Corcoran, PropertyShark.com partner

PropertyShark.com has formed a partnership with the Corcoran Group to provide agents with access to all of PropertyShark.com, at the brokerage’s expense, in a deal similar to alliances the Web site has formed with investment sales companies Massey Knakal and Extreme Realty.

Starting today, Corcoran agents no longer have to pay out of pocket for a PropertyShark.com account, and will be reimbursed by Corcoran if they already have one.

Until now, about 350 to 400 of Corcoran’s 1,100 agents had PropertyShark.com accounts, said Pamela Liebman, president and CEO of Corcoran.

“I want them all to do it and I know if we pay for it, they’ll do it,” she said.

Corcoran did not pay any upfront fees and will pay PropertyShark.com on a per-user basis.

The real estate research information Web site will train the agents to use the site and will contribute data to Corcoran’s quarterly market report. 

“For residential brokers, Corcoran really stepped up and broke the mold here,” said Bill Staniford, PropertShark.com’s new CEO.

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PropertyShark.com, founded in 2003, offers four free property reports per day. Paid membership provides information about ownership, zoning, FAR and violations.

Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, which uses data from PropertyShark.com in the market reports it prepares for Prudential Douglas Elliman, said the PropertyShark.com-Corcoran partnership made sense for the brokerage.

“It associates Corcoran directly with a data resource which they didn’t have before,” Miller wrote in an e-mail.

However, he added that he didn’t know how much more agents would benefit, because PropertyShark “already offers their basic information for free and many agents in Manhattan already work with Property Shark. Seems more like a branding opportunity for both, which is a good thing for both of them as well.”

Liebman said she had been frustrated by outdated real estate-related books and wanted to move to an Internet service offering up-to-the-minute information.

“I wanted to get rid of all the books,” she said.

PropertyShark.com’s Staniford is trying to set up similar corporate relationships with Elliman and Halstead Property, he said.