Comments on: Craigslist Videos: NYC Real Estate Agents Want Me to Charge Them

By: gamonie

gamonie — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 00:43:29 +0000

I haven’t gotten much done these days. So it goes. What can I say? I’ve just been letting everything pass me by. Basically not much going on lately, but it’s not important. I’ve basically been doing nothing worth mentioning.

By: UptownX

UptownX — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:05:46 +0000

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By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 21:06:05 +0000

I still think it’s craigslist is a bargain for agents and brokers, they got rid of most of the posting abusers. Some Rental Listings are still free after New York was recatagorized. My company has been busy all week setting up our interface to post rentals with the new paying accounts.

I have seen at least twenty thousand in checks written to Craig to buy bulk accounts this week. Compare that to the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal and it is a good deal for $10 compared to over $100 per listing

Google Base takes rentals for free, but since it’s still in beta, it doesn’t work the same in all areas. When Google wants to promote their real estate listings, it can be a very good site to post on.

Yahoo, was very sucessful for leads for rentals and sales, but they sold out to Prudential for sales and didn’t see any money from their rentals and now charge thousands a month to bulk load.

I think there will always be free web sites for posting listings that generate leads.

By: sellsius°

sellsius° — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 04:03:39 +0000

christine - craigslist made over $25 million last year by charging a few select cities for job ads. now he’s charging nyc rental brokers for real estate ads. are you saying that with that kind of money he can’t hire a better customer service staff to properly accomodate his communities needs?

besides craigslist, which other advertising site or venue has produced results for you since the new fee?

-rdb°

By: Christine

Christine — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 01:11:05 +0000

Ok, I see what you are saying Sellsius - but don’t all those things need man power to police? How is 1, 2, 10, 20 people suppose to police ALL the listings in housing in ALL the states and ALL those country’s? How is anyone going to police all the flagging, all the emails, all the problematic brokers that are out there? HOW is one or 50 people suppose to do that? He solved his problem and created more, but.. he’s making money at it now. Didn’t someone say that wounds can be healed if you rub money on them? Why is Craig such a bad guy IF .. and I mean IF he decided that you know what.. “all this BS and I am not making a dime off the brokers”, and most of the BS is from the NY Brokers, why does charging the brokers make him so bad? Everyone is here debating if he is right or wrong - a good guy or a bad guy, greedy or not.. Listen it is what it is and now three days into it, I feel the effects of Craig charging. I noticed the drop in calls, I am still getting calls, but a couple of times I had to check to see if my phone was working. I went from 20 to a small percent. So I am not thrilled about it. Not at all, but who ruined it?? NOT Craig - he just put a stop to all that BS - it was the NYC Brokers who pulled the rug out from under us. They are the ones that people should be pissed at. They are the ones who brought this all on. So, there are sites like VLS, ForRent.com, RentNet, Etc etc etc.. but they DO NOT get the response like CL did. And I mean DID. Its very sad..

By: sellsius°

sellsius° — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 01:10:09 +0000

BKreGuy - funny you mention the inman news conference because sellsius° was a silver sponsor at the nyc real estate connect event . that’s also where i met and spoke to craig this past january. if you’re in real estate, the inman conference is the place to be.

NYSAR seems to be on the right path. Raising the bar with education and awareness is key.

thank you for pointing out some of the items that NYSAR & realtors are working. it will be interesting to see if they pass. we’ll try to follow the decision but if we miss the results, please let us know.

sincerely,

-rdb°

By: sellsius°

sellsius° — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 23:49:43 +0000

Could Craig have curtailed the abuses without charging?

On our forum debate with him & also in personal discussion at Inman NYC (where we were Silver Sponsors) we touched on some of these alternatives with him, including:
1. requiring licensing disclosure of all listers checked against DOS records
2. non chronological stacking of listings—this design fosters reposting to secure prominent top placement of ads
3. auto deactivation of listings after 7-14 days

And why the selective fee structure? Do these abuses not occur in other cities and in the landlord section & in sales? Were New Yorkers right to complain about selective billing?

By: BKreGUY

BKreGUY — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 16:56:15 +0000

There is a real estate technology conference every year - Inman - in NY and SF. Craig has made an appearance there each year to meet with brokers that are tech savvy. Hundreds of brokers attend this conference, in which you cna sit chest to chest with good ol Craig and vent, thank, take a picture with etc…

So 2 years ago at Inman he had stated that the complaints from consumers, the flagging, etc, had gotten so out of hand, even the state dept had contacted CL a few times - so he had to address the issue.

You see CL has to tread that line between politics and the consumer now b/c of it’s size and integration into our world. So to keep the DOS off of his back and to keep the consumer happy he started playing around with the fee thing…. This has been out in the public eye for awhile now.

When He mentioned it I whole heartedly agreed with it. The price point, the reasons, everything made logical sense. Personally, if I did rentals I would pay the $10. He also mentioned that if the real estate for sale section doesn’t clean up that may follow… could it be spin? Maybe. Maybe he just wants to make loads of money? So what. good for him, there are no ads there, no BS, I like it and it’s good.

as far as “raising the Bar” - NYSAR (the NYS chapter of NAR) is currently lobbying the state to do just that. There are several points that we are battling for in the state legislature, including full disclosure of co-op admission apps - standardization, etc. here are a few things us realtors are working on:

BILL BANNING SEX OFFENDERS PASSES SENATE - Legislation that would ban sex offenders from obtaining or holding a real estate license passed the Senate this week (S.8037/A.11664). This is a new measure for 2006 that was unveiled at NYSAR’s annual Lobby Day in Albany held on June 6th. The Assembly version of the bill is in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

REAL ESTATE EDUCATION ENAHNCEMENT BILL PASSES ASSEMBLY – A bill that would increase the classroom hours that must be completed to obtain a salesperson’s license from 45 to 75 hours passed the Assembly this week (A8053-A/S4898-A). The bill also requires two years of supervision to be eligible for a brokers license, requires office managers to hold a brokers license, eliminates the so-called “grandfather clause” exemption for continuing education (applies only to those licensed after enactment of the bill) and the creation of new photo pocket cards.

CLOSE OF SESSION PREVIEW – State lawmakers are scheduled to conclude the 2006 session on or about Thursday, June 22. In the closing days NYSAR will be seeking passage in the Senate of the education enhancement bill, passage in the Senate and Assembly of legislation to revise the real estate agency disclosure form (S.44-C/A.4135-C) and Assembly passage of the Commission Escrow Act and the sex offender ban bills. NYSAR will also be actively opposing a number of bills including broker verification of zoning (S.322/A.1492).

By: sellsius°

sellsius° — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 04:31:33 +0000

april - wow! thanks for providing such great detail. you really highlight an industry wide problem, such as i mentioned in the above comment. this is what needs to be addressed at a higher level. there may need to be an overhaul of the system with real consequences for unethical behavior. it all starts with education. e.g. in order to become a doctor, you don’t just take a course and receive a license. you have many many years of schooling and training before you can practice. i’m not saying that real estate agents should have to go through a similar process, just one that has higher standards than currently exist. this would help weed out the “bad guys”, as craig calls them, before they have a chance to hurt the consumer and fellow broker/agents. this is the difficult part.

re: your one other point - only time will tell.

consumers are savvy. they will find the best places to find apartments and will spread the word. that i am sure of.

-rdb°

By: sellsius°

sellsius° — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 03:16:04 +0000

bkreguy - thanks for sharing you experiences with all of us! we really appreciate it.

so did you personally ask craig to charge you? did he offer any other alternatives besides charging a fee?

seems like there needs to be some higher standards in the industry to either :
a. get a real estate license
b. maintain your license

the barrier may just be too low. that’s why there may be some “bad guys” running around out there doing some not so nice things to consumers & fellow broker/agents. this gives all honest hard working real estate professionals a bad name. douglas heddings of the blog TrueGotham.com, touched upon this very important point some time ago. visit his blog to see the details. this is the bigger issue that needs to be addressed. one that goes beyond the realm of craigslist.

-rdb°

p.s. i will address this very important issue in a future post. anyone who would like to send me some points, please feel free.