Real Estate Media Company to Hit $3 Million in First Year Despite Housing Slump
By: Christiana Sciaudone
The real estate market’s still in the doldrums with home sales that have largely slumped since early 2022 amid the vanishing of cheap mortgages.
Even so, a new industry media company forecasts revenue for year one as reaching $3 million in ad sales, broken down evenly across newsletters, original content and social media. Estate Media expects to double revenue in 2025 in part with a membership community that just launched at an annual rate of $1,500 per person. That’s with a current staff of nine people, which won’t quite double next year.
Estate Media is a “personality-driven media company for the real estate business” with a network of more than 20 agents, professionals and creators. It was founded by Josh Flagg, featured on the television program Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles; Griff O’Brien, formerly of Amazon and Starz; and Andrew Shanfeld, also an investor in Cha Cha Matcha and Pop’s Bagels. The company offers podcasts, weekly newsletters and educational shows to entertain and inform those in and interested in the real estate business.
The real estate industry in the U.S. was an estimated $2.53 trillion last year and is expected to reach $2.8 trillion by 2028, according to Mordor Intelligence. It’s also a crowded media field with no shortage of industry publications and influencers from Bisnow and HousingWire to Ryan Serhant and Grant Cardone, but Estate Media thinks it has found a sweet spot. Most brokers don’t understand distribution and don’t know how to monetize content.
“The idea was, let’s take all of these massive names, create original content with them and launch a platform,” O’Brien said. “With content that is fun, entertaining, built around, for us, big personalities, but also educational. And so really, at our core, it’s B2B.”
Estate Media reaches about 120,000 people, largely agents. The talent of nearly 18 agents consists of “big name, luxury agents” and people who have “scale but are more relatable.” Estate also owns big real estate social accounts like one on mid-century modern on Instagram and partners with accounts like “Zillow Gone Wild.”
Given the many aspects of buying, selling and moving in and out of a home, O’Brien sees the advertising business leading to a “clear path to $6 million or $7 million and then getting to $15 million to $20 million advertising and media business.”
Anything beyond $20 million will require expansion into consumer products like the membership program, events and products derived from ad-driven data, O’Brien said.
Estate admittedly kicked off business in “the worst real estate market since the early 2000s,” O’Brien said, at a time when ad dollars were materially down.
“We got the benefit of we’re starting from zero, right?” O’Brien said. “What insulates us and shields us a bit is it’s still the largest asset class in the world, and will continue to be, and people, irregardless of market conditions, will continue to buy homes and need real estate agents.”
In 2023, Estate Media raised $1.65 million from angel investors as well as Powerhouse Capital, an L.A.-based venture capital firm that invested in The Athletic, now part of The New York Times. The company may consider raising more money in the coming months to ensure continued growth or it may lean into profitability.
The membership community targeted towards brokers opened this month and is expected to generate $1.5 million in its first year. It will include coaching, live video, course material, discounts on real estate tech products, an in-person event in Beverly Hills and a referral network.
“We have a very, very clear path, revenue-wise, right now, in terms of audience,” O’Brien said. There is, however, a finite number of brokers in the U.S., about 2 million, with less than half actively practicing. Considering the stage of the business, it has quite a bit of room to continue growing.
