FAQ – 1 Current Listing Information

Q – Why is it so hard to find correct information on Listings, like status, listing agent information and accurate descriptions?

A- The Brooklyn market is a mess of different Multiple Listing Services (MLS) and advertisement websites. Within the Brooklyn area, you have 4 active MLS Services, these being:

  1.  Brooklyn MLS – The name is self explanatory
  2. LIBOR/MLSLI – Long Island Board of Realtors/MLS of Long Island
  3. REBNY – Real Estate Board of New York (primarily active in Manhattan but slowly creeping in to Brooklyn)
  4. NYSMLS – The New York State MLS

Besides for these 4 ML Services, you also have multiple websites that are used to advertise properties for sale and rent. To name a few but certainly not all:

  1. Zillow – Obviously, one of the most recognized and well branded websites, they are actually part of  ZillowGroup and currently own some of the other best known websites. ZillowGroup is a continuously growing behemoth in the online RE advertising business, with a  humongous market share that continues to grow. They are providing a certain amount of transparency to an industry that was famous before the advent of the internet for lacking the access to the consumer that is now available. Their websites include:
    1. Trulia – Very well recognized as well, it provides helpful categories, including price range, property size, neighborhoods and even more select categories.
    2. Streeteasy – A more boutique website, Streeteasy was developed for NYC and currently only offers information on properties in NYC. The NYC RE market is sometimes referred to as a vertical market. The amount of buildings and apartments for sale here made streeteasy a go to resource for home buyers looking for apartments. It provides information on specific buildings, niche areas in NYC, and will also show previous sales in buildings and neighborhoods. Another benefit of streeteasy, besides its clean format and easy to use interface, is the websites access to documentation for specific buildings and previous sales, which are just not offered on other websites. Streeteasy is by far one of the best resources for any home buyer who is specifically looking for condominiums or co-ops in NYC.
    3. HotPads – Primarily a rental webiste, HotPads offers tenants an easy to use website for those looking to rent nationwide. Due to the feed features that the ZillowGroup has, HotPads will at times show properties for sale as well. Accuracy seems to be pretty current, but like all these websites, not always is it reliable.
    4. NakedApartments – A Rental website in NYC, the name is trying to suggest a transparency for the market that most online browsers struggle with. I do not have too much experience with this website and can’t share much about it besides this so if you have some input, please share.
    5. PS. ZillowGroup owns more websites and I imagine it will continue to grow, I wrote down what I consider to be the more popular and well known ones.
  2. Realtor.com – A service provided by the NAR, The National Association Of Realtors. This website provides relatively accurate information on properties for sale nationwide. Thanks to the fact that it mostly pulls information from active MLS feeds, Realtor.com is one of the most reliable websites in my experience for up to date information. The downside to their service is that the only properties that they publish are properties from the MLS. It should not be used exclusively because it lacks a lot of properties that are being sold on the market but are not being published on local MLS’s, whereas other websites allow Agents and owners to advertise properties directly as opposed to through the MLS feeds.

After reading this brief description of what I consider to be the most active and used websites, I hope you can begin to get an understanding for why it is so hard to find properties exclusively through the world wide web. While the resources offered are tremendous and should definitely be utilized, I have been getting feedback from many consumers that the accuracy of these websites is questionable in realtime and frustrating to deal with. It is only to be expected that in this industry there will be difficulties in any aspect as the process involved in finding the right home and close on it are so difficult.