Today is a big day for our industry. Up until now it has been a lot of talk.  But today we start to take some action.

I am launching a new website along with a 4 point pledge.

The 4 Point Pledge is a promise of openness and transparency which is sure to make Zillow and StreetEasy blush.  This pledge will be the foundation of our new real estate website.  (Spoiler Alert: The last point in the pledge is to NEVER SELL OUR COMPANY TO ZILLOW OR STREETEASY)  

And I need your help.

If each of you shares the pledge with up to 5 of your friends, we can broadcast this message of transparency to EVERYBODY. (Click any of the links above to view the pledge and share it.)

By sharing, and therefore supporting the movement for transparency, you will get first access to our new website (below) which is launching in beta in a few weeks.  (This is really important because I want to include as much of your feedback as possible into the final product! )

Why is this pledge so important?
The last thing we as an industry want to do is to put all of our trust in a new listings platform (mine or another) just to have that new website turn deceptive and greedy, right? Or worse, by selling to Zillow!

This 4 point pledge guarantees this will never happen.

And I welcome all of my competitors to endorse it!

The Name Of The New Website
Well, over the last year as most of you know I have been expressing outrage through this blog (flowfreely) as well as my Instagram posts at the astounding deception and greed shown by StreetEasy and Zillow.  Instead we need honesty, transparency, and openness.

Put another way, as I stated throughout the last year, a real estate marketplace should “flow freely”.

That’s why the name of our new real estate marketplace will simply be….

This name will be a constant reminder that our primary mission is to honor the integrity of the real estate marketplace first.  Everything else – including making money – comes second.  

Please share the 4 point pledge.  You can access and share the 4 point pledge at www.frele.com/pledge. When you share the pledge, we will put you on the list to get the first access to frēlē’s beta version launching soon.

Together, let’s restore transparency to New York City Real Estate!

Phil Horigan
Dedicated NYC Real Estate Agent for 14 Years
Founder, frēlē & Leasebreak.com

 Let’s Bring Transparency Back!

To beat StreetEasy, I am refusing to raise money. Here’s why.   

First, where are we now?
2018 is going to be very special. It is the year StreetEasy’s stranglehold over the marketplace begins to show “cracks”.  The new REBNY RLS feed in particular has empowered all kinds of new competitive solutions, most of which have not even become public yet. I would argue that the RLS is the single biggest threat to StreetEasy’s dominance.  But these things do take time (months/years, not days/weeks).

But I know it can be frustrating.  It seems everyone is just “giving in” to StreetEasy and nothing is being done about it.  I assure you this is actually not the case. You will see an avalanche of new products and ideas coming out over the next two years. Many this year.  Zillow’s short sighted business decisions suddenly put the NYC residential real estate power dynamics back “in play”.  There will be significant shifts and big shakeups happening over the coming years.

Example of Good Stuff Coming: My New Website
For example, in the coming weeks I will be launching a new product in beta which will compete with StreetEasy in 12 month rentals.  Leasebreak became #1 in short term rentals (i.e. leases between 1-12 months).  We will apply similar techniques to become #1 in 12 month rentals with the new website (with a new name).  It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

And when it does, you won’t have to pay for posting rental listings ever again.  

The new website will also likely show “sales” listings down the road, but maybe we won’t have to.  There is a real chance the attorney general – or some other government entity – forces StreetEasy to change the Premier Agent Program because it is just so unbelievably deceiving to consumers.  

(By the way, please make sure you subscribe to my blog flowfreely.com so that I can give you first access to the private “beta” version of the new site in a few weeks.  I would welcome any feedback and encourage you to share the new website with your friends and colleagues.)

Why I Won’t Raise Money Now.
When I run into many of you in person or online (Instagram) you are so supportive of my stances on these issues.  Many of you encourage me to “keep up the good fight”. Thank you, this is so important to hear and means so much (but I also welcome criticism and suggestions too, fyi).

Many of you also suggest that I raise a boat load of money so I can compete with the deceptive monstopoly (monster + monopoly. I just came up with that LOL).

Many of you have even offered to “invest” yourself or suggest I speak to a VC friend of yours, etc.  I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this and your confidence in me.

But here is why I can’t accept that money.

Once I take money from investors or VCs, then those investors expect a “return”.  They expect me to focus on “maximizing profits”. Even if not right away, down the road for sure.

This means that I may have to do things I don’t want to do:  Things that are not right for consumers or brokers. Things that violate my vision of what a real estate marketplace should be: Honest, transparent, and functioning as freely as possible.

For example, as you will see, when we launch the new website there will always be a free option to list an apartment. “Always”, as in forever.  If you were an investor, you may not like the sound of this. But that’s too bad.

And once I do launch, it will be even more clear to all of you why I just can’t take any money right now.

This is about principles.  It’s about values. Having a NYC real estate marketplace which operates freely with transparency is the focus.  Everything else – including profits – is secondary.

I have lived in NYC almost 20 years, and I have been a NYC real estate agent for 14 years.  Zillow and StreetEasy are not going to destroy the NYC real estate marketplace we have all come to love.  Not on our watch.

Who’s with me? 🙂

My objective here is to prove with spontaneous video interviews of consumers that Zillow/StreetEasy does not pass even the most basic “smell test” for transparency.  I took my video camera to the NYC streets and asked random people about Zillow/StreetEasy’s website.  EVERYONE  whom I spoke with had the same reaction!  (See video clip at top or bottom of post). 

There is real outrage out there caused by Zillow/ StreetEasy’s antics. But it is much more serious than most people believe.  By almost any definition, Zillow/StreetEasy has monopoly power in NYC,  and probably enough abuse to warrant investigation by the powers that be.  

But we can’t wait for that because that day may never come.  It won’t happen until consumers are just as outraged as the brokerage community.  But most of the outrage comes from those who are the most familiar with StreetEasy’s website;  Those who use it day in and day out, like the brokerage community.  Consumers don’t use real estate websites every day like real estate agents do . After all, how often are consumers really in the market to buy or rent?  Also, some of these issues (buyers agent vs sellers agent, dual agency, etc) are complicated to understand, especially to new buyers or renters.  

This is what makes the deception “brilliant” but so “dangerous” at the same time.  That is, most people  – even a lot of agents – are just not paying attention nor do they understand how dangerous this deception is to a free flowing and open real estate marketplace.  However, the good news is this:   

Even consumers who have limited buying or renting experience in NYC understand what should happen when you attempt to get information about a property on a real estate website, right?   Try asking any consumer this question:

“When you click “CONTACT AGENT” on a property listing for sale, where you would expect your message to go?”

Note that I have played this game with many of my friends who are NOT working in the real estate industry.  EVERY one of them is really surprised to learn that your message goes not to the listing agent but to a RANDOM AGENT WHO IS PAYING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FOR THESE LEADS. 

But producing a video showing you what my friends say is not going to convince anyone of anything.  Therefore, I decided to just go up and ask random people on the streets of NYC to prove just how misleading things are on Zillow / StreetEasy’s website.  

And of course, the average New Yorker is just as surprised to learn that they are being “tricked”.  Everyone I went up to had the same reaction:  They all just assumed that the message would go to the listing agent.

To be clear, I did NOT show you only certain interviews.  I showed you EVERY interview.  I could have interviewed 1000 people and the results would have been very similar.

Aren’t we all just tired of being bait and switched?

Aren’t we all just tired of being bait and switched?  The internet is supposed to make things MORE transparent, not less.  This is deceptive and misleading, and when you have monopoly power, potentially illegal. 

Let’s be clear, without having this monopoly power, there is no way consumers or agents would be putting up with this.  

But what can we do about it?

We know that national companies who have listing real estate marketplaces have historically really struggled to gain market share in NYC. The NYC market is just so unique.  This is why people are not holding too much hope in companies like Realtor.com, Apartments.com, and Homes.com to come save us.  Ironically, even Zillow tried to gain share in NYC before failing miserably which is why they decided to buy StreetEasy in 2012. (And a further irony is that StreetEasy did so well in New York back then because StreetEasy was such a transparent marketplace before all of these dramatic changes last year.)

So, we can’t necessarily wait around for a big national competitor to sweep in (although no doubt that the more competition the better!).  The only way we would ever compete with a billion dollar company is to eventually support a solution for a transparent, honest, free flowing real estate marketplace which can never be turned into a greedy deceptive one.  

I believe that ultimately consumers won’t put up with a greedy deceptive platform focused more on profits than on advancing the consumer and agent experience. 

Let’s work together to make something great.  I am posting every day on Instagram (@philiphorigan) and trying to engage with as many of you as possible.  Please meet me there, and subscribe to this blog.

Zillow / StreetEasy’s Premier Agent Program Could Be Shut Down By Regulators
Zillow/StreetEasy’s Premier Agent program will likely be shut down by regulators at some point, or at least forced to be changed in a MAJOR way.  The program in its current form is just so egregiously deceptive and misleading to consumers.  

And the program is much more deceptive than you may think, especially if you look at it from the consumer’s perspective.  

The Internet Was Making NYC Real Estate More Transparent…Until Zillow in 2017.
The internet changed the real estate buying process dramatically.  Up until 2017, buyers could see ALL the apartments for sale, and they could easily see the agents who are listing the property, along with the listing agent’s contact information.  Buyers or their agents could contact the listing agent or owner directly.  

Buyers LOVED this transparency.  In fact, this transparency is what fueled StreetEasy growth in the early days.  Also, in 2011 New York State began requiring brokers and buyers/sellers to sign disclosure forms. This was to ensure that buyers and sellers understood who was representing their interests in a particular transaction.  The age of transparency was upon us!

But in 2017, that all changed.  

Zillow’s StreetEasy’s decided to abuse their monopoly-like market share in NYC.  The potential existence of a monopolistic position was even hinted at by Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff when he said last year referring to Zillow’s presence in NYC:  “Our audience size really dwarfs the competition.”  

So, here is what changed.  In March 2017, Zillow’s StreetEasy dramatically changed the listing page for homes listed on their website and removed all of the listing agent’s contact information!  (Here is a “before” and “after” shot on my Instagram feed).  Instead, they added a new form which tricks consumers into contacting a random buyer’s agent; That is, an agent who is bidding thousands of dollars to get the “lead”.

This resulted in a HUGE step back in transparency, mixed in with a healthy dose of misleading and deceiving consumers.

Why would the Zillow / StreetEasy monopoly do this?
Because they are making SO much money doing it, while taking advantage of brokers and consumers along the way. Since the website has had a near monopoly on sales traffic for years, implementing a program to get buyer leads would of course draw the attention of thousands of agents.  As an agent, if your colleagues are paying for these “leads” you have to consider it too, or so goes the thinking. 

Of course we don’t blame the agents. After all, what a great way for a newer brokerage firm to start getting million dollar buyer leads their first day in the business? Or for a more seasoned agent to “protect” his or her own listings by paying enough money to do so.  

Either way, all of these new incentives disrupt a free flowing transparent marketplace.  They create a “pay to play” scheme, all at the expense of consumer transparency.  

This is deceptive to consumers.  And here may be the worst part.  Zillow’s StreetEasy is doing it under the guise of “protecting the consumer”, as if by tricking them into meeting with a buyer’s agent is somehow in the buyer’s best interest.  

But this really distorts the reality.  Let’s be clear.  Most NYC sales deals already have TWO agents, a buyer’s agent and a seller’s agent.  It has been this way for at least the last 14 years since I have been in the business.  So, consumers seem to be having NO problem finding buyer’s agents.  

So, can StreetEasy/Zillow really make a case that buyers need this and that it helps them?  Not a chance.  

It is beyond deceptive for a monopoly-like enterprise to build a money making scheme based on this faulty premise, especially one that is misleading to consumers.   

In sum, the Premier Agent program exists to enrich the pockets of Zillow (and its shareholders), and it misleads and deceives consumers.  And even agents are not going to benefit in the long run.  While some real estate agents may get lucky with the program, most agents are wasting their money because these consumers are being deceived.  And a real estate deal never starts off on the right foot when a consumer is misled.  

Because I have been appalled at this lack of transparency, I decided to launch a competing real estate marketplace later this year.  Please follow me on Instagram (@philiphorigan) and subscribe to this blog for updates. You can also subscribe to my YouTube channel here.