Trulia to construct REBNY Web portal

The Real Estate Board of New York has selected Trulia.com to construct its online listings search engine. The Web portal will make REBNY member brokerages’ residential listings available to the public. REBNY selected Trulia for the project from a shortlist of six finalists. The planned Web portal has been the subject of intense scrutiny among REBNY members, with some smaller firms claiming the portal would give larger firms an unfair boost, since listings from bigger brokerages would greatly outnumber those from smaller brokerages. Supporters say the portal will be a big step forward for the real estate marketplace because consumers will have one centralized place to look for property listings, similar to the MLS sites that have long existed in other markets. REBNY announced earlier this month that it was reversing on its initial plan to make the portal mandatory for all its members and that it would revamp its fee structure. TRD