WASHINGTON, DC
February 28, 2025

STRANGER: Joe Himali
LOCATION: Sfoglina, 4445 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington, DC
THEME: Lunch with a DC real estate agent, architecture expert and social media influencer

“Hi, I’m Joe Himali”

It’s a signature greeting familiar to Joe’s combined 455,000-plus followers on TikTok, Instagram and other social media. People tune in to see his quirky, sometimes dorky and always informative short videos highlighting architecture of note. 

What started with a focus on interesting architectural features inside and outside buildings in his hometown of Washington, D.C., has rapidly expanded over the past few years. Joe travels throughout the U.S. and overseas to film content for his ever-growing fan base. Watching a few videos offers some clues to his appeal. More than anything, he comes across as a charming nerd, full of energy, quips and smarts.

One clip starts with Joe – in a smart suit and tie – wading through the murky waters of Rock Creek, as he calmly tells the viewers about a brick-paved road that used to pass through Rock Creek Park. In another, he’s standing on the famous set of stairs in Georgetown featured in the movie “The Exorcist” talking about the building next door. Yet another opens with him laying face down on a kitchen counter, legs kicking up the air, talking about the property.

He’s worked as a real estate agent in the District for 26 years. That depth of expertise about the city’s buildings, neighborhoods and local history helps him keep his video series wide-ranging and always fascinating.

The earnest excitement he shows in every video is palpable and clearly engaging for his audience. He’s so popular he has a line of merchandise, including shirts emblazoned with “Hi, I’m Joe Himali.” He tells me when we meet for lunch that social media stardom is not something he planned, but he’s embracing it as a logical outgrowth of his real estate career.

Shooting videos takes up about 40 hours of a regular week. He dedicates another 40 hours to his work as a real estate agent. And his website, Best Address, is the hub for everything, with links to property sales, his several social media accounts, merchandise and more.

“So I work at least 80 hours a week, but is it really work?” he asks with a smile. “I love real estate. I love being a real estate agent. I’m out looking at beautiful properties, negotiating contracts, meeting interesting people. I don’t really consider that work.”

We’re dining at the Italian-inspired restaurant Sfoglina in the Van Ness area where, of course, he shot a video earlier that day at the nearby University of the District of Columbia, showcasing one of the campus’ important links to the past. 

“I was doing a video about Edwin Henderson, who’s considered the ‘Grandfather of Black Basketball,’ who went to UDC,” says Joe, whose upcoming video will elaborate on Henderson’s time in the city. Before that, he was in Northern Virginia’s Falls Church neighborhood talking about African-Americans’ historic fight against efforts to displace them from the area. 

Who knows what’s next? Anything and everything about architecture excites Joe, from fake brickwork to unusual buttons on walls. The straightforward, unpretentious way he speaks online is what you get when you meet him in person.

Wearing a sharp blazer, slacks and tie, Joe has a boyish face, neatly clipped hair and a bright, warm smile. Throughout our hour at the lunch table he’s quick with funny asides and comes across as a naturally inquisitive person, asking almost as many questions of me as I do of him. But he’s the interviewee, and I want to know the secret of his social media success.

As we tuck into some perfectly baked garlic bread and a zesty marinara sauce, Joe says it grew out of his many years in real estate, as well as a dare from his daughter Cole.

Several years ago, Joe says, “I had an assistant, a millennial, who kept telling me that if I didn’t have social media I’d never make another sale again.” He laughs. “I said that somehow I think I’ll survive.” Nevertheless, he signed up for Instagram and got a few hundred followers. “I was doing the usual thing that agents do on there, which is showing what I just listed, what I just sold, saying I won an award, but who cares about any of that?”

One day Joe went to an open house in DC’s Petworth neighborhood and noticed a relatively rare feature: The property had a “pocket” door that slides into the wall. Most homes with these doors no longer have the original key included, but this one – built more than 100 years ago – still did. “So I shot a video where I said, check this out, look at this key, how cool is that? Most people don’t have original pocket door keys, as they’ve all been lost.”

After posting that video to his Instagram video stories, it took off. “My typical post would get three people to respond to it. This one had like 900 responses. I thought, oh my god, it’s the magic elixir. So that’s the first video that had any traction at all.”

That gave Joe the idea to start focusing on unique features at properties and showcasing them for the online audience. Engagement and popularity grew from there.

We pause as the starters arrive, and Joe and I have chosen the same thing — creamy kabocha squash soup with toasted pepitas and crispy pancetta. The smoky meat pairs perfectly with the creamy soup. We agree it’s an excellent appetizer.

As we eat, Joe tells me how one particular video helped his follower count jump overnight, albeit with a little unintentional controversy. A few years ago he filmed at a house built in 1934 in Maryland’s Chevy Chase neighborhood that had a call button on the floor – a subtle, silent way for the owner of the house to buzz to the servants that the next course should be served at dinner, rather than having to ring a distracting bell.

“So I did this video, and then some people started saying I was talking about slaves, but this was a house built in the 1930s, it was an electric call button, so no,” he says, still taken aback at the vigor of the response the video received. “Then the right wing caught on, calling them snowflake liberals, and I’m stuck in the middle wondering what they’re all talking about.”

Until then, no video he’d done had gained more than 1,000 views – this one quickly zoomed past 1 million and Joe’s follower count leaped from 800 to 14,000 over a weekend.

This inspired him to broaden his reach, including through TikTok, which came about thanks to his daughter. “She thought I’d be too embarrassed to go on it because her assumption was that it would be dancing videos or something like that. And she said this when we were at a conference in Luxembourg when we’re at a table with some of the top real estate brokers in Europe. So I told her I would get on TikTok,” he says. He’s enjoyed steady growth ever since.

He doesn’t court controversy for his videos. He prefers to find one-off stories about elements at a property that others might miss. Whatever he films about is whatever truly interests him, and that genuine passion for his subject matter shows vividly.

One example he’s quick to recall came during a visit to the house of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” author Harriet Beecher Stowe in Hartford, Conn. Joe recalls “stopping dead in my tracks” when he spotted a doorknob most people probably wouldn’t give a second glance. Joe realized this one was made from the late 1800s material hemacite – ox blood and sawdust.

“I had heard about hemacite doorknobs but never seen them in the flesh,” He says. “Oh my god!” he exclaims at the memory, and it’s impossible not to get caught up in his joy.

That’s when our entrees arrive, and once again Joe and I have chosen the same thing. We’re having grilled Faroe Island Salmon with warm farro salad, charred broccolini and parsley gremolata. There’s a light, pleasant lemon tang to this dish, which is irresistible and quickly gone from our plates. Once again we’re united in praising the food at Sfoglina.

Between bites, Joe says if there are subjects he needs to learn more about before shooting, he does the necessary research. “If it’s a sponsored post, the sponsor tells me what to say. If it’s a post about real history, I’ll have one of my assistants write a script to make sure I have it right. And others are more like opinion pieces where I point out really cool details,” he explains.

He has a social media manager keeping track of what he’s shooting and when, ensuring the videos are posted, the hashtags are right and all the other ins and outs of social media. Two additional people help with shooting the videos. He also has a business coach and another assistant coordinating real estate transactions.

Joe can trace his love of architecture to watching the home improvement television show “This Old House” in the 1980s, specifically one episode at an architectural salvage store. “Just seeing all the different parts of houses, I thought that was so cool. And then when I got into real estate, that’s why I wanted to specialize in luxury and historic properties.”

He also shares his love of architecture and real estate through a semi-regular series called History Salon, inviting people to a paid lunch and private tour of interesting properties (the next is on March 27 at President Abraham Lincoln’s cottage in DC).

I ask whether social media is starting to pay for itself.  Joe shakes his head. “The real estate pays for everything. But the long run, the objective is to make the social media pay for itself. But that’s a long term goal,” he says.

Before he was a real estate agent, Joe studied photojournalism at Boston University from 1986 to 1990. To be clear, this does not mean he was an aspiring photojournalist.

“I hated school,” he says, before adding with emphasis, “I loathed school. And when I was in college, I wanted to get out as soon as I could because I preferred working to school.”

The only reason he went to college is that it was paid for. When Joe was young his father died, and his mother said her son could use the life insurance for tuition. Joe reluctantly chose Boston University, selecting his major because of his late dad’s interest in photography. “So I felt a certain kinship in doing photojournalism.”

After graduating, Joe opened a board game shop called The Game Place and ran that for several years, specializing in finding and selling rare games from around the world. But the advent of the internet in the late 1990s overhauled how people shopped, making it possible for customers to buy directly from companies anywhere on Earth, without the need for Joe as a middleman. Within five years, his shop closed and he declared bankruptcy.

“It was a terrible time, I remember selling my used CDs to buy food. It was a very hard place to get out of,” he says. Joe knew he needed to find work, but it had to be lucrative. 

That’s how he came around to realizing that real estate might just be the perfect fit. He had retail skills from his shuttered store, he had a natural interest in properties, and he was willing to put in the hard work and unusual hours that a job in the industry would require. When he ran his game shop, he only took off Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

“So only having to work 80 hours a week in real estate, I thought that was the greatest, easiest job in the world,” he says. And his success in the industry was just as rapid as the triumphs he would enjoy with social media many years later. In his first year, he was rookie of the year for his real estate brokerage, selling 21 homes. “I was motivated. If I don’t sell, I don’t eat.”

Finally, dessert arrives, and this time we’ve actually picked different items. 

Joe chose the soft serve gelato, and I immediately regret my choice because it looks amazing. “Oh, you have to get a picture of that,” he says, and I do. “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink or do drugs, I don’t even drink coffee. I like sweets, that’s my problem.”

I went for “Nonna’s Cookie Bag” and chose lemon ricotta out of three possible flavors. The cookie was tasty, but I’d expect a bit more than a single one in a “bag.” I guess it’s truth in advertising: The solitary cookie (good, but not $4 good) indeed came in a bag.

While we’re finishing up our meal and getting ready to part ways, Joe takes another moment to reflect on his unexpected but deeply appreciated social media success.

As of March 2025, he has 154,000 followers on Instagram, 150,000 on TikTok, 129,000 on Facebook, 15,000 on Threads and 7,000 on YouTube. At the rate he’s going, I would not be surprised to check back this time next year to find those figures have all doubled at least.

Regardless of the follower count, Joe will keep on visiting unusual properties around the city, the U.S. and even the world, helping people learn things they might never otherwise discover. Even though he’s pulling 80 hour-plus workweeks, he doesn’t mind.

“I feel like I probably have the best possible life of anybody on the planet. I just I do what I want, where I want,” he says. “I see beautiful things, I meet cool people from all over the place. That’s what it’s all about. I cannot imagine anything more that I could ever want.”