Dear Real Estate Agents,

Zillow/StreetEasy’s stock is down almost 20% since their earnings call with investors last week.  The drop in price is being attributed to a lower than expected sales forecast in the coming months.

Could the StreetEasy boycott be a contributing factor? We think so…  

We got a transcript of Zillow’s earnings call from last week and the CEO spent 25% of his time talking about the New York City market (We provide some direct quotes from the call below). In other words, in case it wasn’t clear from their rash actions—Zillow/StreetEasy is making an all out unrelenting push to squeeze as much revenue from New York City real estate agents as possible. This will continue.

July 17th was a high water mark for StreetEasy.

But, StreetEasy is simply not “the place” to look for real estate anymore. July 17th—the day before the $3/day fee was enacted—was a high water mark for StreetEasy. They now have half the rental inventory, and about 20% fewer sales listings (getting less every day) thanks to some very principled real estate firms and agents who either refused to pay StreetEasy or stopped sending them their listing feeds. More consumers are figuring out what is going on each day.

We need competition, and we need it fast. Leasebreak.com and others are going to be taking REBNY’s RLS feed, and I am sure others (like me) are working on launching other products to more directly respond and provide better alternatives for agents and consumers.

Real Quotes from Zillow’s/StreetEasy’s Earnings Call Last Week

Below are some exact quotes from the conference call.  Please join me in helping Zillow/StreetEasy EAT THESE WORDS. We can only do so by creating competition. To remind you, here is the Facebook group where we discuss StreetEasy issues (we now have over 300 agents as members!) and here is a link to a post suggesting the 5 ways we can embolden competitors to StreetEasy.
 

“We’re more excited than ever about our potential in New York.”
-Zillow/StreetEasy CEO Spencer Rascoff

“…we’re excited about many aspects of the rentals business, including the new New York City paid listings product.”
-Zillow/StreetEasy CFO Kathleen Philips

“Our audience size really dwarfs the competition in New York”
-Zillow/StreetEasy CEO Spencer Rascoff

“…..a boom and boon of Premier Agent sales over the last couple of months in New York, and it continues on the for-sale side in New York as well.”
-Zillow/StreetEasy CEO Spencer Rascoff

And—finally—a question was asked of the CEO Spencer Rascoff to respond to REBNY’s pushback and the launch of the $3 paid program:

QUESTION: “Do you expect your rental listings to come back onto StreetEasy?”

ANSWER: “They effectively already have. The decline in our rental listings count when we switched from free to paid inclusion was expected, desired and on forecast.”

Note from Phil to Zillow CEO: Sorry buddy, but they have NOT come back. Your rental inventory is down 44%, which represents a whopping 14,000 rental listings that have been removed from StreetEasy. Ouch. Next time think twice before you mislead people, most of all NYC real estate agents.  Let’s just say real estate agents have a nose for smelling a bad deal.  

Let’s do this!

Phil Horigan
Dedicated NYC Real Estate Agent for 13 Years
Founder, Leasebreak.com

Author

Philip Horigan is the founder of Leasebreak.com - a leading marketplace for rentals in NYC, founded in 2013. He launched Frēlē - a more comprehensive NYC rental marketplace - in May 2018 with a 4 point pledge (www.frele.com/pledge). Phil has been a New York City real estate agent for 14 years working for some of the top firms in the city. He became an independent broker in early 2017 so that he can focus more on his entrepreneurial endeavors. Phil believes strongly in building businesses in an ethical and transparent way.

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