Today we’re going to talk about some of the existing sites available that you can post your listing for sale by owner in NYC.
Zillow is the first name I will mention because I’m sure you’ve all heard of it. Zillow is by far the biggest search company for consumers in the nation and it is also a public company. Trulia is another name which I’m sure you’ve heard of and it is also a large consumer search website. Trulia was actually purchased by Zillow a few years ago for over three billion dollars. Those two, Zillow and Trulia, are the biggest search websites in the country. You can post on them for free.
In NYC specifically another website called StreetEasy is very popular with buyers. I’m not sure how StreetEasy became so popular but many buyers use them for their interface which is very well designed. For example they have a feature where you can draw the boundaries of where you want to search for your listings in the city. The sad news is StreetEasy is not free. It actually costs 400 U.S. Dollars to post your home on StreetEasy for one month. Another popular site is Realtor.com. This site is operated by NAR which stands for the National Association of Realtors. Despite being a web site owned by a Realtor association it is quite popular for buyers to search and it is especially well known with international buyers.
The NYC for sale by owner community is divided on how best to approach a sale and how many sites you need to be on. For example, there are dozens of other search web sites out there like propertyshark, Homes.com, Yahoo Homes and AOL real estate. Needless to say, the buyer search universe is very fragmented among many different websites.
Adding to the issue is the fact that there are some databases or web sites that are not accessible to retail consumers. What I mean and what I am referring to are the infamous MLS Databases. The MLS stands for the multiple listing service. It is basically a database where only brokers have access. It is a database which requires its members to upload their exclusive listings usually within 24 hours of signing an exclusive. The interesting thing about this database is that it allows the listing agents to post the percentage commission offered to buyers’ agents. This crucial distinction makes the multiple listing service extremely important to buyers’ agents.
***In NYC the MLS is actually not a MLS. The main inter-brokerage database is operated by REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York) and is called the RLS (REBNY Listing Service)***
Because of the multiple listing service and its history of participating firms buyers’ agents have confidence when they see a commission offered that they will actually get paid. And this is important to my fellow home owners because you definitely want to make friends and sell your home to represented buyers as well. By some records, over 80% of the buyer universe is represented by real estate agents. Needless to say when you get harassed by agents about being on the multiple listing service they aren’t joking it really is important.
Lastly in Manhattan the dominant broker database is not even a multiple listing service, it’s actually called OLR. OLR stands for Online Residential and it isn’t affiliated database with the National Association of realtors and it is for profit and currently the most popular broker database in New York City. Let me know if you have any questions as New York is especially complex and complicated of an environment. We will discuss more later about how to get on all these various sites.
Zillow is the first name I will mention because I’m sure you’ve all heard of it. Zillow is by far the biggest search company for consumers in the nation and it is also a public company. Trulia is another name which I’m sure you’ve heard of and it is also a large consumer search website. Trulia was actually purchased by Zillow a few years ago for over three billion dollars. Those two, Zillow and Trulia, are the biggest search websites in the country. You can post on them for free.
In NYC specifically another website called StreetEasy is very popular with buyers. I’m not sure how StreetEasy became so popular but many buyers use them for their interface which is very well designed. For example they have a feature where you can draw the boundaries of where you want to search for your listings in the city. The sad news is StreetEasy is not free. It actually costs 400 U.S. Dollars to post your home on StreetEasy for one month. Another popular site is Realtor.com. This site is operated by NAR which stands for the National Association of Realtors. Despite being a web site owned by a Realtor association it is quite popular for buyers to search and it is especially well known with international buyers.
The NYC for sale by owner community is divided on how best to approach a sale and how many sites you need to be on. For example, there are dozens of other search web sites out there like propertyshark, Homes.com, Yahoo Homes and AOL real estate. Needless to say, the buyer search universe is very fragmented among many different websites.
Adding to the issue is the fact that there are some databases or web sites that are not accessible to retail consumers. What I mean and what I am referring to are the infamous MLS Databases. The MLS stands for the multiple listing service. It is basically a database where only brokers have access. It is a database which requires its members to upload their exclusive listings usually within 24 hours of signing an exclusive. The interesting thing about this database is that it allows the listing agents to post the percentage commission offered to buyers’ agents. This crucial distinction makes the multiple listing service extremely important to buyers’ agents.
***In NYC the MLS is actually not a MLS. The main inter-brokerage database is operated by REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York) and is called the RLS (REBNY Listing Service)***
Because of the multiple listing service and its history of participating firms buyers’ agents have confidence when they see a commission offered that they will actually get paid. And this is important to my fellow home owners because you definitely want to make friends and sell your home to represented buyers as well. By some records, over 80% of the buyer universe is represented by real estate agents. Needless to say when you get harassed by agents about being on the multiple listing service they aren’t joking it really is important.
Lastly in Manhattan the dominant broker database is not even a multiple listing service, it’s actually called OLR. OLR stands for Online Residential and it isn’t affiliated database with the National Association of realtors and it is for profit and currently the most popular broker database in New York City. Let me know if you have any questions as New York is especially complex and complicated of an environment. We will discuss more later about how to get on all these various sites.