The two biggest residential brokerages in Manhattan revamped their Web sites in February. So how do the firm’s Internet presences stack up against one another?
Prudential Douglas Elliman re-launched its Web site in late February to make it, as the brokerage’s president explained, friendlier for consumers. It’s as if the Age of Craigslist has nudged brokerages into an era of greater disclosure to make their services more enticing and relevant.
The Elliman re-launch came only weeks after the Corcoran Group engineered an ambitious Web re-branding that included retiring founder Barbara Corcoran’s familiar visage.
On Douglas Elliman’s new site, visitors can e-mail real estate questions to chief executive Dottie Herman, and, she said, she’ll try to e-mail back answers. The firm’s demographic information — including the same sorts of property details offered by new real estate sites like Zillow.com and PropertyShark.com — are also on the site. “We’ll have up all of our data, all of our information,” Herman said. “I hope people will be able to use this.”
Corcoran’s revamped Web site offers listings searches by school district and subway line as well as a feature called Arrange-a-Room, which allows consumers to place furniture on floor plans for its listings.