04/1

You might have heard the breaking news – Facebook is being charged by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for violating the Fair Housing Act.

Essentially, HUD claims that Facebook has been enabling landlords and home sellers to control who can receive real estate ads based on the user’s race, color, religion, sex, familial status, national origin, disability, and/or zip code.

Because of this charge, Facebook is having to change their ad platform. What does this mean for you and your real estate brand?

These are the rules that will apply when you create your Facebook “Housing, Employment, or Credit” (HEC) ads:

• Instead of using a zip code, ads must have a minimum geographic radius of 15 miles from a specific address.
• Ads will not have “targeting options” that describe or appear to be related to personal characteristics.
• Facebook’s “Lookalike Audience” tool will no longer consider gender, age, religious views, zip codes, or other similar categories.

Facebook has released a statement saying these changes will be updated on or before September 30, 2019.

Here’s what you can do:

Video: Videos on Facebook receive triple the engagement than any other form on the site! Create online open house tutorials, share your real estate market knowledge, and post it to your business page!

Share Articles: Either you’re writing your own articles, or you’re sharing relatable and highly viewed content that relates to your brand. This gets eyes on your page.

Be Interactive: Comment on articles you find interesting, respond to questions and comments when clients write on your page, and don’t forget to have fun with it!