if you just want to jump into Reddit, search moving to. And then put your city, moving to Thousand Oaks, moving to Los Angeles, moving to Malibu, or put your city, put Malibu real estate or Thousand Oaks neighborhoods. And then you're going to find three threads with real questions. And. And you'll also see in some cases, some of those don't have real estate agents answering them. They have actual people that have no licenses. You start answering one. Get comfortable. It's not a pitch, it's a real answer. That kind of answer that you'd give a friend to at dinner, like I just did last week when we were at a dinner for my friend's 50th birthday. They started talking about real estate and investing. And here I go right that's it. One answer, one thread today. Because that next buyer in your market is probably reading that exact thread right now and it's probably going through chat GPT and pulling it through there. Which makes you wonder. Reddit is probably a starting point because that question can then be put into a YouTube video that you're going to create that's five to 10 minutes long. That YouTube video can then be a blog that you're going to write and post up on your website so that Google ChatGPT can find it as well. Anyway, hope you found this useful. If you have any other questions you know how to reach me on this one and if you have any suggestions as to what you want me to talk about, I'm always taking topics. I'll be like hey, I know how to do that one. I'll talk about that one. Have an awesome day. Share this with somebody you think may need this.
Podcast: Your Daily Real Estate Podcast with Tristan Ahumada
Host: Tristan Ahumada
Episode: 895
Date: May 13, 2026
In this brief yet impactful solo episode, Tristan Ahumada explains why Reddit is rapidly becoming an essential platform for real estate professionals seeking to generate leads in 2026. He breaks down how the shifting landscape of web traffic and the rise of AI-driven content have made platforms like Reddit, Google, and YouTube much more valuable than traditional social media feeds for real estate agents. Tristan shares actionable strategies for leveraging Reddit to engage with buyers and sellers, increase visibility, and create valuable content that gets pulled into AI assistants and search engines.
On Misplaced Time Investment:
"Facebook posts that beg for enlightenment, that made sense in 2019, it made less sense in 2022, and in 2026, it's actively misallocating your attention." (01:00)
On Why Reddit Rose to Prominence:
"Reddit didn't pass Facebook because it got cooler... It passed Facebook because of AI—ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google's AI Overviews quote Reddit constantly." (01:40)
On the Power of Showing Up:
"The most visited forum in the United States is hosting, buying and selling conversations about your city. And you're not even in the room." (02:53)
On Answering Questions:
"Show up not to sell, but to answer. That is the key, right? ‘Hey, here's the answer. Now I'm a real estate agent... This is my thought. Call me.’" (04:35)
Immediate Action Item:
"One action today, I want you to do this. Pick one subreddit for your market." (06:13)
Tristan's tone is candid, practical, and future-focused, urging real estate professionals to leave outdated tactics behind and meet today’s buyers and sellers where they’re actively searching and conversing online.
Episode CTA:
“One answer, one thread today. Because that next buyer in your market is probably reading that exact thread right now…” (06:55)