Revealed: The Selection Process Behind StreetEasy's Most Popular Listings
What does it take to get featured as the Most Popular Listing of the Week on StreetEasy’s Instagram channel? This coveted spot means a weekly listing gets seen by more than 24,000 followers, which results in a huge spike in traffic and saves for that apartment. So, who chooses the properties? How are they selected? And how can you set your listing up for success? We talked to StreetEasy’s Social Team to decode the selection process.
The main requirements for being selected are that they are well-photographed, new to market (within the last few weeks, at a maximum), and are currently in the condition in which they were photographed. That means no virtual staging!
This property was featured as the Most Popular apartment the week of May 29, 2018 and racked up 373 saves before closing.
We select the Most Popular Listing based in part on what our users are saving, but empty apartments don’t make very compelling or interesting content for our Instagram tour, so even if an apartment is receiving lots of saves, it’s tough to feature without furniture. Clean, bright interiors with colorful and thoughtful accents are always favorites because they make for fun and engaging visual content.
In addition to the minimum requirements, here are a few other traits that our Most Popular Listings often share:
This apartment was staged by Hovey and Co and was featured as the Most Popular Apartment on StreetEasy in December 2018.
Clean, Bright, Interiors
Staging experts like Jason Saft of Staged to Sell Homes, Porter and Hollister Hovey of Hovey Design and Lesa Wright McHale of Spruce and Wright have all had apartments featured more than once as Most Popular Listings and are pros at designing spaces that are neutral for prospective buyers, but still have character and warmth.
This West Village 2-Bedroom was staged by Spruce & Wright and was featured as the Most Popular Apartment the week of February 26, 2018.
Geometric, modern wall art, an edited selection of coffee table books, or plants or flowers are all often featured in our tours. Many of the apartments have also had a new coat of white paint before going on the market, so they look especially clean and crisp before prospective homeowners see them.
This stunning 2-bedroom condo was listed over the median asking price for the East Village, but was nonetheless selected to be featured in the Most Popular series.
Keep the Median in Mind
More often than not, the apartments featured are below or in line with the neighborhood median price point. We have featured apartments that are above the median, but in those cases, we prefer that the apartment comes with a little something extra.
Examples include a 1-bedroom in the West Village that was designed by an AD100 designer and came with a built-in banquette, an East Village condo that walked out to its own amazing courtyard and had a roof deck, or a Greenwich Village studio that was located on the top floor of a gorgeous prewar building that had a massive, private roof deck and penthouse views of downtown New York.
Although this apartment was pricey for a studio, its duplex penthouse layout and private outdoor space made it a clear pick for Most Popular of the Week.
Everyone likes to feel like they’ve discovered something unique, so if the price is on the high side, we like to justify it with something special about the home.
In general, our price point doesn’t tend to go above the $1.5M mark, and most of the homes we feature are around the $1M mark. This is practical as well, because you can only show so much of a home in an Instagram tour. A massive $17M townhouse may be visually incredible, but most consumers aren’t looking for a home at that price point. Also, it’s very challenging to show off all the rooms and features that a home of that size and price may have in an IG story.
You Can Always Go Downtown (or to Brooklyn)
Frequent neighborhoods in Manhattan include Greenwich Village, the West Village, the East Village, and Gramercy Park. In Brooklyn, we often see Carroll Gardens, Park Slope, Boerum Hill and Cobble Hill. Take, for example, the Greenwich Village duplex featured above, which racked up nearly 400 saves in three weeks on StreetEasy.
This elegant Upper East Side 2-bedroom is located in a Beaux Arts townhouse and was featured as the Most Popular apartment the week of April 22, 2019.
Character Counts
New York City is filled with new construction buildings, and while they may offer lots of amenities, in general, our audience seems happy to forfeit elevators and gyms for the charm of wood-burning fireplaces, or outdoor spaces. Prewar buildings or apartments located in townhouses also tend to rack up the saves, especially when they’re partnered with an updated kitchen, laundry and storage, either in the unit or in the building.
Want to get featured? If your listing is a fit, make sure we know about it by following us on Instagram and tagging us in your latest listings!