Streeteasy New Listing Grab Lag = 36 Hours
A: Not bad at all! Streeteasy.com has proven to be a very useful resource on a mission, and is quickly solving the 'no mls' problem that Manhattan seems to face. I entered this new listing into the system late afternoon on Wednesday. It was active on Streeteasy.com after about 36 hours. The REBNY rule is that you must share the new listing with the brokerage community within the first 24 hours - so the fact that SE gets it only 12 hours later is comforting; a system working as it should. This kind of performance tends to increase my confidence in the UrbanDigs Charts system, which is powered by the data aggregator.
Here is the REBNY passage regarding co-brokered sharing of new listings:
More particularly, within 24 hours after execution of the exclusive listing agreement, the Exclusive Agent must make such offer of co-brokerage to all Residential Members who have expressed, in writing, an interest in receipt of such offers. Information regarding the Exclusive Listing (the “Listing Information”) must be sent out via the REBNY Listing Service (“RLS”) simultaneously with any public dissemination of the listing information. If the Listing Information is not disseminated to the public, the Listing Information will be sent out via RLS within 24 hours of obtaining the signed Exclusive Listing. These obligations are mandatory unless the Owner has specified in writing that an offer of co-brokerage is not to be initiated with respect to the Exclusive Listing.Ahh, that last line. Quick lesson for you brokers, if you want to hold back a new listing for whatever reason, get it in writing on the listing agreement!
Lets do some Old School blogging! Check out the interview I had with Michael Smith, CEO of Streeteasy.com way back in February, 2006:
First and foremost, Mr. Smith made his position clear:The guy was on a mission, and executed. And as the landscape changes, Streeteasy will be one of the guys leading the way."We entered this market knowing there would be competition, and we are executing on a clear strategy that will lead to a service that is very different than what we see in the market today. We care about the buyers of New York City real estate who use this site and we are here to stay."
Quality of content or in this case, data, is the most important thing to perfect. Anyone with experience structuring database tables and perfecting rules via custom designed algorithms, knows that when you are dealing with multiple sources of data, gathering the data, cleaning the data and fine tuning the front end usability is a never ending project. Add in that the data is only as good as the agent that enters the information, and you instantly lose a ton of control over quality of content. Different formats, inconsistent updates, hundreds of sources to combine; its not easy. You see, when you compete with the NY Times, which had the NYC residential ad model secured due to the eyeballs online and in print, you have to solve a transparency & social networking problem that the competition was lacking. Streeteasy did this, and there is not much the NY Times can do about it right now.
To think that you may need to spend years cleaning the data and fine tuning the data gathering methods, to get the system 'right', is a scary proposition for the 'make money now' minded institutions. And who can blame them. But that kind of environment allows for innovation and change, and what better an environment to introduce change than in a distressed one. Enter Streeteasy.com, working to fine tune and perfect a quality system knowing in advance that it is an ongoing job.
The future will be an exciting one in regards to transparency and analytics for Manhattan real estate. I hope to compliment Streeteasy going forward, and make doing business in this great city more efficient and transparent for the consumers - and at the same time maintain the 'keeping it real' commentary/discussions that is so hard to come by in a commission driven industry that rewards volume.
Comments (10)
i love streeteasy. the best 10 bucks i spend each month.
Posted by jason | February 14, 2009 1:14 PM
Streeteasy is the Manhattan MLS in my opinion.
Posted by Noah | February 14, 2009 1:23 PM
One problem with Streeteasy is that it fails to capture all of the closings in Manhattan. For instance, I closed on the sale of apt on 12/31/08, and it still has not showed up in the sales for my building, despite my contact SE about this a few weeks ago. Why is that? How many other sales are not showing up? How accurate is SE if it misses a lot of data?
Posted by Be | February 14, 2009 2:17 PM
StreetEasy is fantastic! Always room for improvement, but what they have done for our real estate market so far is remarkable.
Posted by angler7 | February 14, 2009 2:47 PM
Be - hmm, strange. They usually are great with that. Try emailing dawn@streeteasy.com.
Posted by Noah | February 14, 2009 5:40 PM
Be,
My name is Sofia Kim and I head up research at StreetEasy. If you want, please contact me directly at sk@streeteasy.com. You can give me your address and I'll investigate for you. Please keep in mind that although you may have closed on 12/31/08, it doesn't necessarily get recorded with the City right away. That depends on your title company. Most closings get recorded with the city 2-8 weeks after the closing date. We get an electronic data feed directly from NYC Department of Finance, with daily updates. I have even encountered closings that did not appear in their data feed for almost a year.
Noah, thanks so much for your post and your vote of confidence. We at StreetEasy are VERY committed to providing data that is clean/good/CORRECT and in helping buyers make informed choices.
Posted by Sofia Kim | February 14, 2009 6:46 PM
Hello,
I went into contract on a listing in Dec. but the listing is still active in Streeteasy as well as the broker's site.
Rob
Posted by Rob | February 15, 2009 8:21 AM
Rob - that is the BROKERS fault and is a problem I stated many times here. Like I said above:
"Add in that the data is only as good as the agent that enters the information, and you instantly lose a ton of control over quality of content."
Brokers do stuff like that to get more calls from buyers. Its flat out shady, and it is why I only look at CS for trends. If the agent would update their listings, SE would catch it and we would have a better picture. But unfortunately, the data is ONLY AS GOOD AS THE AGENT THAT UPDATES IT!
Posted by Noah | February 15, 2009 8:49 AM
Like your Passion UrbanDigs!
But, I am still frustrated by the data integrity of the site.
1)Yes, the lack of integrity is created by agents. Buyers send me listings that are “just listed or closed” and after I research, I find out they are completely bogus. Since so many buyers/sellers/renters are using the site (which brokers are feeding on); I suggest that SE put forward new requirements and possibly a penalty for brokers that misuse the site. I am completely aware that this is a huge undertaking since SE pulls data from many sites – I just wish may be they would take a stand.
The scary thing is that a month ago, I was on the WSJ blog site and there is a perfect example of such a “bogus” listing…check out (the listing is 60 Ann): http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2009/01/06/manhattan-apartments-linger-on-the-market/
2) Another issue is that of multiple entries. A few months ago, I was trying to implement an inventory report for “active” FiDi apartments. I basically, had to ditch the report because agents had the same unit in Real Plus (& OLR) multiple times. Eg: A 600 SF studio was placed in the system under 1) studio 2) 1bdrm 3) 2bdrm 4) loft. I simply could not map that there were 100 studios, 200 one bedrooms, etc. because it was simply not real data. Now, when I read inventory reports for NYC, I question if the data is actual…I just do not feel that experts (such as appraisers) are actually scrubbing the data thoroughly. Honestly, I am not sure how they would be able to --- just to time consuming.
3) Fair housing guidelines in advertising in NYC is another item that is completely amiss here. I am amazed by the property descriptions that I read in NYC. I have been with 3 firms in Manhattan and not one of them has had a class on terms an agent can and cannot use when advertising. 10 years ago when I was an agent in another state, I was given a huge book of terms I could not use in marketing. In that same state, agents were charged $30 if they used words/terms that did not comply with the letter & spirit of fair housing laws and regulations.
A final note on advertising: an agent is not allowed to use the term NEW when describing a renovated kitchen, bath etc. Reasoning, everyone’s perception of new is different – and “newer” is the legally acceptable term.
4) NY dept of finance & ACRIS --- needs to be restructured. I really like our Mayor; but, I am amazed that a man that made his fortune with his financial software services company cannot apply the same approach to closed/recorded property data in NYC…of course I sent him an email about this --- I am sure he has many more important items on his agenda instead of reading the concerns of an NYC broker…
So, in closing, I would LOVE if Street Easy would take a real stand and be the number one data sytem (integrity driven) here in NYC!
Posted by H Bise | February 17, 2009 10:32 AM
H Bise - great stuff, thanks! My widget REMOVES all duplicate listings, and only counts exact addresses once! If there are duplicates, it may show on SE, but it does NOT show on my widget via one of the rules placed internally.
Just an FYI.
Posted by Noah | February 17, 2009 1:28 PM