BrokersNYC, the service that we operate for independent real estate brokers in New York, won a major victory recently. We settled a long-running lawsuit against the Real Estate Board of New York and some of the biggest brokerage firms in New York.

A little history: The Real Estate Board (aka REBNY), a trade association that is controlled by the big brokerage firms, started a residential listing service a few years ago. These exclusive listings come from REBNY members, and their distribution is tightly controlled. The independent brokers who subscribe to our BrokersNYC service would have to pay through the nose to access them in any readily usable form. When we asked REBNY if we could disseminate the listings to our members through the BrokersNYC website, REBNY refused.

We filed an antitrust suit in 2004, saying it was anticompetitive to prevent services like BrokersNYC from distributing these listings to independent brokers at an affordable price. (And of course, the lack of competition doesn’t just hurt BrokersNYC and the independent brokers; it hurts consumers, too.)

Our lawsuit asked that REBNY be required to deal with any listings information service that, like BrokersNYC, operates on behalf of REBNY members, and to integrate directly with our software so that independent brokers could get a product equivalent to what the majors were getting. We also asked for at least $78 million in damages.

Last August, a judge threw out REBNY’s motion to dismiss the case. In January, we met with Magistrate Judge Dollinger and agreed to settle, and the settlement went into effect recently. While we didn’t get everything we asked for (that’s the point of a settlement), BrokersNYC is now free to compete on an equal footing with its competitors that service the brokerage community – and our clients, and ultimately the consumers, will get a better deal. We’re looking forward to rolling out new features for BrokersNYC very soon.

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Recently, the New York Times’ Vivian Toy wrote an article Agents of Angst about unethical real estate agents – an article full of hair-raising stories about agents who withheld crucial information, actively misled their clients, didn’t keep their promises, poached other agents’ clients, and generally contributed to the public’s poor opinion of our industry. (According to the article, a recent poll ranking occupations by prestige placed real estate brokers at the very bottom of a list of 23 professions.)

The next week, Steven Spinola, the president of the Real Estate Board of New York, sent a letter to the editor defending the industry’s reputation, saying,
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At $3500 for firms with fewer than 19 agents and $7000 for larger firms, some with 1000 agents, there is no doubt that fees are disproportionate. A sole proprietor broker would pay $3500 while the per agent cost at a large firm would be $7. More troubling is REBNY’s standard modus operandi of REBNY and large firms making decision on behalf of all REBNY members.

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Hundreds of small brokers joined together in meetings, frantic emails and a petition criticizing the fait accompli announcement by REBNY of a planned portal to present broker exclusives to consumers. Universally, brokers criticized REBNY for undertaking a mandatory portal that included no participcation from 95% of REBNY’s broker members and the lack of a business plan. Buyer brokers especially expressed concerns that buyeres would not need or use their services.

More from Inman News.

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To the surprise of most of its members, the Real Estate Board New York (”REBNY”) announced a plan to launch a public portal of all REBNY member brokers’ exclusive listings.

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