OK, not quite. But in what’s officially the first of what will surely be a long line to come (and no, I’m not talking about the folks lining up for an iPhone), UK property search engine Nestoria has just released a Nestoria Facebook Application.

It’s not a huge technical leap, but I’m impressed. Adding the Nestoria’s Flat Search application to your Facebook account allows you to search directly in Facebook for property to buy, rent or share. Kind of a no-brainer, but it works as promised. Listings are pulled from Nestoria’s database while outbound links are still passed on directly to the property manager or listing agent’s website.

Some neat interactivity in the app lets you share the listings with anyone else in your network. Presumably this could be a good way for roommates or even a husband and wife team to collaborate on finding a new home.

The Flat Search app also returns a chronological listing of all the places you’ve searched, which is displayed on your profile, under your “Wall” (Facebook users will know what I’m talking about). Nestoria says this so your friends can see what you’ve been searching and offer you advice on the areas. Not sure how useful that is, but then again I’m not sure how useful half the things in Facebook are – but it’s still fun. Thankfully, you can turn it off if you want.

Like I said, I suspect this won’t be the last real estate app we’ll see in Facebook (see Facebook Could Make or Break Real Estate 2.0). I’m sure Trulia, Zillow and the other Real Estate 2.0 players have their eyes on the FB demographic and we may even see some of the more innovative real estate brokers dip their toes in the water too (see Coldwell Banker Opens Office in Second Life).

Moreover, you’re starting to see real dollar transactions take place in the Facebook environment. Lending Club, which bills itself as a P2P (person-to-person) lender has closed over $100,000 in loans to Facebook users.

This is pretty interesting. It’s not that much of stretch to see that that at some point, real estate transactions could be conducted through a virtual environment.

Sure, it’s a long way’s off before someone will closing the sale of a house in Facebook, but it’s not inconceivable to think that you couldn’t find your home, prequalify for a mortgage and line up all your inspections inside a social network, leaving you only to tour the house and sign the final paperwork in “meatspace”.

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With definitely one of the sillier names going in real estate (with the exception only perhaps of eMongoo), UK property search engine Zoomf plans a Q1 launch. Zoomf will be going head to head with existing real estate search sites like Nestoria and, to a lesser degree, extate.com.

Zoomf (is it ‘Zoom F’ or ‘Zoomph’?) may look familiar to readers this side of the pond, its search results pages look awfully similar to Trulia’s. I guess imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery.

In addition to a mashup of current properties for sale or for rent (let), Zoomf offers pricing guides for many of the neighborhoods (sorry, neighbourhoods) in and around London. Unfortunately, their search tools don’t work outside of the London area, at least for now.

Personally, I’m glad to see the Real Estate 2.0 space taking off in other parts of the world too. I lived in the UK a couple of years ago, and harbor fantasies about returning there some day with my family (I hold UK citizenship, in addition to Canadian and American) – so these sites are of particular interest to me.

For more on what’s happening in the UK, check out Mike Price’s Interview with Nestoria. Also, Renthusiast – a British real estate blog that I found quite informative (and blogrolled).

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