Woman goes viral for uncovering 'weird' homes for sale on Zillow: 'It has taken off' – Fox News
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What does your home say about you?
A social media creator has garnered over 714,000 followers on TikTok and 51,000 followers on Instagram for sharing some arguably outrageous homes available for sale on Zillow — an American tech real-estate marketplace headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
In 2020, Jessica More, a 35-year-old communications manager from Pennsylvania, was looking for ways to spruce up her home during the pandemic. She began checking out available listings on Zillow, she told Fox News Digital.
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More remembers a time when social media users started sharing their unique internet finds in the midst of COVID-19.
Social media creator Jessica More, 35, went viral in 2020 after creating a TikTok account inspired by some of the most bizarre finds on Zillow, called “Zillowtastrophes.” (Jessica More)
“All of us collectively found this thing to fill our gap of exciting things happening in our lives,” More said.
She owns the TikTok and Instagram accounts @Zillowtastrophes.
“If you found something crazy, it was like hitting the jackpot … and you wanted to share it with other people,” she added.
As someone who works with social media professionally, More saw TikTok as the next big thing and used her newfound hobby to explore the once-new platform, she said.
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She first started sending her Zillow discoveries to her friends, she said, and then expanded it by creating @Zillowtastrophes.
The TikTok account @Zillowtastrophes has 714,400 followers and over 23 million likes. (Zillowtastrophe/Jessica More)
“At first it was kind of an experiment. I was like, ‘How big could I go?’” More recalled.
“It has taken off from there. I couldn’t slow it down if I wanted to.”
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Within a year, More had reached roughly 100,000 followers. She’s had a few posts go viral, which have helped her grow her page.
On March 10, for example, More’s post about an Oklahoma listing was viewed 1.7 million times on TikTok after she featured a home that included a “doll jail,” as she captioned it, which showed a backyard-accessible underground room that was housing a bunch of dolls.
Over the years, More has seen her perspective change in regard to the bizarre homes she highlights; she said she recognizes the courage that comes with making your home your own. (Jessica More/Zillowtastrophe)
What started off as scrolling the real estate app for bizarre dwellings has turned into a network of fans who send her new discoveries.
“At the beginning, I really did look every single day. I would use keyword searches primarily,” More said, adding that she’d look up “unique, indoor pool and stained-glass” — to name a few.
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She will also use the different filters, targeting price point and square footage, she explained.
More once spent hours on the real estate website but has since developed a following of people who send her their favorite “zillowtastrophes.” (iStock)
More said she now receives a large influx of submissions from people advising her to look at specific rooms in the home that make it unique.
She has also noticed a shift in culture between Millennials and Gen Z, regarding the different responses shared to Instagram or TikTok, she added.
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“At the beginning, TikTok was a younger audience. Gen Z, in my opinion, is very open-minded [and] accepting,” More commented.
More has discovered a newfound desire to add “things with more character” to her life, she told Fox News Digital. (Jessica More)
“They have this philosophy, ‘Don’t yuck someone’s yum,'” she added. “[Meaning] if someone likes something, who are you to say it’s not cool.”
When More first started her account, she was expecting people to share their own critiques.
“I think about how someone did something so weird and put all this time and effort and money into it out of love for the space.”
“I was shocked because people were like, ‘Don’t be mean. Somebody put a lot of work into that,'” she said.
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More said she started to notice her own perspective shift because of the responses from her viewers.
The account @Zillowtastrophe is filled with seemingly bizarre homes that are or were listed for sale on the real estate website Zillow. (iStock/Jessica More)
“I appreciate these weird houses so much now. I think about how someone did something so weird and put all this time and effort and money into it out of love for the space,” More said.
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“I think it’s really brave and cool that these people a make these homes their own,” she added.
Fox News Digital reached out to Zillow for an after-hours comment on this story.
Sydney Borchers is a lifestyle production assistant with Fox News Digital.
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This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
