William Raveis Real Estate is looking to jump-start its entry into the New York City market by framing search results from StreetEasy, the popular regional listing site acquired by Zillow last year.
Located at Tower 56 on East 56th St. between Park and Lexington avenues, William Raveis New York City is the regional brokerage powerhouse’s 100th office, but its first foray into the Big Apple.
While brokerages in other U.S. markets typically market their listings on competitors’ websites by contributing to Internet Date Exchange (IDX) listing feeds maintained by multiple listing services, New York is notorious for the lack of cooperation between brokerages in publicizing each other’s listings.
Although the 15,000-member Real Estate Board of New York voted in June to adopt IDX, implementation is not scheduled to be complete until the fourth quarter, and it remains to be seen how many brokers will participate. The 450-member Manhattan Association of Realtors, which owns and operates Manhattan MLS, has had IDX since its inception in 2005.
Until REBNY implements IDX, consumers who want to see a complete set of listings represented by REBNY member brokerages must register to use virtual office websites, or VOWs, operated by brokers.
“When I decided to launch William Raveis in the New York market, I was surprised to find that no brokerage made all of the city’s listings easily available to consumers, or, if they provided listings to the public, the consumer was required to register and share their personal information,” said Bill Raveis, chairman and CEO of William Raveis Real Estate, in a statement released today. “This isn’t the way the consumer wants to shop. Having a fresh perspective, coming into the market as an ‘outsider,’ I knew that it was time to give them what they deserve: transparency and a one-stop shopping experience.”
In the fragmented New York City market, StreetEasy has emerged as “the closest thing to an MLS” by aggregating listings across some exclusive areas of the broader region, Derek Eisenberg, founder of Hackensack, N.J.-based Continental Real Estate Group Inc., told Inman News when the site was acquired by Zillow last year.
