Normal US markets (as in not NYC) have an MLS or “multiple listing service,” where all agents are required to put their listings into a standardized format on a searchable database. This means everyone is trained on the same system and there is one place to find all the real sales data in a market, which is great. You can run searches knowing you will get all the data minus “off market” and some “by owner” homes. Seems important, right?
It is, but NYC has none of that shit. For many moons, there was absolutely no centralized system, and agents had to actively share their listings with other brokerages. But only if they wanted to do so, as it wasn’t required. Or so I’m told; I was a child at the time. But now, we have an “RLS” run by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), but brokerages need to opt in and be “REBNY members” to have their listings included. And plenty of brokerages are not.
The lack of one, centralized listing service is part of why an aggregator can be so powerful here. Because REBNY and non-REBNY brokerages alike were happy to put their information on a site like StreetEasy back before Zillow bought it and turned it into the cesspool of lies it is now (#fuckzillow). But then Zillow started introducing all these new, horrible programs, and charging agents exorbitant fees. As Zillow is NOT a brokerage, in some states it has access to MLS data and in some it doesn’t. In NYC it doesn’t have access to shit; agents need to post their listings on the site individually, which means that as they piss off brokerage after brokerage their inventory is starting to slip. Which is why they pump SOOOOOO much money into intentionally misleading marketing telling people that agents are trash and they should just go directly to StreetEasy for all their real estate needs. #liesandthelyingliarswhotellthem
Thankfully, now Compass search is THE MOST ACCURATE LISTING SOURCE in NYC, because it’s pulling from as many feeds as possible, including the RLS (for current listings of all REBNY members), ACRIS (for official sold data), and, since we have over 2,000 agents in the city making us the largest independent brokerage, it has all Compass coming soon listings which are, by definition, not on aggregators.
But pulling from all these different sources means that there are occasionally duplicates, so our search has taken longer to become as accurate as it needed to be (we’re caught up now) because of the amount of back-end work our engineers had to do to avoid these duplicate listings. And the fact that Compass’s engineers have had to deal with this is kind of ridiculous. It would make much more sense for everyone, consumers and agents alike, if we had an MLS.
I recently had the privilege of being invited to join NYRAC, or New York Residential Agent Continuum, which for two years has been working to fill a need for residential agent organizing, education, and lobbying. Or, rather, I’ve been invited to their new mentorship “plus” program, because I’m not a top agent in NYC with over a decade of experience. I’m a “child with promise.” The organization has many aims I’m hyped about, and pushing for a centralized MLS is one of them.
So for those of you who work in different markets and have an MLS: congratulations. Please send words of encouragement and chocolate to your NYC peers.
xo
Anna