What is the New York City Multiple Listing Service?
Is there an official NYC Multiple Listing Service that all of the city’s brokers use?
Is it possible for a New York City FSBO seller in New York City to pay to get his or her home listed on the MLS through a Flat Fee MLS listing package?
There is much confusion on this topic as most regions of the country and even most counties in New York State
are serviced by one local Multiple Listing Service. But this is not the case for New York City.
In this Hauseit tutorial, we explain exactly in which broker database New York City FSBO sellers should list their property.
We also explain how NYC FSBO sellers can get listed in the right broker database and avoid many misleading online flat-fee MLS packages
which won’t result in full buyer exposure.
So, what MLS or broker database do agents use in New York City?
Believe it or not, New York City does not have one widely used MLS like in the rest of the country.
While the city does not have a dominant Multiple Listing Service like most regions of the United States,
it certainly has a small foothold by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) called the Manhattan MLS
which is operated by the Manhattan Association of Realtors (MANAR).
The Multiple Listing Service is a term for an inter-broker database operated by a local trade organization affiliated with NAR, such as the Manhattan MLS.
However, because the vast majority of NYC brokerages do not belong to the National Association of Realtors or the Manhattan MLS,
it’s not very effective to have your property listed on the Manhattan MLS.
Instead, most NYC brokerages are members of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY).
REBNY is a private real estate trade association based in Manhattan.
REBNY operates an inter-brokerage database called RLS (REBNY Listing Service) which functions much the same as an NYC Multiple Listing Service.
Therefore, the most effective way for a FSBO seller in NYC to market his or her listing to New York City buyers’ agents is to be listed in REBNY’s RLS database
and not the actual NYC Multiple Listing Service.
How do I get listed on the RLS (REBNY Listing Service) as an NYC FSBO seller?
The first thing a potential NYC FSBO home seller needs to do is step back
and evaluate the packages being offered by various For Sale By Owner websites in NYC.
What MLS will they list you on? What real estate websites will your listing be posted on?
All the large, national For Sale By Owner websites who pay tens of thousands of dollars per month on Google Adwords
will promise you to list your home on your “local” MLS.
But as we said, NYC does not have a traditional Multiple Listing Service.
So what exactly are these services promising you by saying they will list on your ‘local’ MLS?
Without further investigation, you would have ended up paying for a listing in some irrelevant MLS such as the New York State MLS,
the Long Island MLS or some other brokerage database that virtually no New York City brokers actually use.
The more infuriating thing about most of these misleading flat-fee NYC MLS packages is that they often cost upwards of $1,000
and won’t even list you on the most relevant, paid local search websites for unrepresented buyers like StreetEasy.
You end up paying up to $1,000 for an incoherent package of listings on free websites such as Zillow, Trulia and Homes.com.
What’s more, 90% of the websites they offer to list you on receive no relevant traffic for an NYC home seller.
Either it receives no traffic period, or is completely irrelevant to NYC.
You could have listed yourself for free on just the most popular websites like Zillow and Trulia without wasting $1,000.
However, what you thought you were paying for was an NYC Multiple Listing Service listing
so you could attract the twenty thousand New York City brokers representing over 75% of NYC home buyers.
What’s worse, many of these large for sale by owner websites don’t even bother to hide the fact that you are a FSBO listing.
They openly watermark your photos and even put their website URLs in your listing description
which only makes it easier for listing brokers to target and solicit you for full-commission service.
In short, if you aren’t careful when selecting your New York City Flat Fee MLS provider, you run the risk of being listed on the wrong MLS,
missing out on key websites and also being harassed by agents who don’t have any real buyers for you.
This may lower your NYC FSBO success rate and/or decrease your sale price.
So, how can I ensure that my NYC FSBO listing is posted on the most relevant websites and databases for New York City
As a New York City FSBO home seller who is willing to work with buyer’s agents, it’s critical that your home is listed on the RLS,
REBNY Listing Service, and not just any other MLS like the New York State MLS or the Manhattan MLS.
You must fully understand that there is no such thing as a real New York City Multiple Listing Service before you decide on an NYC Flat Fee MLS listing provider,
and make sure you investigate very clearly exactly what interbroker database they plan to list you on.
Hauseit is a top-rated and locally focused New York City for sale by owner listing service who lists its NYC FSBO sellers on the most relevant websites
and interbroker databases that actually matter in New York City.
For NYC FSBO home sellers, Hauseit ensures that its clients homes are listed on the REBNY RLS broker database
as well as all of the technology vendors used by NYC brokerages which receive the RLS feed, such as Nestio, RealtyMX, RealPlus and OLR.