Facebook’s Improved News Feed Could Be Good for Realty Listings

Facebook is overhauling its news feed page in a way that will place greater focus on photographs, videos, and Web links — all of which could bode well for the real estate industry. The new format, designed to eliminate clutter and provide a view to specialized streams of posts by close friends, could encourage online photos of property listings and bolster the social media footprint of realty professionals. Recent research from the industry’s biggest organization, the National Association of Realtors, in conjunction with Google, shows that online real estate searchers on the search engine have skyrocketed 243 percent over the past four years. The findings also emphasize that listings accompanied by quality photos are more likely to sell. “Increasingly, online technologies are driving offline behaviors, and home buying is no exception,” remarks Google head of real estate Patrick Grandinetti. “With 90 percent of home buyers searching online during their home buying process, the real estate industry is smart to target these people where they look for consumer information — for example through paid search, relevant websites, video environments, and mobile applications.” | Read More