Spark notes: StreetEasy is a greedy monster and the brokerage community is fighting back
PSA for anyone who rents in New York: clearly the broadcasted news is reserved for keeping us alarmingly up-to-date on the impending apocalypse and what size vegetable Beyoncé’s unborn child currently is, but for renters in Manhattan, what you haven’t been told is that the inventory you publicly have access to on Streeteasy has drastically changed.
Streeteasy first became the market leader by convincing all of the brokerage firms to post their listings on its website. To accomplish this, they deceived brokers in three ways. First, they indicated that they would only accept listings from brokers. But then they surprised agents by allowing landlords and tenants to post on their site. Second, they assured us all leads from our listings would go directly to us. Streeteasy’s new “Premier Agent” program abruptly ended that commitment. This scam allows any agent, regardless of their qualifications, to pay to have his or her contact information appear on listings in specific zip codes, blocking out the exclusive listing agent’s information. Finally, they led us to believe it would always be free to post listings on their site. Yet now by charging all rental agents to post their listings, the deception has reached new heights. By charging $3 per day per rental listing, $34 million will be pocketed annually – money coming directly out of the agents’ hands. And oh yeah, we don’t have a salary.
Immediately after this announcement, many of the city’s top firms moved to expedite a plan to syndicate their listings exclusively through the Real Estate Board of New York‘s listings service and pull all inventory from Streeteasy. Competitors to Streeteasy started soap-boxing their abilities and the Residential Listings Service vowed to make all listings available through a centralized single feed.
After weeks of rumbling of what would happen, D-Day occurred and the brokerage community has said enough is enough; overnight 55% of the available market to the public was pulled by countless brokerages and individual brokers. The engine most people consider to be a go-to-source for inventory will become a ghost of what it once was. This doesn’t affect my work in the least; we, as brokers, still have access to the entire market through our REBNY affiliated multiple listing servers. But for consumers and fellow New Yorkers who have Streeteasy’s loud marketing shoved down your throats on every subway car, bus stop and website banner, please note that you are seeing a sliver of the market and many of the most reputable brokers with the best listings are going elsewhere – and Streeteasy may just become another shady, unethical marketplace where the consumer should be quite wary.