Blog 111417New feature also “rolling out gradually” for home sales

Zillow. Trulia. Realtor.com. Redfin. All household names in the real estate listings world, right?

Well, those companies now have some serious competition from a company that boasts an audience that dwarfs all of those sites put together – Facebook.

That’s right. Facebook is coming to real estate listings.

Now, anyone who’s “friends” with a real estate agent on Facebook is likely used to seeing real estate listings show up in their news feed, but it appears that Facebook has much bigger plans for real estate listings through its own platform.

Facebook announced last week that it is significantly expanding the real estate listings section on its Marketplace, which is Facebook’s attempt to take on Craigslist, eBay, and other e-commerce platforms.

And if Facebook’s previous history is any indication of its future successes, Marketplace will eventually blot out the e-commerce sun, just as Facebook already did with social media – as evidenced by Facebook’s monthly active user count of 2.07 billion.

According to information provided by Facebook, since the beginning of this year, search volume in the Marketplace tab has grown 300% globally.

And now, Facebook is bringing that audience to real estate listings.

Facebook currently allows individual homeowners to list their homes for sale on Marketplace. According to Facebook, the feature is “rolling out gradually” and is currently only available via the mobile app in the U.S.

And while the feature is “rolling out gradually” for home sales, Facebook is going full force into rental listings, via partnerships with Apartment List and Zumper.

Through the agreements, Marketplace users can now search through hundreds of thousands of rental units provided by Apartment List and Zumper, all while they’re on Facebook.

Facebook isn’t just dramatically increasing the number of rental listings on Marketplace, the social media monolith is also improving the capabilities of its platform.

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