Facebook Could Make or Break Real Estate 2.0
Drew Meyers is right. Facebook is Completely Changing the Internet. Mark Zuckerberg has said that he wants to build the first social media OS and with the F8 release last week, he’s done just that.
To recap. Facebook’s F8 release means anyone can build an application on top of the social network and have it distributed throughout its entire user base. What this means is, Facebook is opening up its platform and instantly giving developers access to their over 20+ million users. And it’s even offering to give them 100% of the advertising and transaction revenue they generate.
Why is Facebook being so generous? Because they know the more things they can offer for people to do, the more time people will hang out on the site (and believe me, it can be addictive), which simply gives them more options to ultimately monetize that traffic.
This is pretty groundbreaking stuff, because it means as a developer you can instantly launch your product to a massive audience. No surprise then to date, more than 70 companies have taken them up on their offer.
Brian Brady argues that MySpace should just buy a number of the new Real Estate 2.0 players. I agree with his rationale – though I doubt it will happen and besides, Facebook has just scooped them.
So, how could some of the Real Estate 2.0 players take advantage of Facebook?
Zillow could allow you to share your home’s Zestimate to your network or your network’s network and allow people to modify the Zestimate based on their local knowledge (a simple yes/no if they think it’s accurate) – Zillow could easily build out the accuracy of their Zestimates in local markets.
Trulia could build out its Voices product so you could ask and answer questions to Trulia experts through the Facebook environment.
vFlyer could let you share your listing flyers to your whole network and have people pass them on to others as well.
Newcomers like Yourstreet and My-Currency are all crowd dependent. They should be angling immediately to integrate their products into Facebook’s user base.
I’m increasingly convinced that social networks are going to be an important arena for agents to focus their marketing (see Marketing Real Estate on Facebook) – but I also think, moving forward, that they’re going to be critically important to driving the success of some of these new Internet based companies as well.
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Mortgage Calculators | May 31, 2007 | Reply
This is pretty big news. Leveraging their social network to promote your application is a quicker way to achieving critical mass. Get those servers ready.
Drew Meyers | May 31, 2007 | Reply
Thanks for the link — facebook really is changing the internet. It’s pretty incredible to watch.
Morgan | Jun 1, 2007 | Reply
Joel – Great points. I think any property that can leverage the Facebook network in a way that allows the user to interact with the interface in a way that they are comfortable doing are going to be in the winner’s circle. The vFlyer example is perfect. Imagine dropping your listing flyers in to the mini-feeds of people across your multiple networks. It gives a whole new meaning to “sphere of influence.”
Facebook, by opening itself up for easy integration truly made what could be a paradigm shifting jump forward – as long as the vendors can make meaningful integrations that users like. That will be the key.
Christian Sterner | Jun 1, 2007 | Reply
In a way, this play makes FaceBook an intranet of sorts, accessible to their users only. Lots of questions, and am not sure I buy that FaceBook is the outlet. Too broad. I could see agents making use of FB to network their lisitngs, but wait and see is my stance on FaceBook as it relates to real estate. Learning curves hurt in a big way, especially when dealing with a massively broad offering. The solid tools to use will be needles in haystacks.
Karim Tahawi | Jun 1, 2007 | Reply
Joel, you (and Drew) are spot on. Facebook will enable companies to plug into an instant customer base further lowering barriers to entry for a host of businesses. This really revives a debate about vertical versus horizontal communities. Some people that want to touch a lot of things superficially will like Facebook. Anyone who wants to go deep, will prefer a very focused community. Facebook can become the Walmart of social networks. The question is, can it become the Tiffany’s of social networks?
Brian Brady | Jun 2, 2007 | Reply
MySpace or Facebook; either one. Merge the RE.net tech with a whole bunch of comnsumers on a platform that is a demographer’s dream and you have a recipe for something REALLY powerful
Toledo Dave | Jun 2, 2007 | Reply
Real estate is a “local” function. If I want to find a house in my area, I look on a local broker’s website or I drive the neighborhoods I like looking for FOR SALE signs and call the automated information. I don’t see the benefit of networking online with people that don’t live in my area to buy or sell a home. I can see it working for things like collectables, etc where a person in my network on the other side of the world can buy and take position but selling a house is different. And with all the places online real estate listings are accissible, I don’t think a social network will lead me to a property I couldn’t have found with a search on a real estate website. I think sometimes people think Social Networking is the be all end all for everything in life. It is not. In my opinion.:)
Incredible Agent | Jun 3, 2007 | Reply
I don’t know if I agree with this. Facebook/MySpace may be “cool” places to be a member of…yet I also think that is the MAIN problem in regards to real estate. At Inman Connect in SF 06, I heard a CMO explicitly state from her ad buying experience, doing any kind of marketing on MySpace was a complete waste of money. It simply doesn’t work. Which made complete sense to me. The “cool” kids on MySpace and FaceBook are not looking to buy a home, they are there to goof around and get as many new friends on their profile so they can boost their coolness rating. It might be a great place to promote your band or a great kegger, but I don’t think that translates into selling real estate. Unless of course the band is playing at the kegger your having to promote your new listing.
Now I will say that in 5-10 years these sites could “mature” a bit and the kids who grew up on MySpace and Facebook will start thinking about real estate…but that’s going to take some time. Let’s face it, the audiences on these sites are still very young. Promoting your listings to bunch of high school and college kids isn’t going to sell a home. It’s only going to make it the coolest house on the block.
John Schroeder | Jun 4, 2007 | Reply
I don’t think that Facebook in itself will sell your listing. I really don’t think that anyone is suggesting that. Social Marketing/Networking like Blogs are only as good as the effort that you put into them. Blending the marketing of yourself along with the marketing of your listings and doing it all with a very high ROI is just good business. Just don’t find yourself relying on only one way to do this.
Zorgo | Jun 4, 2007 | Reply
Yes, MySpace and Facebook are mainly targetted at high school and younger students…but the large amount of 20 and 30 year olds using their services is increasing…today! I’m not sure its enough to change the way real estate or any other business works at the moment, but it could easily happen sooner than expected.
Sparky | Jun 4, 2007 | Reply
Joel, I agree about the potential for vflyer. That would be awesome added exposure for listings. IMHO MySpace of late seems to be fading slowly. It’s such a tough crowd to keep engaged and entertained. Facebook is taking the right steps to expand and improve longterm stick.
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jf.sellsius | Jun 5, 2007 | Reply
You had me up until Real Estate 2.0.
I see it like Christian and Toledo Dave. I can’t see value in social (emphasis on social) networking to the real estate consumer searching in a local market, except maybe for student housing/shares/roommates. Classifieds, definitely–since you can mail me a Zappa record (yeah those vinlyl thingees from the old school) from anywhere. But zestimate sharing? No way Joel. Like everyone wants to pass around a zestimate and vote on it. Who besides the owner (or listing agent) cares if it’s accurate or not—certainly not a community of millions. Viral zestimates are not in the cards—anywhere.
Well written post nonetheless.
Anthony Longo | Jun 7, 2007 | Reply
Good post. I read an earlier post of yours a few months back on how you were personally addicted to Facebook…so I thought I would give it a try. I never did MySpace….although I am a fairly big user of LinkedIn and thought that would be good enough for me. But…here comes Facebook and now although I am mainly using it to connect for businesses, I find its soft approach keeps things more casual. Great tool and I am sure they are just getting started. (Plus I love Harvard drop outs…they always make for great success stories!)
Brian Brady | Jun 14, 2007 | Reply
What astounds me is the comments about Myspace and Facebook being for kids. Over 50% of the users on MySpace are over the age of 35…DAILY.
Try it…you’re gonna love it
Rodney Rumford | Jun 25, 2007 | Reply
Facebook could prove to be a real disruptor to realtors.
check out the latest real estate search tool for facebook.
http://facereviews.com/2007/06/25/uk-real-estate-search-comes-to-facebook
Riel Roussopoulos | Sep 7, 2007 | Reply
The numbers alone are absolutely astounding …
Plugging into that type of audience is a must for any new site.
Lambros | Nov 30, 2007 | Reply
Nice