Streeteasy.com launches organizational feature for brokers and clients

Streeteasy.com has unveiled a new feature it says will help brokers leverage the site’s power to assist clients.
The popular real estate listings website has introduced a system of “folders” to help users organize their search, explained Streeteasy’s Jared Kleinstein.

Users — whether they’re home-seekers or brokers picking out listings for clients — can create a folder for properties they’re interested in. Users can share the folder — along with their ratings and comments on each listing — with their clients, roommates or spouses, who can in turn make their own comments. Streeteasy.com sends updates about all of the properties simultaneously to everyone who shares the folder, Kleinstein explained.

The concept isn’t entirely novel — Google documents, for example, allow users to share files and make changes that everyone can see. But the idea is a new one for Streeteasy.com, and will help streamline searches, Kleinstein said. Right now, users receive updates from Streeteasy.com, then forward them on to their clients or significant others, leading to an email back-and-forth that gets “sloppy” and hard to keep track of, he said.

“It’s taking what we’ve made already, simplifying it, and allowing for collaboration,” he said. “You finally have a place where all of your communication for your search is in one place.”

The new system can be especially helpful for brokers, he said. Right now, “brokers tell us that they get asked, ‘Why do I need you, I have Streeteasy?'” Kleinstein said. “The goal for this product is that consumers and brokers can work together on it.”

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Brokers can do the work of creating “folders” for their clients, selecting the listings they think will be appropriate and sending them to clients with notes about the building or co-op board. For example, Kleinstein said, they can forward a list of properties in advance of a day of appointments, complete with maps that show their location.

“The broker can do the work of organizing,” Kleinstein said. He added: “The concept is that we aren’t competition for a broker; we are a part of the search.”

Streeteasy.com now gets between 35,000 and 40,000 unique visitors per day. Encouraging brokers to view the site as a tool, rather than an adversary, “is a step in the right direction for transparency,” Kleinstein said.