As a long time user of Street Easy, I must admit I was very curious to see what Urban Compass had to deliver, given all the fanfare and hype. Anybody had a chance to use the service? After playing with the website, I was extremely disappointed. 1) They promote lower brokers fees, but yet most of the listings link to agents like Elliman or Habitats. So not quite sure how that would work. 2) Only... [more]
As a long time user of Street Easy, I must admit I was very curious to see what Urban Compass had to deliver, given all the fanfare and hype.
Anybody had a chance to use the service? After playing with the website, I was extremely disappointed.
1) They promote lower brokers fees, but yet most of the listings link to agents like Elliman or Habitats. So not quite sure how that would work.
2) Only rentals, no sales.
3) B/c they only list broker apts so far, all apt locations and buildings are vague
4) No way to search on particular buildings and search for comps. The single reason why I find myself visiting streeteasy everyday!
5) Pretty website, I am sure it translates well to an iphone app or android app.
Sure its still in beta, but they seemed to spend a lot of money accumulating the listings from brokers (look at their team of programmers they have on staff). But you would think a bunch of smart people, two of the cofounders worked at GS, would think how they would be differentiated from a service like Streeteasy. Fine, I can see this expanding to other cities, but seriously most of these tech startups that babble on about "disrupting the eco-system" need to be taken to the woodshed. Thank you Bernanke, BOJ, BOE, and EU for ZIRP.
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Response by pier45
over 12 years ago
Posts: 379
Member since: May 2009
There have been a lot of these aggregators over the years. None have even come close to streeteasy because, as you mentioned, vague addresses and not having streeteasy's framework of a page for every building. The worst were/are the aggregators that add in craigslist ads.
Ignored comment.
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Response by Elleinad85
over 12 years ago
Posts: 114
Member since: Jul 2011
I haven't received access to the beta site (yet) but I think you have to think about the END goal of what Urban Compass is trying to create. On the surface it is primarily being marketed as a company that is going to solve the rental experience for NYers / reducing a broker fee.
This is leaving MANY people very skeptical, re: "streeteasy was supposed to solve this" "urbansherpany.com was supposed to solve this" etc. However, I think people have to read between the lines a little more of what Urban Compass isn't publicly saying as clearly, the "bread and butter" of how Urban Compass is going to accomplish their end goal. That is the innovative part of all of this. I wrote this in a previous post:
*Urban Compass wants to become the HUB where all landlords can accept rental payments from tenants. (UC can provide free to landlords as an incentive, positive to landlords as they could potentially reduce headcount of landlords accounts receivable departments)
*Urban Compass wants to be the source of all apartment contracts and renewals, from rental, co-op, condo, commercial. (UC can provide free to landlords as an incentive, positive to landlords as they could potentially reduce the headcount of on-site rental agents)
*Urban Compass wants to have all maintenance requests filed through it.
*Urban Compass wants its employees to have the connections with landlords, business owners, and tenants.
I think from there:
*Urban Compass wants to (eventually) have all the exclusive apartment listings because of these contracted relationships (rental payments/lease contracts) with the landlords.
*Urban Compass wants to compile all rental information (size, price, lease start, lease end) for data control purposes. For example, they will eventually be able to recommend to landlords when certain tenants rents are below market rates and suggest to increase on concrete data. It makes the NYC market more measurable and consistent between neighborhoods.
This is all my speculation. I just wanted to give the non-skeptical side.
There have been a lot of these aggregators over the years. None have even come close to streeteasy because, as you mentioned, vague addresses and not having streeteasy's framework of a page for every building. The worst were/are the aggregators that add in craigslist ads.
I haven't received access to the beta site (yet) but I think you have to think about the END goal of what Urban Compass is trying to create. On the surface it is primarily being marketed as a company that is going to solve the rental experience for NYers / reducing a broker fee.
This is leaving MANY people very skeptical, re: "streeteasy was supposed to solve this" "urbansherpany.com was supposed to solve this" etc. However, I think people have to read between the lines a little more of what Urban Compass isn't publicly saying as clearly, the "bread and butter" of how Urban Compass is going to accomplish their end goal. That is the innovative part of all of this. I wrote this in a previous post:
*Urban Compass wants to become the HUB where all landlords can accept rental payments from tenants. (UC can provide free to landlords as an incentive, positive to landlords as they could potentially reduce headcount of landlords accounts receivable departments)
*Urban Compass wants to be the source of all apartment contracts and renewals, from rental, co-op, condo, commercial. (UC can provide free to landlords as an incentive, positive to landlords as they could potentially reduce the headcount of on-site rental agents)
*Urban Compass wants to have all maintenance requests filed through it.
*Urban Compass wants its employees to have the connections with landlords, business owners, and tenants.
I think from there:
*Urban Compass wants to (eventually) have all the exclusive apartment listings because of these contracted relationships (rental payments/lease contracts) with the landlords.
*Urban Compass wants to compile all rental information (size, price, lease start, lease end) for data control purposes. For example, they will eventually be able to recommend to landlords when certain tenants rents are below market rates and suggest to increase on concrete data. It makes the NYC market more measurable and consistent between neighborhoods.
This is all my speculation. I just wanted to give the non-skeptical side.
http://streeteasy.com/nyc/talk/discussion/35085-urban-compass-cuts-rental-broker-fees-in-half
Site is basically open FYI - request and invite and should be delivered right away