Frequently Asked Questions

FriendRE is a real estate social media platform that connects real estate professionals, homeowners, and potential buyers in a community-driven environment. We combine the power of social networking with real estate insights to help you discover properties, connect with experts, and stay informed about the market.

No. FriendRE is not a real estate brokerage, appraisal firm, mortgage lender, or any other licensed real estate entity, and we do not operate as one. We are a social networking platform that connects real estate professionals with users. We do not facilitate, negotiate, broker, or participate in any real estate transactions. The professionals on our platform operate independently under their own licenses and brokerages. Any engagement with a professional found through FriendRE is a direct relationship between you and that professional — FriendRE is not a party to any transaction.

Yes! FriendRE is free for all users. You can create an account, browse the feed, watch videos, explore neighborhoods, use home valuation tools, and engage with the community at no cost. We also offer a Power User plan ($4.99/month), a Professional plan ($29.99/month) for real estate professionals, and an Office plan with custom pricing for teams with multiple professionals. Contact [email protected] for Office plan details.

The Professional plan ($29.99/month or $299.99/year) includes a CRM with lead pipeline management, appointment scheduling, client notes, a verified professional badge on your profile, a Profile Showcase to present your portfolio with listings, videos, and testimonials in an immersive fullscreen experience, priority placement in search results, advanced analytics dashboard, and access to the lead pool distribution system. You can start with a 14-day free trial — no credit card required.

You can cancel any time from Settings > Billing. Nothing changes right away: you keep every feature of your plan until the end of the period you have already paid for (or until your free trial runs out), and you can resume before then with one click. After that your account moves to the Free plan. Your professional details — license number, brokerage, NMLS, and verification — stay saved and come back the moment you resubscribe, but your Professional or Power User badge and the verified checkmark are not shown while you are on Free. A paid Power User can also switch to Professional without a new checkout; the prorated difference is charged to the card on file.

No. Paid plans aren't offered in the FriendRE apps for Android and iPhone. If you already have a plan, everything it includes works in the app too, and you can still cancel it there under Settings > Billing.

The Office plan is a custom solution for offices and teams with multiple real estate professionals (realtors, attorneys, lenders, service professionals). It includes everything in the Professional plan plus discounted per-user pricing, centralized billing for your office, a dedicated account manager, custom onboarding for your team, and priority support for all users. Contact [email protected] for pricing tailored to your team size.

FriendRE is open to everyone aged 18 and older. Whether you're a real estate professional (realtor, lender, attorney, or service professional), a homeowner, a potential buyer, or simply interested in real estate, you're welcome to join our community.

You can share posts with images, embed property tour videos from platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, write market insights, share neighborhood news, and more. You can also engage with others through comments, likes, shares, and direct messages.

Real estate professionals (realtors, lenders, attorneys, and service professionals) can register for a professional account during sign-up by selecting their role. Professional verification requires an active Professional plan subscription ($29.99/month), which grants a verified badge, CRM access, and enhanced profile features. You must provide accurate licensing and credential information. "Verified" means FriendRE checked the professional's license or bar number and identity against their submitted documents — it is not a rating, ranking or recommendation.

It doesn't choose on merit. When you ask for a realtor, lender or attorney, your request goes to one licensed, verified professional for each type you picked, selected by location (their declared service area or distance from you) in simple rotation. If they don't respond within 12 hours it passes to the next. Professionals pay FriendRE a flat monthly subscription to receive requests — never a fee per request or per closed deal — and FriendRE does not recommend, rank or endorse anyone. For attorney requests, FriendRE has not reviewed your matter; you choose whether to hire the attorney who contacts you. FriendRE's written confirmation for attorneys under Illinois Rule of Professional Conduct 7.2 is at friendre.net/help/ics-certification.

Karma is our reputation points system that rewards community participation. You earn karma by posting content, receiving likes and comments, gaining followers, earning achievements, and referring friends. Your karma level progresses through tiers: Newbie, Active, Contributor, Advanced, Pro, Expert, Elite, and Legend. Your karma score is displayed on your profile and on city, state, and national leaderboards. Karma is a game score for fun inside FriendRE: it has no cash value, cannot be bought, redeemed, sold or transferred, and nothing on FriendRE is a prize draw, sweepstakes or gambling.

The Karma Store (profile menu → Karma Store) lets you spend karma you have earned on a profile frame: a coloured ring around your profile picture that shows wherever your avatar appears. Frames come in tiers from 500 karma up to 50,000 karma, and you can switch between the frames you have unlocked at any time. Spending karma never lowers your karma level, your achievements or your leaderboard standing: the store keeps its own count of what you have spent, and the karma number on your profile is always what you have earned. Nothing in the store can be bought with money, directly or indirectly; frames are cosmetic only, cannot be sold, gifted or transferred between accounts, cannot be refunded or turned back into karma, and FriendRE may change or retire frames at any time. Karma itself has no cash value, cannot be bought, and cannot be received from anyone else.

FriendRE has 60+ achievements you can unlock across categories like content creation, engagement, community, and professional milestones. Examples include "Director" for sharing your first video (10 karma), "Community Leader" for reaching 100 followers (150 karma), and "Ambassador" for referring 10 friends (250 karma). Daily login streaks earn badges from 7 days up to 1,000 days, and karma milestones from 5,000 to 50,000 karma; the rarest glow on your profile. Ten of them are secret: each shows only a one-line riddle on your Achievements tab until you find it by using FriendRE in an unexpected way. Unlocked achievements display as badges on your profile and earn you karma.

Each location page on FriendRE includes general census data (population, housing units, predominant housing type), school district information, nearby amenities (restaurants, parks, transit stops), community Q&A, nearby videos, and local leaderboards. You can also compare up to 4 locations side-by-side using our location comparison tool.

Our Home Value CMA tool generates a Comparative Market Analysis from property details you provide (address, bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage, year built, garage spaces, condition, etc.) and recent comparable sold listings in the area. It returns an estimated value range with a confidence score, price per square foot, value factors breakdown, and the actual comparable sales it used. Important: This is a CMA prepared from your inputs and public MLS sold-listing data, not an appraisal. FriendRE itself is not a brokerage or appraisal firm. For a formal opinion of value, consult a licensed appraiser; for a deeper market analysis on a specific home, work with a local agent.

Yes! Our mortgage calculator lets you estimate monthly payments based on home price, down payment, interest rate, and loan term. It provides a full breakdown including principal, interest, taxes, and insurance estimates. It's available for free to all users.

Jane is our AI-powered real estate advisor available as a floating chat widget throughout the platform. She can answer questions about the platform, provide insights about properties and neighborhoods, help you navigate features, and discuss real estate topics. Jane is powered by advanced AI technology and is available to all users at no extra cost.

FriendRE supports embedded videos from YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X. Simply paste a video URL when creating a post or uploading a video, and the platform will display the native player from that platform. This means you can share property tours, neighborhood walkthroughs, and market updates without needing to host video files yourself.

Professional subscribers get access to a full CRM dashboard with lead pipeline management (track leads through stages like New, Contacted, Qualified, Converted), appointment scheduling with calendar view, client notes, testimonial collection, and referral tracking. Leads can come from the lead pool distribution system or be manually added.

The Profile Showcase is a premium feature available to Professional plan subscribers. It lets you create an immersive, fullscreen portfolio that visitors can scroll through when they visit your profile. You can showcase your featured listings, video highlights, client testimonials, an expanded bio, and a contact call-to-action — all in a polished, presentation-style format. Configure which sections to include and their order from Settings > Showcase.

You can create or join groups based on neighborhoods, interests, or topics. Groups allow focused discussions with like-minded community members. You can create public groups that anyone can join or private groups that require approval. Groups are accessible to all users.

Collections let you save and organize properties and locations you're interested in. You can create personal collections, share them with others for collaboration, and use the property comparison tool to evaluate options side-by-side.

Yes! You can invite friends to FriendRE using your personal referral link. When someone joins through your link, you earn karma. There are also referral achievements: "Recruiter" for your first referral (25 karma), "Connector" for 5 referrals (75 karma), and "Ambassador" for 10 referrals (250 karma).

FriendRE provides direct messaging between users. Free users can message people they mutually follow, while professional subscribers can message any user. You can send text messages, share files, and start video calls through the messaging system.

Yes! You can save your search criteria and receive notifications when new matching listings appear. Alerts are delivered via in-app notifications and email (if enabled). You can manage your alert preferences from your settings.

Every Monday, we send a weekly digest email with platform highlights including trending posts, new videos, community statistics, and activity updates. You can unsubscribe from digest emails at any time using the link at the bottom of any digest email.

Yes! FriendRE is fully optimized for mobile devices and works as a Progressive Web App (PWA). You can install it directly to your home screen from your mobile browser for a native app-like experience. It works on all modern smartphones and tablets.

Yes! FriendRE integrates with real estate listing data to show available properties. You can browse listings, view open houses, and discover properties shared by professionals in the feed. Each listing includes property details, pricing, photos, and a way to contact the listing agent directly. You can also compare up to 3 listings side-by-side using the VS checkbox on listing cards.

FriendRE lets you compare up to 3 property listings side-by-side. While browsing listings in the feed, tap the "VS" checkbox on any listing card to add it to your comparison. A floating bar appears at the bottom showing your selected properties — once you have at least 2, tap "Compare" to open the comparison table. The table shows key metrics like price, price per square foot, bedrooms, bathrooms, living area, taxes, HOA fees, garage, basement, schools, and more. The best values are highlighted in green so you can quickly spot the winner in each category. You can also share your comparison with others via a shareable link.

Leaderboards rank users by engagement, views, and karma at the city, state, and national levels. You can see how you rank against other community members in your area. Finish in the top 10 of your town's weekly board (when at least 5 members are ranked) and you earn a community badge, up to "Town Champion" for #1.

Price It Right is a free daily guessing game on the feed and at friendre.net/play. Every night at 9 PM Central a real Illinois home that recently sold goes up as specs only (no photos, no address). You guess the sale price, and at the next 9 PM everyone sees what it sold for at once, straight from the MLS record of the closed sale. There is nothing to buy and nothing to win except karma, badges and a spot on the weekly accuracy board. Karma has no cash value, so the game is not a sweepstakes, lottery or form of betting. Guests can play; your result, karma and streak need a free account.

We take community safety seriously. If you see content that violates our community guidelines, you can report it by clicking the menu icon (three dots) on any post or comment and selecting "Report." Our moderation team reviews all reports promptly and takes appropriate action.

You can delete your account at any time from your profile settings. Go to Settings > Security > Delete Account. Please note that account deletion is permanent and cannot be undone. All your posts, comments, messages, and data will be permanently removed.

We use industry-standard security measures including encrypted authentication (via Clerk), CSRF protection, rate limiting, and secure file validation. Your payment information is processed securely through Stripe and is never stored on our servers. For full details, please review our Privacy Policy.

Yes. FriendRE is committed to the principles of the Fair Housing Act. We do not allow discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status, or disability. We do not display neighborhood demographic data that could serve as a proxy for protected class characteristics. Our AI assistant Jane follows strict Fair Housing guidelines and will not steer users toward or away from neighborhoods based on demographics. If you believe any content on our platform violates fair housing principles, please report it immediately.

If you need help or have questions, you can use the Jane AI assistant for instant help, or reach our support team through the contact form on our website. We aim to respond to all inquiries within 24-48 hours.