With its Residential Listing System (RLS) set to launch Aug. 1, the Real Estate Board of New York is providing more details on the finer points of how brokers will syndicate their listings to consumer-facing websites.
Salespeople will continue to upload listings to their company’s preferred listing system, such as RealPlus and On-Line Residential or proprietary systems like the Corcoran Group’s Taxi and Douglas Elliman’s Limo.
But managing brokers will decide which consumer-facing websites receive the listings by choosing one of two “administration hubs” that will handle the syndication, according to an update REBNY sent to its members Wednesday afternoon.
“Syndication is offered to all RLS participants at no additional cost regardless of listing volume,” the group said. “No new agreement with the RLS is required for participation.”
The two administration hubs are ListHub.com and the Cheque app by Bridge Interactive, the latter of which, ironically, is owned by StreetEasy parent company Zillow Group. StreetEasy’s decision to launch its controversial Premier Agent program and to start charging agents $3 a day to advertise rental listings on the site is what motivated many of the city’s top residential firms to speed up efforts to syndicate through the RLS.
StreetEasy said it would not take the RLS feed from REBNY. And the number of rental listings on the site plummeted by more than 50 percent in the span of 24 hours after the company introduced the $3-per-day listing fee.