Corcoran agents in New York City were notified this week about a hefty incentive to take their listings off of StreetEasy: a $1,000 advertising budget, per listing, for each home listed off of the platform.
The offer came from Corcoran CEO Pamela Liebman during a town hall with agents, according to a recording of the meeting obtained by The Real Deal.
The meeting capped a frenetic four days, which began with managers at the brokerage announcing the advertising push in texts and phone calls encouraging brokers to pull listings from StreetEasy, according to three agents at the brokerage.
That same day, advertisements began appearing on social media pages for Corcoran, Compass and Sotheby’s International Realty — all brokerages owned by Compass International Holdings — touting the “thousands of homes for sale not on StreetEasy,” and instead presumably available on the company’s websites. Liebman herself posted the ad copy to her own Instagram page.
Between Friday and Sunday, the advertising rollout cost the company $600,000, Liebman said on the call, adding that “we’re now spending $1 million a day to give you the backup that you asked for to push these listings,” which she said was included ads in print and digital editions of top publications and even city subways. (A spokesperson for Corcoran did not confirm whether that dollar amount accounted for just Corcoran’s advertising or the rest of Compass’ brands.)
The push from Liebman to pull listings from StreetEasy is the latest in a series of escalations between Compass International Holdings and its local subsidiaries and the Zillow-listing platform. The back-and-forth in the Big Apple has quickly become the latest referendum on the fight between Compass and Zillow over where listings are marketed and how they are monetized.
In recent years, Compass has pushed a private listing strategy that involves marketing listings away from platforms like Zillow and StreetEasy. The model’s influence has multiplied Compass’ $1.6 billion January acquisition of Anywhere Real Estate, which brought brands including Corcoran, Sotheby’s and Coldwell Banker under its umbrella and greatly expanded Compass’ financial resources.
The merger handed Compass significant market share in New York: Data published by Marketproof this month found the brokerage and its affiliates accounted for nearly 50 percent of all resale listings in Manhattan this year.
Escalation continues
In July, Compass made the first move that now appears to have set off a chain reaction between the firm and StreetEasy when it convened top agents in the city from Compass, Corcoran and Sotheby’s International Realty to advise them to temporarily remove listings from StreetEasy beginning in August.
At the time, a spokesperson for Compass told TRD that the suggestion was “not focused on pulling listings off any particular portal or website.”
But Liebman struck a different tone in her comments on Monday.
“Take all of your listings off of StreetEasy, and when you take them off StreetEasy, we will give you the money to promote them,” she told agents, according to a recording obtained by TRD. “That’s how strongly we feel about it. This is our moment. If we win this battle, we win the war. If we lose this battle, we will be at the mercy of this portal for now and forever.”
The new tenor from Liebman, who described an epic battle between her brokerage and the city’s de facto MLS, comes after the platform rolled out several updates to agents that appear to target agents at Compass and its subsidiaries.
Two weeks ago, StreetEasy updated its popular Experts lead generation program to ban agents who are part of companies that make up at least 20 percent of the program, which only applies to Compass and its affiliated brokerages like Corcoran and Sotheby’s StreetEasy also recently updated an old rule that bans listings that are not uploaded to the site on the same calendar day that they are publicly marketed (The ban applies to third and subsequent violations of this policy).
On the call, Liebman accused the platform of acting as a “bully pulpit,” and urged agents to “take all of their listings off of StreetEasy.”
Liebman acknowledged that agents should ultimately do what their seller wants.
“If they want to put it on StreetEasy day one, they should do that,” she said.
But she also said that agents should talk to sellers about “why they do not need to be on StreetEasy.”
Liebman’s comments during the meeting echoed those by Compass CEO Robert Reffkin over the last year about the perceived negative impacts that StreetEasy has for agents, which include siphoning leads from listing agents and charging excessive fees.
StreetEasy has been a divisive product among agents, providing buyer brokers with a constant stream of new leads and listing agents with greater exposure for their clients. Liebman claimed on the call that even without hitting the platform, listings would be exposed to over 100 million average unique monthly views across the other websites that display homes, compared to just 2 million on StreetEasy.
But StreetEasy has long been the go-to place for homebuyers and renters in New York City and has far more name-brand recognition with the lay consumer.
“StreetEasy’s 2 million average monthly visitors are New York City buyers actively searching for a home,” a spokesperson for StreetEasy stated in response to the claim. “The 100 million figure describes a national network where the vast majority of visitors have no interest in buying a home in New York. Reach without intent doesn’t sell homes.”
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