At RealDirect, our mission is to harness the power of the web to make selling and buying a home easier, and more efficient. Whether you want to handle the transaction yourself, or have an agent work with you, we'll provide you with all the tools and assistance you need to get from listing to close. RealDirect is located in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan.

Doug Perlson

Co-Founder & CEO  —  Upper West Side

Doug has spent the past 10 years building online technology businesses - including About.com's Luna and Sprinks networks (acquired by Google in 2003), Seevast (parent company of Kanoodle, Pulse 360 and Moniker), and most recently, TargetSpot, the web's largest online radio advertising company.

Prior to his career in business, Doug had a legal career in government and private practice. An admitted attorney, he served as Counsel and Chief of Staff to a NYC Council Member and New York State Senator. Additionally, he served as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York in the Investor Protection and Securities bureau. Doug started his career as a real estate lawyer with the firm Allison, Kaufman and Greenberg and is a licensed real estate broker. Despite being a lawyer, some people think he is an okay guy.

Michelle Pae

Co-Founder, Product & User Experience  —  Chelsea

Michelle Pae has been designing user experiences for online start ups in New York City for over 10 years. Prior to co-founding RealDirect, she worked as VP, Product at Pronto.com (IAC/ InteractiveCorp), VP Product at Seevast, Director of Product Management at Shopping.com and interaction designer at R/GA.

Michelle is a graduate of Barnard College, Columbia University, and an early adopter of the best food trucks around NYC. She authors the blog newyorkeater.com, primarily as an excuse to eat out at least 20 times per week.

Greg Zimerman

Director of Technology  —  Astoria

Greg Zimerman is responsible for all things technical at RealDirect, from management of our development team to positioning our strategic technology directives.

Prior to RealDirect, Greg worked at TargetSpot, architecting and overseeing unique audio ad integrations for over 75 partners including CBS and MySpace. Greg is a graduate of New York University, a member of Mensa and eats more oat products than a Clydesdale.

Kumar Laidley

Neighborhood Guide  —  Saint Albans

Kumar, a native to the concrete jungle that is New York, has over 5 years of real estate sales experience. He started out working with the real estate law firm of Hopkins Lawrence and Bailey, while attending St. John’s University. He’s such a real estate geek that he got his license while on spring break and hasn’t looked back since. From working with luxury rentals at the Property Management firm Stellar Management, to working with first time buyers and relocation clients at Coldwell Banker Hunt Kennedy, his vast knowledge of real estate is now yours to tap into.

And if you like Kumar, you'll love his friend Harold…

Chris Fetherston

Front End Developer & Designer  —  Hoboken

Chris makes sure RealDirect looks great.

Chris has been crafting beautiful designs in print and on the web for 5 years. Prior to RealDirect, Chris worked at Wireless Telecom Group carefully constructing the visual identity of a global company with 4 unique brands. A graduate of Montclair State University, Chris can also rebuild a carburetor faster than you can read this sentence. And if you need someone to crash your motorcycle, Chris is your guy.

Audrey Binkowski

Director of Marketing  —  Glen Ridge

Audrey Binkowski has been a web marketer and entrepreneur since 2004. Prior to joining RealDirect, she was a partner at Large Media, providing integrated marketing campaign creation, strategy, execution and “big idea” thinking to business owners, brands and agencies. Additionally, Audrey regularly taught a popular “Social Media Bootcamp” course on both an individual and group basis. Her client roster included the Austrian National Tourism Board, Ghirardelli Chocolates, and assorted Schick Brands.

A prolific writer, Audrey holds a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan (See Mom! You can too get a job with an English degree). She has been in several print publications including a horrible book of Gen X poetry and a now defunct literary journal. Audrey also blogs at Laugh, Mom and Curvy Girl Guide, neither of which you should read because she cusses. A lot.

Luka Tomasevic

Web Developer  —  Astoria

With a B.S. in Math and Computer Science and M.S. in Computer Science, software developer Luka has an impressive background in tech and startups. He has been involved in projects for Cisco, Pointecast and PSTech, which is one of the largest software companies in Serbia. In his former position as Senior software engineer for Risktail, Luka was one of the key developers of options analytics and was responsible for development of the front end Flex application build on top of Restful API. He is fluent in Python, C/C++, PHP, Java and Perl, and doesn’t expect you to understand any of this paragraph. What it boils down to is that Luka helps make RealDirect’s real estate platform even smarter for both buyers and sellers. Having recently relocated from Serbia, Luka is enjoying taking in all of the experiences New York City has to offer.

Alex Asinovski

Web Developer  —  Astoria

Alex is a software engineer and according to his online profiles a chupacabra hunter. He is responsible for our search functionality. Alex’s background is in Computer Science and Mathematics. In the past Alex worked on Wall street as a quantitative developer which led him to becoming a co-founder of options analytics startup Risktail. Alex appreciates good humor, endurance sports and non-couch-potato travel. Our guess is that might include trapping of mythical creatures.