TikTok Influencer Tabitha Swatosh Reveals Shocking Sexism She Faced While Shopping for a Home as an Unmarried Woman

TikTok sensation Tabitha Swatosh has candidly opened up about the brutal sexism she says she faced while shopping for a home in Nashville, TN, as a young, unmarried woman.

Swatosh, 24, who rose to fame as a member of the popular influencer collective “Hype House,” detailed her shock at being questioned over her ability to afford a property alone in a series of TikTok videos, having previously expressed her excitement to followers at the beginning of her homebuying journey.

The influencer was seeking a dwelling in Nashville, having relocated to the city from Los Angeles earlier this year when she moved into a rented abode in a leafy suburb of the popular metro.

However, her dream of finding her first real house quickly met some significant hurdles, with Swatosh revealing that she struggled to find real estate agents who would take her “seriously” because of her age and marital status.

Swatosh, who has been in a committed relationship with fellow social media star and musician Michael Sanzone for several years, most recently took to the video-sharing platform to lament the shocking manner in which she says she has been treated while house hunting.

Joking that she feels as though she is “not allowed to buy a house,” Swatosh confessed that she was growing increasingly frustrated with the process, noting that it has been “one thing after another” as far as the obstacles in her way.

“I have just had so many home issues, even when I first moved to Nashville, it’s been one thing after another,” she said, although she hastened to note that her own real estate agent had been nothing but courteous throughout the process.

“I found a house that I really liked and my [agent] reached out to the agent. I show up to the house with my [agent] and the [listing] agent, who was an older gentleman. [He] shook my [agent’s] hand and didn’t look at me one time,” she went on.

“This man starts talking about the property as if I’m not standing there. My [agent] keeps looking at me like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ and he asks when we can go inside and the agent looks at him and says, ‘When the potential tenant gets here, we will go inside.'”

The social media star then said that the listing agent was “gagged” when he discovered she was the prospective buyer, claiming that he didn’t even try to hide his surprise.

She alleged that the listing agent then began hounding her with questions about her relationship status, asking her if she was married—prompting her to respond that she was buying the dwelling alone, without the help of a partner.

“This man, a stranger, looked at me and said, ‘I don’t believe you.’ Then, my boyfriend called and I was showing him around the house and while I am on the phone with my boyfriend this agent says, “Is your boyfriend going to be living here?'” she recalled.

“At this point, my [agent] says, ‘Hey man, I don’t think you need to know any of that, that is so irrelevant to her getting the house.’

“The agent … then asks, ‘Whose name is going to be on the house?’ I say me and then the agent says, ‘I don’t feel comfortable showing you the rest of the house unless a man is on the lease because I don’t believe that you could pay for it on your own. So unless you’re married or he is on the lease, you cannot see the rest of the house.'”

The social media star insisted that this wasn’t a one-off, adding that when people see her photo they don’t take her seriously because of her age and because she is “single.”

She noted that people repeatedly assume that because she is “young” she isn’t “serious” about getting a home.

“To see some houses, we have literally had to lie and say that I am engaged,” she said.

At the end of the video, she suggested that if she was an “older woman,” she would never be “spoken to like that.”

Luckily, she since appears to have found the perfect property—revealing to her fans a few days later that she had stumbled across her dream dwelling, after a monthslong search, although she did not provide any details about her chosen abode.

The news of her new purchase comes after she was forced to change the locks at her new home because of a major security mistake.

After days of uncertainty, Swatosh—who is known online as Tabs—managed to find a new dwelling to rent. However, her joy at moving into that property was short-lived when she made the grave mistake of flashing her front door keys to her millions of followers in a video documenting her first day in the home.

In the clip, an excited Swatosh can be seen telling her 14.9 million followers that she has set up the gas and electricity at the property, and needs only to pick up the keys before “the house is mine!”

The video then cuts to a clip of the influencer’s boyfriend and their close friend, singer Alex Warren, packing up her belongings, before she opens the doors to her new property—happily flashing her keys at the camera in the process.

Though she undoubtedly thought the action was innocent, several of her followers were quick to point out how easily she had compromised her safety.

First, several users warned that using the same keys as the previous owner can be risky because it’s impossible to tell whether the former residents have given up every single key they made.

Second, and perhaps more pertinent as far as Swatosh is concerned, sharing an image or video of your keys online can enable would-be thieves and criminals to make a copy, leaving your home at serious risk of a break-in.

“Please update locks, get a security system, stay safe,” one person wrote in response to the clip, while another added: “Don’t forget to change the locks and any door codes!”

“There’s quite a bit of information that can be gleaned simply by looking at a physical key (or an image of one),” security experts at Nighthawk Strategies warn. “Many keys may have an inscription of the brand of lock it is used for, such as Master, Schlage, Kwikset, Brinks, and so on.

“Additionally, the number of ‘bittings’ or pointed notches on a key can tell an observer how many pins are inside its corresponding locking mechanism.

“In theory, a criminal could use a picture of a key to recreate a physical key using various methods, including 3D printing or an online-based locksmithing and key-cutting service.”

Thankfully, Swatosh’s mistake did not go unnoticed by her loved ones—with her boyfriend later revealing in a video posted to his account that he had hightailed it to Home Depot to get a new lock for the front door of the home.

“So we just got a new place and within five seconds, Tab already posted the keys, so come with me to Home Depot to replace the locks,” he said, while striding into the store.