Brick Underground Reveals New Design and Expanded Real Estate Coverage
New York, NY (PRWEB) February 25, 2016 -- Brick Underground—the crib sheet for anyone trying to figure out how to buy, rent or sell NYC real estate and the #1 organic search result for hundreds of NYC real estate terms—unveiled an immersive, stylish website redesign, along with expanded coverage. The site is deepening its coverage of second/vacation homes and commutable suburban destinations, launching a twice-monthly podcast series and expanding its video coverage.
“Our goal is to tell good and relevant stories, and we're constantly on the lookout for the best medium for that. Sometimes we want to hear people talk, and other times we want to see a neighborhood from a local's eyes. Or maybe we just want to look at scores of amazing real estate pics,” said S. Jhoanna Robledo, Brick Underground’s editor-in-chief. “The redesign feels modern and fun and new, but at the root of it all is great, substantive, consumer-focused stories. We want to know how New Yorkers are living their best lives in NYC, and what they do to get there.”
The new look provides a highly visual, streamlined experience for Brick Underground’s 400,000 unique monthly visitors, as well as faster page load times and improved mobile experience, compatible across all device types, with access to more menu options and categories of stories.
“The new site is light years easier and faster to explore,” said Brick Underground’s publisher, Teri Rogers. “We are capturing as many opportunities as possible to blow up gorgeous images of New York City real estate to pull in our audience and visually excite them about the stories, before they even read the first paragraph.”
Brick Underground’s advertisers—which include real estate brokerages, developers, large landlords, insurance companies, real estate search sites, renovation specialists, moving companies, lease guarantors, mortgage banks and real estate lawyers--will benefit from a better mobile experience, more and better opportunities to visually showcase their products and services, and increased time on site as Brick Underground’s readers spend longer exploring their interests.
The move into weekend homes, dubbed “Escape,” reflects what many Brick Underground readers are contemplating: “somewhere else” to go part of the time, but close enough to arrive within a few hours’ transit. Or someplace else entirely to decamp when the city no longer fits.
“These days many people can afford a $3,000 or $5,000 a month rental but not a $300,000 down payment. They are looking to buy their first home as a weekend home outside of the city, while continuing to rent in NYC. At the same time, lots of other people who already own a NYC coop or condo can’t afford to upsize or don’t want to, so they’re looking for something in the Catskills, Hamptons, or Turks & Caicos – a regular dose of country or beach, within a few hours of their NYC home,” explained Rogers. “There’s a gap in practical knowledge about how and where to buy or rent outside the city and how to maintain a home as a part-time resident. We intend to fill that knowledge gap in the same street smart way we advise people how to rent, buy and sell in the city.”
The Brick Underground Podcast: Stories of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Estate is launching this week as a twice-monthly series telling the stories of New Yorkers and their relationships to their apartments and neighborhoods
“Podcasting is today’s modern water cooler, and that’s where we’re taking the real estate conversation,” says Robledo, a former reporter and local news anchor for an NPR affiliate, who is the podcast’s executive producer. https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/brickunderground-podcast/id1085478813?mt=2
Rogers, a former journalist and New York Times contributor who founded Brick Underground seven years ago as a single-author blog, explained that the new endeavors are consistent with Brick Underground’s core mission--cementing the site’s distinctive position within a crowded digital real estate universe.
“There is a surplus of real estate search sites out there that basically do the same thing -- show you apartments and townhouses on the market and put you in touch with real estate agents or landlords,” says Rogers. “In contrast, Brick Underground is and always has been the survival guide for NYC real estate consumers—the place they come before making major and minor decisions that involve money or equally precious time. We will continue to give practical wisdom for living as well as you can in a tough competitive city, no matter what stage of the real estate lifecycle you’re in—planning your next move, renovating, or simply optimizing your life at home.”
Brick Underground has experienced rapid growth since its inception. In the last year its audience soared from 250,000 unique monthly readers to 400,000 in January 2016. Of those, more than half are 25-44; they're smart and educated with 74% having attended college and 26% attended graduate school, and index at 168 for household incomes over $150,000. The renter vs buyer mix reflects the city's housing pool: 70% renter vs 30% buyer. The majority of Brick Underground visitors – 70% -- come through organic search; they are in immediate need of information on a particular topic. Brick Underground is the #1 organic search result for NYC real estate terms such as “how to buy a nyc apartment,” “how to sell a nyc apartment,” “best apartment rental sites,” and many more.
ABOUT BRICK UNDERGROUND
Nearly five million New Yorkers and future New Yorkers visit Brick Underground each year for help navigating one of the most expensive, complicated and competitive real estate markets in the world. Founded by Teri Rogers in 2009 in her Upper West Side apartment, the site draws 400,000 unique visitors per month. Brick Underground is the #1 organic search result for hundreds of key NYC real estate terms including “how to buy an apartment in nyc,” “how to sell an apartment in nyc,” “how to rent in nyc,” “top apartment hunting websites nyc,” “buy new condo nyc,” “best neighborhoods for college grads," and “find a no fee apartment nyc," making Brick Underground the first place people come when they're ready to move. To read about real estate issues that matter to NYC living: http://www.brickunderground.com
Charlotte Kullen, CHAR PR, http://www.charpr.com, +1 917.723.5055, [email protected]
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