StreetEasy Drops Insider Accounts

This is awesome!!!!

The new interface looks nice too.

While the new interface is SLIGHTLY better than the bubble gum look they had before, it still is not as good as classic SE -- still the best IMO.

Miffed. I pre-paid a full year as insider. Now it's free. Will I get the money back for 9 months? StreetEasy, please respond.

I am happy to save 10.00 bucks also...However this even further opens up the market to any yahoo, that is Not willing to pay a 120.00 for a year.....

I'm not sure I get your point. Should information be limited to those yahoos paying $120 a year? How will things be worse when those unwilling to pay that sum have access to information?

I like the new interface. Clean. Happy to save $10.

I had droppd my insider account after the initial changes, so glad to see it's no longer needed! (Especially since cityrealty was giving the info away for free already, which is where I had started going for it after cancelling my insider account...)

Also, liking this v3.0 much better than the last revision.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Classic StreetEasy for me!

I've been an insider & I see that the new StreetEasy (Zillow) trashed all my folders.
Has this happened to anyone else?

Dwell, looks like all of your folders are still intact--sorry if for some reason it looked like they disappeared on you! Hope you enjoy the new design overall, let us know if you have any ideas or suggestions for us to continue improving the site!

Great news Street Easy!

@Dwell - something similar happened to me; while none of my existing folders were "trashed", I did a recorded sale search, and when I saved a few things and then went back to view my folder, it had created a new "untitled" folder, but once I realized what was going on, I copied the few things I'd save to my existing folder and then just deactivated the new "untitled" folder.

Looks good.

They also dropped access to the old site today.

The only thing I miss about the old interface is while searching, seeing 12 or 15 listings at a time with the map. This is very efficient for the type of "Show me what's new and visually I can see if it is worth looking at" searches. With the new map search interface it generalizes the location if 2+ results, and you have to click on the map points for basic info, so you can't skim through quickly.

As someone who was extremely critical of the initial redesign, I think the folks at Streeteasy deserve some credit for making the site much more stream lined. You're welcome for the input, Streeteasy (aka Zillow). I give it a thumbs up. The layout is similar to the original and one of the first things I noticed is they reverted back to the building page containing most of the relevant info and more importantly, all active sales and rentals, which was a complete mess in version 2.0. I can't tell you how important this was. To just type of a building address in and get all the data in a few easy clicks.

The free membership also helps. I'm sure there were many reasons they decided to provide this service free. Businesses make mistakes. Zillow seems to make many of them. They took a rather poor business model and applied it to something that worked extraordinarily well. It resulted in extreme criticism. It's one of the few companies with a massive market valuation ($2.5B-$5B), which at the end of the day leaves you scratching your head, how? 50-60% of the information on Zillow is inaccurate or dated. Their main site is rather awful and their model of marketing to agents is flawed (not SE -- the Zillow site). What they should do is hire a couple New York City Real Estate agents and have them take the company to the next level. There are ways to incentivise broker recognition in return for valuable marketing. Positive broker feedback should in theory motivate to be more involved in not only their own listings, but the information of other data. They could have brokers do most of the work to make their site all that much better, but it seems they are completely missing the potential, at least in my opinion. They should be using brokers as little worker bees. Unlike Streeteasy, it appears agents cannot alter/edit their data, or perhaps they just don't value doing stuff like this away from NYC. I don't know, but when you call someone about an apartment for rent in Miami that rented "2 weeks ago" and it's still on the Zillow site, there is a fundamental problem with the model then. This isn't an isolated case either and this doesn't happen often, if at all, with SE or rather, NYC brokers. There are consequences for inaccurate data.

Their next step should be restructuring their entire business model away from New York City now. Trulia is just as bad (similar model) and there is no one else after that. Someone's going to come along soon with a fresh model and take it all. Good luck.

@Streeteasy, the old format had an option to search for available listings "near by" the building that you are looking at, is there any way that you can add that function to the new design?

@streeteasy:
No, there is only 1 folder remaining. I emailed you about this, but you have not emailed me back & instead decided to post in discussions. I prefer to do this in emails.

So, no, I'm NOT happy. The least Streeteasy could have done was send a warning email that Folders would be deleted or changed. Streeteasy has trashed 75% of my folders which I've been paying for over the years. So, yeah, I'm pissed.

I ask Streeteasy again, as I did in my email: Can you retrieve the info?

Thanks Bigdaddyj, maybe I'll give it a try.

Eureka! my folders are back! Thank You Zillow.
I didn't want to make a big deal about it on the discussion board, that's why I emailed you.

Still like old SE the best but this is much better than the last new SE I think I can go back to using it as my primary site now. Plus the savings now is great, really builds brand loyalty, smart

Think it looks good. Free info will get more eyeballs to the site, which means more ad dollars. Smart business move.

When they came up with the new web design, dumping the old one, a lot of paid subscribers dropped their accounts. By giving the subscriber information now for free, they've eliminated the impact of the complaints of the subscriber group.

>By giving the subscriber information now for free, they've eliminated the impact of the complaints of the subscriber group.

Huh?
Did you manage to turn an improved site and more free information into a negative?

Zagat did the same thing (dropping fees.) Guess the real money is with the advertisers; and more people will supposedly be active site members if there is no cost.