Dear Fellow Real Estate Agents,

REBNY has made a shocking decision.  I am not sure I can support it. It is quite discouraging and very disappointing.

Worst of all, consumer facing websites that you rely on for alternative lead sources may decide to no longer take the REBNY RLS feed which means less exposure for your listings.

What was REBNY’s Decision?
Since 2017 REBNY tried to make sure your listings were on as many quality consumer websites as possible. They did this by making it FREE for consumer websites to show your listings (via the RLS feed).

I fully supported this and sent many emails and blogs about it, like this one.

But then they recently reversed course.

For reasons that are still not clear to me, we were just informed by REBNY that they will start charging all consumer websites SIGNIFICANT FEES to take the RLS feed.

Honestly, I was stunned by this announcement. And I told them so.

The RLS feed is how your listings get on other websites, like Leasebreak, Apartments.com, Realtor.com, Renthop, Frele, etc.

I can’t speak for other consumer websites, but I know Leasebreak and Frele send the brokerage community literally tens of thousands of FREE leads every year from the RLS Listings.  I know you know this because many of you receive these leads!

What are the Consequences of REBNY’s Decision? 
I believe REBNY needs to do everything in its power to incentivize – not dissuade – quality consumer facing websites to continue displaying REBNY RLS listings.  Not only is this a huge benefit to agents, it is also one of the key ways to help mitigate the stranglehold StreetEasy has over the industry.  Aren’t we all on the same page here?

Charging fees to consumer websites for the privilege of sending free leads to agents is destructive to the cause. Isn’t it?

We are moving in the opposite direction!

The consequences of this decision to charge fees to show the RLS listings could be far reaching:

Smaller websites that spend hundreds of hours on developing and maintaining the RLS integration may now think twice about it.  

This decision could stifle innovation and lessen the competition to reach more consumers.  This plays right into StreetEasy’s hands.

REBNY is creating a “pay to play” environment that may force some quality consumer websites to consider opting out from taking the RLS feed.  This could mean a loss of thousands of free leads to agents at a crucial time in our industry.

Under these circumstances I don’t yet know if Leasebreak and Frele will still be able to take the RLS feed.  I am concerned that our principles may not be aligned.

If any of you have thoughts on this, I would love to hear them.

No matter which way this goes, I am committed to working with those that still want to post on our websites for free.  Ultimately, I want to help agents as best I can but this latest REBNY decision is making things more difficult.

Phil Horigan, Founder:
Leasebreak#1 in shorter term rentals and pioneered the Special Lead Program: a great way for agents to get rental exclusives and work with rentersFrēlēA new free and transparent real estate marketplace.  Text “Frele” to 917-540-8825 and be part of the journey!

Host, Clubhouse room for Top Agents: I host a weekly show on Clubhouse with top real estate agents and experts.  Ask me if you want the weekly link and weekly “notes” from the show

Author

Philip Horigan is the founder of Leasebreak.com - a leading marketplace for rentals in NYC, founded in 2013. He launched Frēlē - a more comprehensive NYC rental marketplace - in May 2018 with a 4 point pledge (www.frele.com/pledge). Phil has been a New York City real estate agent for 14 years working for some of the top firms in the city. He became an independent broker in early 2017 so that he can focus more on his entrepreneurial endeavors. Phil believes strongly in building businesses in an ethical and transparent way.

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