‘Excuse Me! How Much Do You Pay for Rent in New York?’

Caleb Simpson began his quest to get ordinary New Yorkers to give him a tour of their apartments with an iPhone and a man-on-the-street persona about two years ago. He would spontaneously walk up to random people on the street, asking if they owned or rented their apartment, and how much they paid per month. If they told him — which was rare — he would ask if he could see their home, which he then wanted to post on his social platforms.

“The first 100 people said no, which was devastating,” said Mr. Simpson, a 32-year-old North Carolina native who moved to New York in 2015 to teach tennis at a club in Manhattan.

Though he persisted, people just kept declining, so he “posted their reactions, usually in 15-second clips at first, just to see what would happen,” he said. “The clips got millions of views.”

Mr. Simpson in his apartment in Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn. He pays $2,100 a month.Credit…Graham Dickie/The New York Times

The first person to invite Mr. Simpson in was a 30-something videographer who lived with his girlfriend in a two-bedroom duplex in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and paid $3,000 a month. “That video got millions of hits,” he said. “I knew I was onto something.”

Today, 500 apartment video posts later, he has 2.5 million subscribers on YouTube, 8.6 million followers on TikTok and 2.5 million on Instagram. His operation now includes a booking agent, a videographer and an assistant, and he has managed to sprinkle some celebrities and a few foreign locations into the mix. When we asked Mr. Simpson if he would give us a tour of his place, he said yes. The following interview has been edited for clarity.