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New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

rentenforcer.com

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Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#31

Post by thinkalone »

rentenforcer wrote: post #11
zavulon wrote: post #4

This is a good idea, but maybe there's a way for you to display some data before signing up? Right now, there's nothing on the site at all except for the form requesting my information. After I submit it, there's a message there's not enough data for my address, and a request for email. At this point, it would be helpful to see what exactly I'm signing up for. Maybe examples for different addresses, or average data p…

I definitely hear you - this is actually just an idea I had last night and just wanted to get some data. The response has really been pretty decent (I've got about 150 pieces of usable data). My next step is to figure out exactly how to use the data. I will likely start with neighborhood pages, and move on to individual building pages once the data gets dense enough. But I would love to hear your thoughts on product…

Well, as your friendly neighborhood real estate agent: What do you feel is so "evil" about the NYC real estate market, aside from using it as a provoking headline?

Apartment prices depend on the move-in date - an apartment may be rented at significantly less than its current market value if the tenant has been there for 10 years, while someone who just moved in to the identical floorplan will be paying quite a bit more. Comparing this smattering of prices is unhelpful, and is exactly why rental reports like the one linked above are based on average and median prices for apartments currently on the market or recently rented.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#32

Post by MichaelApproved »

rentenforcer wrote: post #28
MichaelApproved wrote: post #27

Am I being a nitpicking nerd or does "(100% anonymous & confidential)" seem wrong when asking for my street address and probably logging IP and possibly other data? I haven't tried to use it but what I've read in the comments here you also ask for email address. Confidential, maybe. Anonymous, unlikely.

Wrong and wrong. I don't log any data other than the date besides what you put in the fields. I also don't connect the email address to the listing, it just goes onto a mailing list. For now it is confidential, though I'm not sure how to reconcile the idea of an API with confidentiality - even when anonymity is involved. Perhaps I should just change it to 100% anonymous?

The only reason I even cared about it was because you stated it. It made me think this information SHOULD be kept private and think twice before letting it information out.

Does that message even need to be there? Is anyone concerned with it? Might be be better to put the message at the bottom instead. Those who care will look for a statement like that and others won't be distracted.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#33

Post by thinkalone »

asanwal wrote: post #22

Like the idea. Think you need to figure out a way to get people who are happy to submit data. Like Glassdoor, I'd guess that the unhappy are more likely to provide data. Especially true for folks in the city who feel they have a great deal - why would I advertise that and tell others about that? Beyond that, didn't like the fact that I provided data and got a "no data available" page. I understand your building up th…

> At some point, you could perhaps mash up data you get about buildings with a lot of the data NYC has opened up about the city as part of its gov2.0 efforts. This way, you can provide a sense for the "value" of an apartment alongside stats like average income of neighborhood, crime rates, etc.

Already got some heavy competition in that area: http://nyc.everyblock.com/ http://streeteasy.com/nyc http://www.trulia.com/

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#34

Post by thinkalone »

rentenforcer wrote: post #12
HaloZero wrote: post #7

Couldn't you scrape craigslist at least for some basic information about each neighborhood?

I easily could - the whole point is to avoid taking the information from the marketplace. The prices on craiglist are borderline fraudulent, and are meant to get you into the broker's office at which point they inform you "oh sorry that apt is gone, but here are 5 more that aren't as nice and twice the price!"

> The prices on craiglist are borderline fraudulent

The most attractively priced apartments advertised on CL are on there because they are great deals. There are thousands of people looking for the cheapest apartments, and when someone rents it, that means 999 other people get to hear "I'm sorry, that apartment is gone." Obviously I understand the frustration, since I've been on both sides of those conversations, and there are some brokerages that put out shady ads, but nearly all rentals are on the market less than a week, and smart landlords price their apartments so well they are rented within a day - just because apartments get rented is not evidence of a mass conspiracy.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#35

Post by maxawaytoolong »

thinkalone wrote: post #34
rentenforcer wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I easily could - the whole point is to avoid taking the information from the marketplace. The prices on craiglist are borderline fraudulent, and are meant to get you into the broker's office at which point they inform you "oh sorry that apt is gone, but here are 5 more that aren't as nice and twice the price!"

> The prices on craiglist are borderline fraudulent The most attractively priced apartments advertised on CL are on there because they are great deals. There are thousands of people looking for the cheapest apartments, and when someone rents it, that means 999 other people get to hear "I'm sorry, that apartment is gone." Obviously I understand the frustration, since I've been on both sides of those conversations, and…

I've actually had "ok" experiences finding apartments on Craigslist. However, here are practices that bug me:

- brokers and rental companies ALWAYS post in the "by owner" section. I've had agents from Citiapartments actually pretend to be the "owner!"

- brokers post in the "no fee" section but there are always fees.

- no photos... because everything that's a decent deal is also a dump.

- "Net Effective" rent prices in the listing. It's listed at $1700 but that's the "Net Effective" rent not taking into account your 2 months free after 14 months and waiving the fee we didn't tell you about which means that you're really sending us a check for $2150 every month but really, trust us, it's only $1700.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#36

Post by thinkalone »

maxawaytoolong wrote: post #35
thinkalone wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The prices on craiglist are borderline fraudulent The most attractively priced apartments advertised on CL are on there because they are great deals. There are thousands of people looking for the cheapest apartments, and when someone rents it, that means 999 other people get to hear "I'm sorry, that apartment is gone." Obviously I understand the frustration, since I've been on both sides of those conversations, and…

I've actually had "ok" experiences finding apartments on Craigslist. However, here are practices that bug me: - brokers and rental companies ALWAYS post in the "by owner" section. I've had agents from Citiapartments actually pretend to be the "owner!" - brokers post in the "no fee" section but there are always fees. - no photos... because everything that's a decent deal is also a dump. - "Net Effective" rent prices i…

Brokers advertising as "by owner" should be reported, and if fee apartments are advertised in "no fee," those should also be reported. (Honestly, management companies are allowed to split off and have their own brokerage, so that they collect fees by renting the apartments they already own, and in that case they would advertise in "by owner," but it sounds like you were speaking of something different.)

Not having pictures is directly related to how fast apartments are rented - sometimes it's simply not reasonable or possible to gain access and go take pictures of an apartment before it is rented.

Net effective is slimy, but not prohibited, as long as it's labeled properly.

For what it's worth, I never advertise without photos and have never used net effective prices, which is my personal decision, but it still bothers me when people extrapolate from a few bad ads or ads they think are misleading and then disparage the entire industry. The real CL scams are much worse than what people are typically paranoid about real estate agents doing behind the scenes.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#37

Post by mcargian »

rentenforcer wrote: post #20
dguido wrote: post #17

If you want to help New Yorker's, you're going to have to make an option for "0" bedrooms, as that is quite common around here :-).

Hmm...I figured those people would select 1 BR and hit the Flex/Studio checkbox, but I guess that's not so clear? Maybe I should make it 0/Studio -> 5+ and then change the Flex/Studio checkbox to just Flex? Thoughts?

What is flex? I'd just go with 0 or Studio as it is much more common on rental website search forms.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#38

Post by furyg3 »

thinkalone wrote: post #31
rentenforcer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I definitely hear you - this is actually just an idea I had last night and just wanted to get some data. The response has really been pretty decent (I've got about 150 pieces of usable data). My next step is to figure out exactly how to use the data. I will likely start with neighborhood pages, and move on to individual building pages once the data gets dense enough. But I would love to hear your thoughts on product…

Well, as your friendly neighborhood real estate agent: What do you feel is so "evil" about the NYC real estate market, aside from using it as a provoking headline? Apartment prices depend on the move-in date - an apartment may be rented at significantly less than its current market value if the tenant has been there for 10 years, while someone who just moved in to the identical floorplan will be paying quite a bit mo…

"What year did you move-in" is a good question to add to this page.

Re: New Yorkers: help me defeat the evil NYC real estate market

#40

Post by sgaur »

rentenforcer wrote: post #12
HaloZero wrote: post #7

Couldn't you scrape craigslist at least for some basic information about each neighborhood?

I easily could - the whole point is to avoid taking the information from the marketplace. The prices on craiglist are borderline fraudulent, and are meant to get you into the broker's office at which point they inform you "oh sorry that apt is gone, but here are 5 more that aren't as nice and twice the price!"

But how are you going to prevent that from happening on your site too? Wouldn't brokers try to inflate the prices on your site as well?
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