'Connect' Me! Social Networking in Commercial Real Estate Brokerage

In this study, we investigate the use of professional Social Networking Sites (SNS) on performance in commercial real estate brokerage. Using LinkedIn followers as a proxy for an agent's professional social network, we find that listing agents with a larger professional online social network transact more properties and obtain higher prices than agents without an SNS professional platform or agents with fewer SNS connections. The findings are robust to market and firm size, as well as agent and property characteristics. The study contributes to network and bargaining theory literature in real estate