{"id":3925,"date":"2011-05-31T23:06:28","date_gmt":"2011-06-01T03:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.renthop.com\/news\/?p=728"},"modified":"2023-07-24T14:16:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T18:16:33","slug":"real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most interesting discoveries we&#8217;ve made while creating and growing RentHop is that not all brokers are equal. We originally began with the premise that the Internet was <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2009\/02\/08\/realestate\/08rent.html\">turning real estate professionals into over-priced commodities,<\/a> prepped for a huge sell-off in prices, but we were wrong. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/guides\/nyc\/agents-and-brokers-nyc\">Brokers<\/a> are not commodities, and excellent agents certainly earn their keep, compared to the zero-value or even negative-value renters receive from the mediocre masses.<\/p>\n<p>As nerdy software engineers turned real estate startup founders, we love building quantitative models in an attempt to automate what is normally a very human task.\u00a0 This time, however, we&#8217;re throwing you a curve ball.\u00a0 We are NOT trying to automate the real estate professional; instead, we are tackling the still difficult but more tractable problem of automatically determining which agents are likely to be good! Inside our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/\">RentHop<\/a> labs (aka an emacs buffer in the cloud), we constantly tweak our secret ranking algorithm to show you only the best apartment listings first. While we guard the exact formulas quite closely, today, we&#8217;ll shed some light on how to infer professional, helpful, and responsive behavior.<\/p>\n<h2>RentHop Algorithm in Action<\/h2>\n<p>Take the two search rank summaries from two actual listings on our site today:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-729 alignnone\" title=\"poor_reasons\" src=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg\" alt=\"poor_reasons\" width=\"480\" height=\"180\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">First, we have a listing that would normally receive an above-average score ranking poorly.\u00a0 The broker in this case has not yet verified all of his contact information with us so we are not able to display it openly to renters for direct contact. Also, we carefully track every account&#8217;s historical behavior, so we can see that for previous listings by the same manager, many renters have attempted to make contact and did not hear back promptly (renter&#8217;s are an impatient bunch; anyone not receiving a reply within a day or two is as good as gone).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Finally, the manager has not logged in to update any price changes or availability changes for quite a few days.\u00a0 In this peak season market, apartments are moving quickly!\u00a0 A listing without some update for over a week is very much in danger of being stale.<\/p>\n<h3>Positive Advertising<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-730 alignnone\" title=\"Outstanding\" src=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Outstanding.jpg\" alt=\"Outstanding\" width=\"460\" height=\"140\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Outstanding.jpg 460w, https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Outstanding-300x91.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 460px) 100vw, 460px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In contrast, the above advertiser has many &#8220;Good&#8221; indicators.\u00a0 He has received excellent feedback over his account&#8217;s history from renters, and he has fully verified all of his contact information with out listings department.\u00a0 More importantly, he had outstanding day-to-day interactions with renters.\u00a0 He logs in on a daily basis to remove old listings and update information on any changes, and he consistently responds promptly to questions from renters and requests to schedule appointments.<\/p>\n<p>There is a lot more to being a good broker than speedy blackberry reflexes or obsessively good customer service, but it&#8217;s shocking how many don&#8217;t make this basic cut.\u00a0 Just know that when you are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/apartments-for-rent\/new-york-ny\">browsing NYC Apartment rentals<\/a> on our site, we are doing our best to shield you from those prone to serving you lots of radio silence.<\/p>\n<p><em>Editor&#8217;s Note: We updated this article to enhance readability.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the most interesting discoveries we&#8217;ve made while creating and growing RentHop is that not all brokers are equal. We originally began with the premise that the Internet was turning real estate professionals into over-priced commodities, prepped for a huge sell-off in prices, but we were wrong. Brokers are not commodities, and excellent agents [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"yes","_lmt_disable":"no","footnotes":""},"categories":[269],"tags":[73,95],"class_list":{"0":"post-3925","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-brokers-and-landlords","7":"tag-brokers","8":"tag-how-to"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.4 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities - Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"RentHop&#039;s algorithm helps rank apartments by their quality, and they&#039;ve found that brokers are not commodities.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RentHop&#039;s algorithm helps rank apartments by their quality, and they&#039;ve found that brokers are not commodities.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/renthopapartments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-01T03:06:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-07-24T18:16:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lee Lin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@renthop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@renthop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lee Lin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lee Lin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5877a1d4b27a98e84d9840c6aea99af7\"},\"headline\":\"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-01T03:06:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-24T18:16:33+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/\"},\"wordCount\":499,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"brokers\",\"How-to\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Brokers and Landlords\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/\",\"name\":\"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities - Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-01T03:06:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-07-24T18:16:33+00:00\",\"description\":\"RentHop's algorithm helps rank apartments by their quality, and they've found that brokers are not commodities.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides\",\"description\":\"Real Estate Blog\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"RentHop\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/renthop-logo-2022-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/renthop-logo-2022-1.png\",\"width\":1044,\"height\":266,\"caption\":\"RentHop\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/renthopapartments\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/renthop\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/renthop\",\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@renthopofficial\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5877a1d4b27a98e84d9840c6aea99af7\",\"name\":\"Lee Lin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b4b1bbaae3cb6097f29213cbd5fd183?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b4b1bbaae3cb6097f29213cbd5fd183?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Lee Lin\"},\"description\":\"Lee is a data geek from MIT who spent years at quantitative hedge funds cranking out models to explain and predict financial markets. Real estate has always been a big part of Lee's life. He grew up helping out at his parents' Jersey Shore motels, became a landlord his first year out of college, analyzed mortgages on a fixed-income trading desk, and acquired a New York real estate license. At RentHop, he combines his nerd talents and real estate knowledge to constantly tweak the secret HopScore. He currently lives near Bryant Park and his favorite restaurant was Cafe Zaiya (now known as Tomiz).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/author\/lee\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities - Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides","description":"RentHop's algorithm helps rank apartments by their quality, and they've found that brokers are not commodities.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities","og_description":"RentHop's algorithm helps rank apartments by their quality, and they've found that brokers are not commodities.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/","og_site_name":"Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/renthopapartments","article_published_time":"2011-06-01T03:06:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-07-24T18:16:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg"}],"author":"Lee Lin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@renthop","twitter_site":"@renthop","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Lee Lin","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/"},"author":{"name":"Lee Lin","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5877a1d4b27a98e84d9840c6aea99af7"},"headline":"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities","datePublished":"2011-06-01T03:06:28+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-24T18:16:33+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/"},"wordCount":499,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg","keywords":["brokers","How-to"],"articleSection":["Brokers and Landlords"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/","url":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/","name":"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities - Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg","datePublished":"2011-06-01T03:06:28+00:00","dateModified":"2023-07-24T18:16:33+00:00","description":"RentHop's algorithm helps rank apartments by their quality, and they've found that brokers are not commodities.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/content-manager\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/poor_reasons.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/real-estate-brokers-are-not-commodities\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Real Estate Brokers are Not Commodities"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/","name":"Real Estate Topics, Tips, and Guides","description":"Real Estate Blog","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"RentHop","url":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/renthop-logo-2022-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/renthop-logo-2022-1.png","width":1044,"height":266,"caption":"RentHop"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/renthopapartments","https:\/\/x.com\/renthop","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/renthop","https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@renthopofficial"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5877a1d4b27a98e84d9840c6aea99af7","name":"Lee Lin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b4b1bbaae3cb6097f29213cbd5fd183?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7b4b1bbaae3cb6097f29213cbd5fd183?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Lee Lin"},"description":"Lee is a data geek from MIT who spent years at quantitative hedge funds cranking out models to explain and predict financial markets. Real estate has always been a big part of Lee's life. He grew up helping out at his parents' Jersey Shore motels, became a landlord his first year out of college, analyzed mortgages on a fixed-income trading desk, and acquired a New York real estate license. At RentHop, he combines his nerd talents and real estate knowledge to constantly tweak the secret HopScore. He currently lives near Bryant Park and his favorite restaurant was Cafe Zaiya (now known as Tomiz).","url":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/author\/lee\/"}]}},"modified_by":"Allyson Waddell","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3925"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19399,"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3925\/revisions\/19399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.renthop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}