The first time real-estate agent Rochelle Atlas Maize saw Julie Stevens’s home in Santa Monica, Calif., she knew it would be perfect for TikTok. The house had a two-story waterslide into the swimming pool. In the basement, there was a video production area with a projector screen, lighting and microphones, and a hidden room containing an art studio.
“It just clicked when I went down there,” Ms. Maize said. She remembers thinking, ‘I got to market this to TikTokers.’”
A few months later, Ms. Maize made the house available as a free location for influencers to create social-media content. Within two weeks of hitting the market, the property was in escrow after receiving multiple offers. It closed in May for $5.1 million, just under its latest asking price of $5.299 million.
“It was brilliant,” Ms. Stevens, 54, said of the strategy.
An artist and founder of the BeTini line of low calorie cocktails, Ms. Stevens had lived in the six-bedroom, contemporary-style house for about 14 years with her two children. She had added a number of features to the home.
