NeighborCity was a

residential real estate A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

information and service company that rated

real-estate agent Real estate agents and real estate brokers are people who represent sellers or buyers of real estate or real property. While a broker may work independently, an agent usually works under a licensed broker to represent clients. Brokers and agen ...

s in the United States, offering a way for buyers and sellers of homes to compare and evaluate agents. It was based in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The company rated almost every member of the

National Association of Realtors The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is an American trade association for those who work in the real estate industry. it had over 1.5 million members, making it the largest trade association in the United States including NAR's institute ...

in the United States, based on transaction and listing history. NeighborCity analyzes agents' performance based on closing rate, number of closings, number of active listings, geographic specialization, number of

days on market Days on market (DOM, alternatively active days on market, market time, or time on market) is a measurement of the age of a real estate listing. The statistic is defined as the total number of days the listing is on the active market before either ...

, rate of dual agency, sales price per square foot, and the difference between ask and sale price, for the homes they sell. NeighborCity provides an evaluation of the quality of service delivered by agents, with respect to their clients' interests and relative to competing real-estate agents. The company also maintained a national database of real-estate listings. The site recommended corresponding independent buy-side real estate agents next to each for-sale listing, along with a performance score and a link to a detailed professional profile for each recommended agent. NeighborCity ended and its assets were donated to Consumer Advocates in American Real Estate (CAARE).

History

Jonathan Cardella founded NeighborCity in 2007, and he served as the company's

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

. Ali Vahabzadeh was the president and

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

. The company is owned and operated by American Home Realty Network, Inc. (AHRN), a licensed California real estate brokerage. By 2018 NeighborCity's assets had been donated to the

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

Consumer Advocates in American Real Estate (CAARE). As of 2021 the NeighborCity url redirects to CAARE.

Business model

NeighborCity used real-estate transaction and listing database information from national sources to construct its

rankings A ranking is a relationship between a set of items, often recorded in a list, such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than", or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak ...

. NeighborCity received a portion of the commission earned by

brokers A broker is a person or entity that arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller. This may be done for a commission when the deal is executed. A broker who also acts as a seller or as a buyer becomes a principal party to the deal. Neither ...

on closed transactions that result from referrals.

Lawsuits over IP rights to listing data

NAR and MLS suits

In March 2012, shortly after NeighborCity provided the public performance rankings of National Association of Realtors members, Metropolitan Regional Information Systems filed a civil

lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...

against AHRN/NeighborCity claiming copyright violations by using MLS real estate listing information to craft its realtor-rating database. Northstar MLS of

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (often abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 311,527, making it Minnesota's second-most populous city a ...

, followed suit with similar litigation in April 2012. NeighborCity alleged that the suit was brought to prevent buyers and sellers from getting accurate information about the performance of individual brokers., and asserted that the

lawsuits A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. T ...

had no merit, stating that because the

plaintiffs A plaintiff ( Π in legal shorthand) is the party who initiates a lawsuit (also known as an ''action'') before a court. By doing so, the plaintiff seeks a legal remedy. If this search is successful, the court will issue judgment in favor of the ...

had failed to comply with requirements of the Copyright Act for

copyright registration The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a cop ...

and that information for which the plaintiffs claimed ownership was not subject to copyright. Initial judicial opinions in both cases addressed the issue of what is subject to copyright protection. The court upheld NeighborCity's claim in determining that the MLS listing data does not qualify for copyright protection because facts, including property features such as "main floor full bath" and "whirlpool," are not protectable works to which the MRIS and Northstar MLS can claim ownership; however, the court found that photographs and property descriptive texts are likely to be copyrightable. In November 2013, a Maryland Federal District court found that NeighborCity "adequately alleged" a conspiracy among multiple MLSs and the National Association of Realtors.

Berkshire Hathaway suit

In May 2013,

Berkshire Hathaway Berkshire Hathaway Inc. () is an American multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska. Originally a textile manufacturer, the company transitioned into a conglomerate starting in 1965 under the management of c ...

subsidiary HomeServices of America filed a similar lawsuit against NeighborCity.com for reuse of photos from its (subsidiaries') listings without express permission. NeighborCity filed a countersuit claiming anti-competitive practices. The litigation among the parties included lawsuits in federal courts in Minnesota and North Carolina. HomeServices of America announced settlement of both of these lawsuits in September 2014.

AgentMatch dispute

In November 2013, NeighborCity sent to

realtor.com Realtor.com is a real estate listings website operated by the News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc. and based in Austin, Texas. It is the second most visited real estate listings website in the United States as of 2021, with over 100 million monthly a ...

, operator of Move, Inc., a cease-and-desist letter alleging that Move's AgentMatch tool infringed on NeighborCity's trademark of the term "Agent Match" and that the tool potentially infringes on a 2010 patent application filed by NeighborCity.

References

{{Real estate American companies established in 2007 Defunct online companies of the United States Defunct real estate companies of the United States Rating systems 2007 establishments in the United States Internet properties established in 2007 Real estate companies established in 2007 2007 establishments in California 2018 disestablishments in California Real estate companies disestablished in 2018 Internet properties disestablished in 2018