Suggestion to Streeteasy

Not sure if brokers would like all that transparency? Then they couldn't get away with "oh the assessment? I definitely told you about it before we had an accepted offer, not sure why you don't remember! ... when are you signing the contract?"

Tony, It's not a transparency issue, it's an accuracy issue. As real estate brokers, we're not selling potatoes here... we're selling shares in corporations, which are run by people, and things change. Boards change, managing agents change (and whenever a new one comes in, what they tell boards to do changes) and standards of selling change. The river flows, and so it's not the same river twice.

Two examples: 1) I sell apartments in the building where I live. Streeteasy, for some reason unknown to me, lists "storage" as one of the amenities of the building. Well... we don't have any. So one of the things that I have to do, somewhere in my sales dance to potential buyers, is say "Oh-by-the-way-Streeteasy-says-that-there's-potential-storage-but-except-for-bike-storage-there-really-isn't-any; oh look at those high ceilings!"

I do that (and since I close the apartments that I list, there's evidence that its a surmountable obstacle) but it still disadvantages my sellers, and makes me look a tiny bit foolish (or maybe somewhat OCD).

2) Buyers lately (possibly with an eye to air BNB) seem to pretty continuously ask, about whatever building, "what's the sublet policy"? Well, that changes over time, because it's often a function of how owner-occupied a building is and how tough lending banks are, and whether a recent subletter has given the neighbors trouble, and whether sales are slow. So I have seen buildings that I know move through a cycle of "no subletting" -> "subletting if hardship" -> "subletting if resident a certain number of years" -> "full of airBNB listings" -> "crackdown on airBNB listings" -> "subletting if hardship." Even my investment condo -- and condos are usually pretty subletting-friendly -- has changed its stance somewhat in the 15 or so years I've owned it.

I know buyers like checklists, and easily scannable data, because... hey, newsflash! ... I'm a New York City buyer too! But not everything can or should be codified.

ali r.