In the age of social media, when most home buyers begin their searches online and with print media dying a slow death, most Realtors have moved the bulk of their marketing efforts to digital formats. If you go to any high-producing agent or group’s website, and you’ll find links to their social pages, likely including Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, and if they’re really with it — TikTok.
So it’s understandable that when real estate industry folks with Facebook Business pages began receiving emails Sept. 30 announcing upcoming changes to the way they would be able to market listings on Facebook, there was some panic in the air.
The email, which was from the Meta Business Help Center, announced that starting Jan. 30, 2023, Facebook Business pages would no longer be allowed to post either real estate or vehicle listings on Facebook Marketplace. This news trickled down through broker meetings, MLS meetings, and networking groups, and there were a number of agents who (incorrectly) interpreted the message to mean that they would no longer be allowed to post listings on their Facebook pages.
What The Facebook Business Pages Change Means For Realtors
What it actually means is that Realtors (or anyone, for that matter) will no longer be allowed to list real estate properties on Facebook Marketplace from their Business Pages. If that is a sales tactic they have used in the past — which, honestly, I don’t see Realtors in our area doing this, ever — they could still do it using their personal Facebook Page. This is in an effort to keep sales of real estate (and vehicles) on Marketplace between individuals, rather than letting big companies take over what is meant to be a person-to-person marketplace.
In other words, it shouldn’t affect most Realtors in our area in any way whatsoever. A cursory search on Marketplace showed FSBO listings and rentals, as far as I could see.
As a freelance digital marketing professional for the real estate industry, I became aware of the issue when one of my clients, a luxury agent in San Antonio, forwarded me an email from her broker. “URGENT! We can’t post listings on Facebook anymore???” The brokerage had called a meeting to discuss it, and all the agents were panicking. I assured her that wasn’t the deal, but it took a few phone calls, and backup from the San Antonio Board of Realtors, to get everyone back down from their respective trees.
MetroTex, Dallas-Fort Worth’s Realtor association, released a statement to inform members about the changes, but even their statement starts out a bit confusing:
“Starting Jan. 30, 2023, you will no longer be able to create real estate sales and rental listings using your Facebook business page.”
Wait, what?
They go on to clarify, but that headline is a little double-take worthy, in my humble opinion. MetroTex didn’t respond to my request for comment. (Neither did Facebook, but I can dream.)
Agents’ and marketers’ tendency to panic about new rules from Facebook is completely understandable after the dramatic changes Facebook made to its real estate advertising rules in 2019. We had become comfortable and confident in our ability to use Facebook advertising to target listing and branding ads to specific and useful demographics, only to have all those specific targeting tools taken away.
“I’ve stopped using Facebook ads as a tool for that reason,” said Joanne Bryan of Coldwell Banker. So it might not be such a huge leap to hear that Facebook was announcing that Business Pages could no longer post about real estate listings.
It would be a pretty huge mistake, however, since that’s what an entire multibillion-dollar industry posts about almost exclusively, all day every day.
“It is a good tool,” Bryan said. “I use it more for promoting my expertise, my services, than for trying to find a buyer for a listing. But to take that away would certainly negatively affect the business as a whole.”
Luckily, that’s not what’s happening. So, in case there is any lingering confusion or doubt:
You may continue to post pictures, links, descriptions, and what-have-you about your listings on your Facebook Business Page. The ONLY thing the upcoming change affects is your ability to list your property on Facebook Marketplace — which you probably don’t do anyway.
Let us Know
Did you hear about this and initially panic? Does this change affect you? Do you list properties on Facebook Marketplace?
Tell us in the comments.
