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New York

Localize.city launches subscription-based agent tools

Listing marketplace will charge $199 per month for new service

Localize.city marketplace launches personalized web pages and advertising for agents under a subscription-fee model. (Credit: Localize.city and iStock)
Localize.city marketplace launches personalized web pages and advertising for agents under a subscription-fee model. (Credit: Localize.city and iStock)

Localize.city is one step closer to its end game.

The residential listings marketplace and data company is rolling out its first set of agent tools today, firm president Steven Kalifowitz announced.

For a subscription fee, agents will be able to customize a page with photos, videos, a headshot, bio, past transactions, press mentions, neighborhoods they invest or live in, and a direct-contact form.

Agents will also be able to ask each other for recommendations, but the public will not be able to review agents. Localize.city will place subscribing agents’ listings and profiles in front of consumers in their curated home feeds.

“Think of this as the best of LinkedIn for real estate,” said Andrew Kalish, Localize.City’s head of strategic partnerships.

He said the firm had consulted with dozens of agents and brokerage leaders and found they wanted a more personalized lead-generation system.

“This is their baseball card,” he explained, saying the goal is for their platform to become “the next-generation place to meet new clients.”

Localize.city is waiving subscription fees for the first month, citing the coronavirus pandemic. Thereafter sales and rental agents would pay $139 per month with a three-month commitment. The standard price will then be $199 a month.

Those who use the service only for rental listings will pay less: $69 per month for the three-month commitment and then $99 per month.

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Localize.city launched in New York City in 2018 armed with $8 million in Series A funding and positioned itself as a data company that could provide consumers insights into their apartment buildings and neighborhoods — about the school district, any history of pest problems, noise and proximity to dog parks, for example.

The firm is a subsidiary of Israeli technology company Madlan, which was founded in 2012, and harnessed artificial intelligence to mine data sets with a team of software engineers, data scientists and urban planners.

Last year Localize.city debuted its free listings service for rentals and sales and propelled itself into the maelstrom of New York City’s numerous listings companies with a splashy subway advertising campaign. It also sent out a bold mailer to the brokerage community on the heels of StreetEasy’s hiking of daily rental listing fees.

The mailer’s title image screamed in bright pink graffiti “Take your power back!” in the foreground of a black-and-white image of the Statue of Liberty and promised free listings.

“We don’t play the bait-and-switch game,” said Kalifowitz in a statement at the time. “We’re proud to remind the New York real estate community that Localize.city does not charge for listings.”

When asked whether Localize.city would ever charge listing fees, Kalish said, “I don’t see why we would.” Localize.city listings are supplied by brokerage feeds and other systems, including the Real Estate Board of New York’s residential listing service, Nestio and RealtyMX.

“If you don’t have the inventory, consumers are not going to come,” he added.

Write to Erin Hudson at ekh@therealdeal.com