It’s 10 a.m. sharp, and Abby Kurtz gets her first assignment of the day. She’s received a time, a location in San Francisco and a target.

Her weapon of choice: an iPhone.

“Being a social agent is really the coolest thing ever,” she said. 

Kurtz is a content creator working through an app called Social Agent, part of an expanding gig economy where more and more workers are trading stability for flexibility. Work that once required connections, planning, and a big budget can now be booked with a tap —extending the on-demand model from rides and meals to storytelling itself.

 Just make a request, and someone like Kurtz can arrive within 30 minutes, camera-ready.

“What I look for when I’m shooting events is very crisp and clean content,” she said. 

Her mission this time took her to Sutro Nursery, a nonprofit dedicated to growing native plants and that is hoping to grow its volunteer base, too. Board member Maryann Rainey said booking a Social Agent is a lot cheaper than hiring someone to do their social media full-time. 

“I know I can’t do it myself, and I was certainly hoping that these young people would know how to do a good film,” Rainey said.

A typical job runs about $200, with same-day delivery. Agents earn around $50 an hour, plus tips. And if clients already have footage, they can upload it and have it turned into a finished piece. 

The service is currently available in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami, with a slower rollout now underway in other cities.

 Lisa Jammal, the company’s CEO, said the idea is simple: Let someone else do the shooting.

“We all are missing those beautiful moments because we’re always behind the phone,” she said. 

As for Kurtz, after the shoot, she headed straight to a nearby coffee shop, where the clock started ticking. She had just over an hour to shape her raw material into a polished final cut.

“I think I’m going to give this reel a really peaceful, calming feel, but also informative and inviting,” she said. 

Ted Land had almost given up on being a homeowner.

When he moved to the Pacific Northwest in 2014, he was an award-winning television journalist, having lived and reported in Indiana and Alaska before arriving in Seattle to work for a local station, King 5. At first, he rented a studio apartment in the Capitol Hill neighborhood.

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“It’s very walkable, with lots of transit, very L.G.B.T. friendly, great restaurants, nightlife, parks,” said Mr. Land, 40. “It has everything I like in a neighborhood.”

His journalism career had been fraught with unexpected transitions, so it didn’t seem sensible to buy a home. “I thought I was going to move up and be a reporter in New York City or L.A. or D.C.,” he said. “I had my sights set on that. It really wasn’t even on my mind. Buying a house seemed so out of reach for me.”

As the years passed and he bounced from rental to rental, the hustle of TV news began to wear him out. Finally, in 2022, he grabbed an opportunity to move into corporate communications. With that choice came a higher income and a more stable future in Seattle with expanded living options.

“I kept signing lease after lease, not wanting to confront the daunting process of purchasing, and increasingly frustrated with the fact that I didn’t lock in a low interest rate during Covid like so many of my peers did,” Mr. Land said.

He had up to about $620,000 to spend, but as a single-income buyer, he was vexed by the down payment. “Everyone says that you’ve got to put down 20 percent. It’s like, ‘Where am I going to get $100,000? Does anyone know? Can you please tell me that?’”

With help from his broker, Mark Chavez of Windermere Real Estate, Mr. Land arranged to structure a purchase with 10 percent down using a mortgage insurance that costs him less than $100 per month, with his payments reducing in size until they total 20 percent of the home price. “I mean, $50,000 is a lot easier to save for than $100,000,” he said.

But even with that cushion, options were limited in pricey Seattle, especially for the kind of home he wanted. “Apartments are noisy places,” Mr. Land said. “They just are. And that kind of gets old after a while. I was looking for something a little quieter where I’m not hearing neighbors all the time.”

Most of Mr. Chavez’s clients want single-family homes, the broker said, but “it’s a bigger expense and there’s more to take care of, like the landscape. It used to be that to get into a condo, the entry point was more affordable. However, with many homeowner associations underfunded for future expenses, it is becoming more challenging to buy into a condominium.”

The middle ground? Townhouses. But every square foot needed to count, and location was critical. Mr. Land loved Capitol Hill, but felt he couldn’t afford to buy there. “I just really like being in the central part of the city,” he said. “The more I looked, the more I realized that walkability is a really important attribute for me.”

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