Some of these predictions might surprise you, others might validate what you’ve been feeling, but all of them will help you show up better in 2026.

Chelsea and Kayla share their marketing predictions for real estate agents this year: why social media is now interest media, the rise of episodic content, why Dupe photos might not be cutting it anymore, and soooo many more, they might need a part 2! 👀

How We Did with Our 2025 Predictions (Pretty Darn Good)

Let’s take a look at our 2025 predictions:

Personal branding is non-negotiable. Still true. If anything, it’s even more important now.

Storytelling is everything. You’re telling stories through your listing videos, your Instagram stories, your emails. The agents who lean into storytelling are the ones getting remembered.

Repetition and series-style content. This matters more now than ever. People want to know what to expect from you.

More face-to-camera content. We thought B-roll might take a backseat, and while B-roll is still going strong, face-to-camera content is what builds trust the fastest. It’s conversion content, even if it doesn’t always get the most likes.

Faceless accounts and stock video were on their way out. We were right. People want real humans, not robots or generic footage.

Mixed media graphics. Less polished, more scrapbook-style. Open Instagram right now and you’ll see exactly what we mean.

Documenting over creating. This became the most-used phrase on our podcast in 2025, and for good reason. It’s the secret to making content creation actually doable.

So yea, we basically nailed it! And with that confidence boost, now we’re sharing our predictions for 2026…

1. Social Media Will Continue To Be Interest Media

People are consuming content they’re interested in, which means you need to have some type of angle to your real estate content, something specific that people follow you for.

And while this might ruffle some feathers, we’re gonna say it anyway: you need to stand for something. Don’t be vanilla! When you do this and add personality to your content, that’s what builds interest and makes people remember you.

Think about all those moments in a transaction when something comes up, and you just wish the general public understood this thing about real estate. They have misconceptions about what it’s like to work with an agent, about buyer commitment, or about how the process actually works.

That can be your angle!

Maybe you don’t do open houses, and here’s why… Here’s what you do instead. That will make someone stop and listen. They’re going to be like, wait, what do you do? I thought open houses were required.

Your angle could be positive too. Maybe your whole thing is about making the community a better place or why you really help people buy homes. Maybe you want to treat every client like your mom, your dad, or your best friend.

Your angle is what makes your content magnetic. The industry almost wants you to be this cookie-cutter mold, all doing the same thing, saying the same thing, hyping up your brokerage. That’s not fun, and it doesn’t work on social media.

2. Consistency Beats Constant Reinvention

How many times have you sat down and thought, I just need a whole brand overhaul. I need to burn it all down and start over?

Imagine you went to see Taylor Swift live, and she only played her new songs. What if she was like, I’m kind of sick of playing all these other ones. I don’t want to play All Too Well (10 Minute Version) anymore. I’ve sang that so many times!

How many people would be so disappointed? Because yes, even the people at the show have heard that song a thousand times, but that’s why they like her. They’re fans because they love her music.

Just like artists sing the same songs over and over, especially the longer they’re in the industry, you have to say the same message. You have to show the same brand props and elements, and show up day after day.

You do it until you start to get bored with it… and then you do it a little bit longer.

If someone lands on your account and it’s just a million different graphics, just listed posts, just sold posts, a picture of your kids, then a vacation photo with no cohesiveness, they’re going to scroll right past.

Think about walking into Anthropologie. Whether you walk into one in New York City or Florida, it’s going to have the exact same vibe. You’re like, yep, this is Anthropologie. That’s done very intentionally, down to the smell inside the store.

Here’s a fun exercise: get a piece of paper and write down if your brand was a store, a physical place, and someone came inside, what does it look like? What color are the walls? What’s the lighting like? What do you sell there? Down to the music playing over the speakers in your store. What Spotify playlist?

Going through that exercise will really help you envision what you want this to look like on Instagram.

You can start with color, start with a font or two, and let that guide you. If you do reels, think about Ellie Sue Barrows on Instagram. Her look is consistent. She always has this effect that sounds like someone’s typing, and it pops up this butter-yellow font on top of her video.

You see her in your explore feed and you know that’s her. That is branding.

You can do it simply through choosing a font, a visual, an effect in your reels, or the way you start your reels. We call them reel rituals. It could start with you pouring coffee, pouring wine, lighting a candle. Those are rituals that create a brand cue. It alerts people watching like, she always does that, or that’s her again, and it starts to stick.

Visual consistency over constant reinvention.

3. Episodic Content is Your New Best Friend

Episodic content builds trust really fast because it’s reliable. People know what to expect.

One way you can do it is by focusing on content that comes before the closing. Some examples:

Day One of Selling Real Estate in [City Name] in 2026. Now every time you want to document behind the scenes of your business, you can mash a couple of clips together and add that title. Day Two of Selling Real Estate in [City Name] in 2026.

Neighborhoods to Search In If You Want [this feature or amenity]. Now you’re speaking to your ideal client because you know they want a bigger kitchen or more yard room or they want to be in walking distance to something.

Having Fun in [City Name]. You can check out a local place. This isn’t something you have to share every week or every day. You drip it in. If you have a goal to post something like this every three or four weeks, that’s great.

One thing we’ve heard people say about journey-style content is, what if it doesn’t go well? We talked to an agent a few months ago who had just moved to a new city, and we told her to do journey-style content where she’s like, “explore this city with me.”

What she was nervous about was looking like she didn’t know what she was talking about. Our response was, well, it’s sparking so many conversations with people who can’t wait to tell you about it. You’re probably going to know more about your community than people who’ve actually grown up there all this time because you’re actively seeking it out.

There’s a creator, her name is Vix Meldrew. She started a series about how it was her goal to reach 100,000 followers. She had like 58,000, but she had this whole plan on how she was going to get there, and she started documenting it.

Several months later, she posted a reel that said, be cringe, post the B-roll, pop a selfie on stories, use the trending audio, add the hashtags. It’s how I went from 58K to 45.2K. And she’s just standing there and then walks out the door. Her caption was: “I’ll see myself out.”

People were commenting being like, this is such a breath of fresh air. You see all these people posting their success stories and how they now have $100,000 months, and you feel like you must be the one doing something wrong. But the truth is, even the best in the business fail sometimes.

As you’re doing all this, we’re not saying post all your failures and air your dirty laundry. It’s just about being a little bit vulnerable and saying, it’s okay to adjust or be like, well, that didn’t work, so I’m going to do this instead. Or remember the time I said I was going to do this every day? Well, I changed my mind.

That’s just being human. Let’s be honest, you’re the only one thinking about your content. People might enjoy consuming it, but will they notice if you don’t post that for the next four months? Probably not.

We have to give ourselves some grace here. If we want to lean into journey-style content, we have to be prepared to give ourselves the grace to make adjustments.

4. Lifestyle Marketing Wins Over Education Overload

As agents, especially when we want to prove our value and worth, it’s really tempting to just educate, educate, educate on Instagram.

However, if we’re honest about the way the average general public experiences Instagram, they’re not logging in because they want to learn something new. Now, it doesn’t mean you can’t ever teach anything, but it does mean we have to lean into some sort of entertainment or connection.

One way to do that is with lifestyle marketing that paints the picture of the kind of life that your ideal client would want to live.

It doesn’t mean you have to become this home vlogger. It just means show yourself cutting up the food or preparing something in your kitchen, and say, “POV: you took a chance and sold your 2.8% interest rate home, and now you’re entertaining your kids’ friends every weekend.”

If your content can get someone scrolling on Instagram at Target or at a red light to lean in, then you have done something well.

5. RIP ChatGPT-Coded Content

If you’re relying solely on ChatGPT for your content, people are going to sniff it out because they’re starting to get tired of it.

People can engage with AI on their own and ask it all their questions. When they encounter your content, they don’t want more of the same; they want YOUR perspective.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t use ChatGPT anymore. There are so many things you can use it for, but if you are simply saying, “here’s a hook, write a caption for me,” you’re going to be so irrelevant that you’re almost better off not even posting.

When you have the posts that just say over and over again, I asked ChatGPT blah blah blah, and here’s what it said, it might be fun for you, but why would anyone else find that relevant?

The only thing someone might want to know from that is the prompt that you used for ChatGPT, but that is not helping your future buyers and sellers see themselves and picture what it’s like to work with you.

If any agent in your market could post that same thing, it isn’t differentiating you at all. We do think it was more entertaining in the beginning when people were just discovering ChatGPT, but now it’s mostly tiring.

Obviously, we all do this for a living, so we’re paying a lot more attention to this than most people are, but we predict it’s going to become a giant ick and an absolute no-no in 2026 for most people.

So instead of that, use ChatGPT to maybe analyze what content of yours performed the best and how could you make it better. Or what are some other angles? Or maybe you want to bring in this topic, how could you do that?

ChatGPT is an amazing tool, but it’s not meant to become our social media plan.

6. Photo Dumps Will Need More Context

Photo dumps are all over the place because they’re easy, but they need more context.

Even if you take a listing and your carousel is just 10 photos of the house, that’s kind of boring. How would anyone who sees that on Instagram be like, I’m going to stop and look this right now?

Our prediction is that photo dumps need YOU in them.

We’re talking like you’re on the front porch of the house that you’re listing with a cup of coffee as your cover photo, not just the front door. It’s inserting yourself because if you are building a personal brand, the only way for that to stand out is to have you be part of it.

You can’t hide behind the houses and the listings and the closings. We need to put ourselves in it so someone sees it as she is listing the house. She’s showing me this house. She’s bringing me along.

7. Dupe Photos Are Out, Your Own Content Library is In

We have historically been big fans of Dupe Photos. It’s a great place to go for inspiration or filler content.

The problem is that everybody has discovered Dupe Photos, and now everyone’s content is starting to look the same. It’s historically been a really great resource, but we don’t think it’s going to continue working.

For agents who want to stand out in 2026, they’ve got to take their own photos and B-roll.

Dupe Photos was always meant to fill the gaps. It’s not meant to be the replacement of your own personality and your brand.

It is literally not possible to get results on social media if you don’t have photos of yourself or video of yourself. This is tough love, but there’s no going around it anymore!

Maybe you don’t like what you look like, but would you not go to a listing appointment because you don’t like how you look? That’s always our comeback when someone says that.

With time and practice, you’ll get better at taking photos. You’ll learn ways to take them that make you feel better about yourself as you keep doing it.

Patterns Are Your Secret Weapon

The one that kind of sums things up is patterns are your secret weapon.

When you’re doing a series or trying a new style of content, don’t do it once. You need to repeat it enough to look back and see, okay, as a pattern, did that work? Did people follow me? Did they save it? Did it start conversations in my DMs?

This applies to everything: the hooks you’re using, your on-screen text style, your story font… Don’t change your text in your reel every time you create one.

If you have a series, keep your series title really clear. Repeat it, repeat it, repeat it.

Patterns are your best friend. So pick a few things, commit to them, and let the repetition do the heavy lifting for you.

This episode was edited by Adrienne Cruz.