You've probably seen it already — a carousel slide, a plain background, a caption that starts with "Kinda chic to..." followed by something that's the opposite of glamorous. It's not new to marketing, but it's new to real estate, and it's worth five minutes of your attention this week.
01The Format, Explained
The Kinda Chic trend started gaining traction on Instagram back in April 2026 and spent the summer spreading across both Instagram and TikTok. The format is simple: a creator pairs a plain visual — a photo, a carousel slide, a short clip — with a caption that starts "Kinda chic to..." followed by something honest, unglamorous, or quietly vulnerable. Think "kinda chic to still use a paper planner" or "kinda chic to say I don't know." It hit full mainstream visibility in early August when Drew Barrymore posted her own version, pulling in over 170,000 likes in four days.
The tone sits somewhere between earnest and tongue-in-cheek. It's not making fun of the thing it's describing — it's reframing something ordinary, or even slightly embarrassing, as something worth owning.
02Why It's Working
Feeds are saturated with polish. Every account is optimizing, curating, filtering. The Kinda Chic format works precisely because it refuses to do any of that — it rewards the plain, the honest, the slightly unfinished. That's a big part of why it's resonating so widely: it gives people permission to post the true thing instead of the impressive thing.
For an industry built on polished listing photos and highlight-reel closings, that's a genuinely useful opening.
03The Real Estate Angles
The format only works if the honesty is real — not a humble-brag dressed up as vulnerability. Here are a few angles that actually fit an agent's day-to-day:
The Price Talk
"Kinda chic to tell a seller their price is too high." A real, unglamorous part of the job — and clients respect agents who'll actually say it.
The Walk-Away
"Kinda chic to tell a buyer to walk away after inspection." Protecting a client sometimes means losing a deal — that's worth saying out loud.
The Analog Habit
"Kinda chic to still print out the closing checklist." A small, real, slightly outdated habit that makes you look human instead of algorithmic.
The Honest Unknown
"Kinda chic to say 'I don't know, let me find out' instead of guessing." The opposite of the always-has-an-answer agent persona — and more trustworthy for it.
The best-performing post this month probably won't be your prettiest listing photo. It'll be the one that sounds like you actually talk.
Don't record your own audio — duplicate ours.
Riding the same sound as other posts using this trend is a big part of how the algorithm connects them. Open Efinity Mortgage's Reel, tap the sound name, and hit "Use audio" before you post your own.
Open the Reel on Instagram →04How to Try It This Week
- Pick one honest, slightly unpolished truth about your work — not a listing pitch, not a humble-brag.
- Shoot it simply. Natural light, phone camera, no tripod or green screen required — the unpolished look is the point.
- Duplicate Efinity Mortgage's sound (see above) so your post rides the same audio agents and clients are already seeing.
- Caption it "Kinda chic to [your honest truth]." Keep it short — let the visual and the line do the work, don't over-explain underneath it.
- Post to Reels and Stories both. This format is built for the Reels feed, but Stories keeps it in front of your closest audience too.
You don't need a new content calendar to try this — you need one honest, unpolished truth and five minutes with your phone. Pick one this week and post it.