Zillow-Owned StreetEasy Attempts to Smooth Over Customer Relationships by Launching Agent Advisory Board

Zillow-owned New York real estate portal StreetEasy has set up an agent advisory board to provide feedback on resources, products events and programming.

“As part of our continued efforts to provide value to New York City real estate agents and maintain trusted partnerships, we’re excited to introduce the members of StreetEasy’s 2023 Agent Advisory Board!” the company said in the announcement.

The board consists of 19 agents from across the city representing different experiences, specialities and sales volumes and is designed to bring "a mutually beneficial exchange of ideas between partners and StreetEasy". The board will meet on a quarterly basis and be refreshed regularly with members getting early access to the portal's new products and programs.

The formation of the 19 agent board has been interpreted in some media outlets as an attempt by the portal to smooth over its often rocky relationship with the city's agent community.

StreetEasy is the leading portal in New York City, a market which functions somewhat differently to the rest of the United States as it doesn't have an MLS.

The site was bought by Zillow in 2013 and went on to anger agents by charging for rental listings in 2017 and insisting that agents each listing to the portal within 24 hours of it being instructed.

That agent anger has spawned two portals to rival StreetEasy in recent years. A group of realtors came together to launch OneKey in 2020 and in 2021, commercial real estate giant CoStar teamed up with the Real Estate Board of New York to build Citysnap.