Q&A with Teri Karush Rogers, Founder of BrickUnderground
CREtech Blog
The following is an exclusive interview with Teri Karush Rogers, founder and CEO at BrickUnderground.
How does your company use technology to gain a competitive edge in the marketplace?
With more than 6,000 articles and blog posts that help buyers, renters, sellers and apartment dwellers navigate the NYC residential real estate market, BrickUnderground is the top organic Google search result for hundreds of amazing search terms like “top apartment hunting websites nyc,” “find an apartment in nyc,” “find a nyc broker,” “how to buy apartment in nyc, “buy new condo nyc,” “best apartment rental sites,” “how to rent in nyc,” and “no fee apartments nyc.” Our advertisers love the fact that our readers are looking for immediate solutions to their real estate needs rather than just browsing around. Meanwhile, we spend nothing on marketing, advertising or PR because the vast majority of our 3 million+ annual visitors find us through Google organic search, which enables us to focus on our core mission of publishing smart, useful content.
What is the most exciting trend in residential tech?
Transparency continues to be a theme in residential tech innovation—putting information into the hands of consumers, whether it’s sales or rental prices to help negotiate or uncover a good deal, building violation records to highlight problem properties, etc. Also, living in a NYC apartment has become so much easier as companies introduce services and use data to solve nearly every frustration of living in the city.
How has tech impacted the residential sector overall?
It’s breaking down the barriers of geography by making it easier to live in far-flung neighborhoods that don’t have a lot of shopping or services--from taxis (Uber, Lyft) to groceries (Instacart, FreshDirect, Peapod) to virtually anything you might find in a store (AmazonPrime, Google Shopping Express, WunWun, Postmate) to takeout (Seamless, GrubHub, TryCaviar). A service called Parcel will accept delivery of your package and let you schedule a specific delivery time. You can even get spare keys made using your iphone without even leaving your apartment(KeyMe).
What are some of your favorite tech products right now?
All of the above plus the August Smart Lock (www.august.com). You install it on your front door to remotely give people access to your apartment — like your dog walker, houseguests, housekeeper, etc.
What’s next for your company?
Google knows we’re the most trusted resource for NYC real estate information, but many New Yorkers still haven’t heard of us. We want all New Yorkers to know of us and come directly to BrickUnderground when they’re looking to learn about NYC real estate. We’re always looking for more great advertising partners who want to reach a passionate audience of NYC buyers, sellers, renters and apartment dwellers. And we’d eventually like to grow offline as well through events that help people navigate one of the most complicated, expensive and important real estate markets in the world.
BrickUnderground.com is NYC's most trusted online resource for residential real estate consumers. Each month, we help more than a quarter of a million unique buyers, renters, sellers and apartment dwellers navigate one of the most expensive, complicated and important real estate markets in the world. To sign up for BrickUnderground's weekly newsletter, click here.
Connect with Teri
teri@brickunderground.com | 646-701-7038
Connect with Brick Underground
BrickUnderground
349 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10016
