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Outeast.com
Out East, Zillow Group’s home sales and rentals website for the Hamptons and North Fork, is going free for agents and brokerages in the New Year.
The public-facing website, outeast.com, is for prospective homebuyers and renters to find their first homes, second homes or vacation rentals on the East End. Brokerages have been paying $1,000 or $3,000 a month, depending on the size of the company, plus $60 per agent to get their listings on outeast.com and to use Out East Agent Tools, the back-end of the platform where agents have access to even more data and can field inquiries and share listings. Starting on January 1, 2020, there will no longer be a charge.
Zillow Group, which owns residential real estate websites Zillow, Trulia, Hotpads and others, debuted Out East in February 2018 as the replacement for Hamptons Real Estate Online, or HREO, which it had purchased a year prior. Out East Agent Tools followed in April 2019 to replace the engine behind HREO, the listing entry and distribution system RealNet. RealNet will completely shutter in February 2020.
Out East reports that, since the launch of Out East Agent Tools, there have been more than 100 incremental updates to it based on agent feedback. Among the updates are making it easier to share listings with clients and fellow agents, and additional map features.
In addition to Out East becoming a free service, starting January 1 agents must upload their listings to Out East in order to have them appear on Zillow, Trulia and HotPads. Agents will be able to upload listings to Out East even if their brokerages do not have a relationship with Out East.
“It’s been a transformative year for Out East, particularly as we look to provide better ways to support agents in this niche market while also improving how renters and buyers find their dream East End home,” said Matt Daimler, the general manager of Out East, in a statement. “This shift to free listing entry for all is crucial to creating an inclusive marketplace and we look forward to continuing to build on it in 2020. It will give more agents the ability to post listings not just on Out East, but ensures their listings will also appear across all of Zillow’s consumer websites.”
The announcement comes on the heels of the launch of a competitor to Out East, HamptonsRE.com. That new website is the creation of the newly formed Hamptons Real Estate Association, which includes Brown Harris Stevens, the Corcoran Group, Halstead, Sotheby’s International Realty and Saunders & Associates. The nonprofit association was formed for the purpose of creating a listings website that meets the unique needs of the Hamptons real estate market, according to Hamptons Real Estate Association board members. It does not accept advertising or offer the opportunity to promote a certain listing or agent for an upcharge. It is supported by subscription fees that reflect the true cost of maintaining and improving the website, board members said.
