May 2001: New Business, Old Rules - Real Estate Listings Service MLX.com Defies New York State Licensing Law by C. J. Hughes
Silicon Alley Reporter

In most large cities, a multiple-listings service (MLS) - a shared electronic database with all the currently available property listings - is the lifeblood of residential brokers. Even rival firms will voluntarily pool information about available homes to match up sellers and buyers more efficiently.

New York City, no surprise, is different. Despite a Herculean attempt over the past year to create an MLS, city brokers continue to horde commission-ripe listings in the country’s most consistently lucrative real-estate market. And while the system may benefit titans like Corcoran and Douglas Elliman, smaller players simply lack the resources to compete.

Enter Web-based listings services, which have attempted to combine the centrally located dynamic accessibility of an MLS with a more open platform. Though these modernized listings services may not have the same clout once predicted, they still rattle the cages of the old offline brokerages because Web listings threaten to remove the broker from the house-hunting process.

One of the more successful plays is MLX.com, a 7-year-old company that offers up to 7,000 aggregated listings to brokers and consumers, and enjoys partnerships with New York Magazine and the New York Observer. Even so, MLX.com has faced a dual struggle convincing people to search for apartments online while fending off numerous attempts by state authorities to shut the service down.
read more…

No Comments »