Advertising houses for sale on Marketplace can’t be far off now – will some sort of brokerage or mortgage services be next?
Last week, Facebook announced that U.S. users are able to search for housing rentals on its Marketplace platform. Like Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace—which launched in 2016—lets users buy and sell items nearby.
Now, not only can you sell an old couch, but also you can search for apartments and houses based on things like location, price, size, the number of bedrooms, and even if an apartment is animal friendly.
The housing section will include “hundreds of thousands of rentals” that go beyond the individual listings previously posted by users. Facebook has partnered with sources like Apartment List and Zumper to pull in listings. Other people—think brokers, agents, and property managers—can also post properties available for rent. Landlords can add 360-degree photos to each listing so that interested renters can take a virtual tour.
“Marketplace is a popular place for people to look for a home to rent,” said Facebook’s Bowen Pan. “Now that we’re adding listings from Apartment List and Zumper, people can search even more options in the U.S. to find a place to call home. First with vehicles and now with housing rentals, we’re partnering with businesses to bring more ease and convenience for consumers.”
Facebook’s latest announcement is part of a larger plan to keep users in the app longer and to function as a one-stop commerce platform for food, shopping, and even job hunts. Recently, Facebook upgraded Marketplace to include used car ads, and the continued expansion is in direct competition to longtime sites like Craigslist.
The last nutty tenant we had–and he was qualifiable-who was intent on breaking a lease, I told him he must speak to me in person, on the phone, or send me a letter. He was hellbent on establishing an email dialog. Cutting off email stopped SOOO much drama, as he was intent on emailing me every day with crazy claims, trying to manifest an emotional response from me that could be exploited by his sleazy mall lawyer in court.
Now, imagine a Facebook scenario, with your tenants as “friends” or the like, using a disagreement to manifest what would amount to a WWF event on Facebook. Not only are they showing off to you, they’re showing off to other tenants.
I’d never advertise in Craiglist, because it solicits outliers of society: creeps, goons, drunks, snorters, Q-balls, dweebs, and millennial’s. Facebook would attract that times 10, because they love Facebook, and you’d be getting outliers from all over the world.
Thanks, Scott. You stick to Evil, and I’ll stick with Zillow and Trulia.
Under the FB Plan every offer to rent becomes a lawsuit to defend. I do not vet my renters. I pay a RE agency to take the applications and present those who qualify and match the property.
This is just another fat finger in the latest pie that has come to their attention. The fat fingers care not about anything except pushing out choice. AKA the Walmart model in the Midwest.
I am trying to see the value proposal to landlords for getting 200 applicants rather than 20.
IMO, The irony of sociopaths is no matter how smart and clever they are, they always overestimate their intelligence and cleverness. That’s what ultimately makes them easy to figure out, and foments their eventual undoing, as we’ve been reading in the news every single freaking day this month.
Oh, look at this one…
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/19/opinion/facebook-regulation-incentive.html