Benjamin Smith always knew he would be famous; he just wasn’t sure how. As the queen of apartment tours, his videos are glamorous. He appears put together, with a fashionable fit,  makeup, and pristinely manicured nails. To the boom of techno music, he gives an audience of 24-thousand followers the inside scoop into Boston’s rental market.

“Everybody loves looking at other people’s houses, but it’s just so goddamn boring sometimes,” Smith said. He criticized the number of ten-second videos just panning around a living room. By bringing more personality and respect for the viewer’s time to the space, Smith said he was able to break out of the industry bubble and reach an audience hungry for “real estate porn.”

Smith started posting in the Fall of 2024, but didn’t gain traction until the following spring. His tour of a unit on Decatur St. and Jeffery’s Point was shared by Barstool Sports and even scored a comment from Doja Cat, propelling him into Boston’s pantheon of local celebrities. 

As the summer progressed and his star continued to rise, the real estate market began to deteriorate. “Thank you, Donald Trump,” he joked, explaining that his job depends on international students, doctors, and researchers. “A huge part of the market got cut out because of the fact that, I mean, who wants to come here?”

He added that this upcoming rental season will determine the profitability of his celebrity realtor status.

Nonetheless, Smith said he is enjoying every second of his newfound fame, routinely stopping to talk with fans and pose for photos. Smith said he is sometimes recognized on the train or around town, especially on a night out, due to his prominence within Boston’s gay community. 

Smith expressed a lot of pride in Boston, specifically his neighborhood, East Boston, but said that if he did not love it here so much, he would probably hate it. He called the city gay-friendly overall, but that socially, it can be very puritan.

“I just feel like even within the community, the more straight-acting, the more regularly presenting you are, the better,” he said. “The more you are like those people with the polos and backwards hats or in a frat, that’s good. That’s what you’re supposed to be like in Boston.” 

Smith said his on-camera persona is a character that he has honed over 38 long years – his authentic self. Even if the way he presents can get a little wild, Smith said he’s confident clients will recognize the effort he puts into his appearance, is the same he will put into securing their dream apartment.

In an interview with WBZ’s Matt Shearer, Smith said the worst apartments in Boston are in Back Bay and Beacon Hill. He explained that those neighborhoods, along with South Boston and Charlestown, are the kind people want to live in, whether the apartment is nice or not. 

“The way that things are being developed, I almost want to say the crappier the neighborhood, the nicer the apartments,” Smith said. “You need a lot to get people to live there in the less desirable areas.”

He added that Roxbury, Dorchester, and the Jefferies Point, Eagle Hill, and Orient Heights neighborhoods of East Boston have a lot of developments for renters to keep an eye on in 2026. 

Smith is a poster child for the benefits of being your authentic self, something often much easier said than done. “If you’re good at what you do, they eventually get over it,” he said. “Quantitative means more than qualitative.” 

He added that, even if he is a little ridiculous, wears clothes more meant for the club than the office, and can have the mouth of a real Bostonian,  when the checks come through, it is difficult to argue against his value.

Smith hopes that his online success could translate into a TV show exploring the rental market.

“There are a lot of real estate shows. Some are good. Some are corny. Some are bad. But they’re all focused on sales. There’s no renting shows,” he said. “In some markets, renting is just as competitive, if not more, than sales.”

While a Netflix series has not been greenlit (yet), Smith will make his first broadcast appearance in April as a special guest on the upcoming “Haus Queens.”

“It’s some of Boston’s more ridiculous drag queens living in a house for a weekend,” he described. “I went out to smoke a cigarette. When I walked back in, they were on top of each other, ripping each other’s wigs off. God knows what happened when I wasn’t looking. It’s going to be completely ridiculous.” 

Make sure to be on the lookout for it! In the meantime, follow Ben on Instagram.  

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