The Herald Sun has revealed how Generation Z and social-media savvy millennials are using everything from TikTok to Instagram to rattle the rungs of Victoria’s property ladder.

Now we take a closer look at how individual influencers built their following.

RELATED: Realty stars making dollars and change on TikTok, Instagram

Family who sold their house to pay for chance at IVF’s surprise home luck

Stop blaming international students for housing crisis

NIK MLADICHEK

Social media handle: @_compliance_building_reports

Nik Mladichek founded Compliance Building Reports in 2020 with the hope of saving homebuyers thousands of dollars.

After just one year posting his home inspections to social media, sometimes revealing the horrifying risks buyers could be taking purchasing a defect-riddled home, he’s amassed about 50,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok.

The 39-year-old said “without a shadow of a doubt” his Instagram and TikTok presence helped his business grow, with high inquiries for his services.

Nik Mladichek founded Compliance Building Reports in 2020.

---

But it had also revealed startling concerns about Australia’s homebuying landscape.

“It appears that there’s a huge shortage of private inspectors in New South Wales and in Queensland, and in other states,” he said.

While much of his work highlights faulty residential construction, Mr Mladichek said he didn’t want to be seen as “absolutely belting builders and the building industry over the head”.

Instead, he said he wanted to create awareness about the problems he was consistently seeing in the industry.

Although many home builds tended to run smoothly at the beginning, he said defects would appear and the end and the jobs came across as rushed.

“Builders obviously need to hand over the build as quickly as possible and it’s in their best interest so they can move on to the next site, but they need to ensure that what they’re delivering to the customer meets the minimum standards,” he said.

Nik offers a wide range of inspection services — ‘whether you’re buying, building or having building problems’.

---

“I think it’s a scary time and I think there’s a lot of fear due to the economy and a lot of builders are doing it tough; it is not an easy game to be in right now.”

But Mr Mladichek said the lack of supervision over a building company’s tradesmen was letting them down and affecting their profits.

“It’s not very profitable if you’re not able to, one, deliver the property within the contracted time, and two, if there is an abundance of faults and defects as those mistakes cost money to rectify,” he said.

The building inspector added that his wife, Lazarela Ninkovic, was the brains behind the social media operation.

“I obviously take the footage on site, but Lazarela; she’s responsible for the social media exploding and she has put in hundreds of hours into the social media platforms,” he said.

“I’m the face of the business but behind the scenes, she’s been the engine.”

Sign up to the Herald Sun Weekly Real Estate Update. Click here to get the latest Victorian property market news delivered direct to your inbox.

MORE: Melbourne ghost sites: Family plan to turn long-time vacant block into hi-tech homes

Home akin to Pride and Prejudice’s estates has dam perfect for Mr Darcy to swim in

The Lucky Coq, Naked for Satan restaurateur selling $8m South Yarra home