Virtual Office Web sites: The Future for Manhattan Real Estate Listings?
As with any new technology, there is jostling as the traditional adjusts to new options. In real estate, that adjustment is in how and where listings can be found on the Internet, and the impetus for change comes from a new application of anti-trust laws to emerging Virtual Office Websites (VOW’s). A Virtual Office Website allows consumers to view a brokerage’s own listings, as well as those from other firms.
The Virtual Office Website is poised change the New York real estate game.
Virtual Office Websites and the Law
In 2005 the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors (NAR), asserting that it was illegal for NAR to allow brokerages to withhold listings from VOW’s. Why? Because it hinders competition. Whether you agree with the DOJ or not, they won the case, and now anyone with a registered VOW can post all the listings they want.
Essentially, the agreement enables any firm to register as a Virtual Office Web sites (VOW) with the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), pay an access fee, and post listings from any of REBNY member on their site.
Small firms like it because it is good for web traffic and good for business- some large firms don’t like it because they think it will cut into their business and hurt their competitive edge.
I think this certainly is a victory for the consumer. They will be able to go to any web site and see every listing in Manhattan. Every real estate site will be one stop and shop and that could certainly even out the playing field- a small firm will have the same listings as a large one. With that said, customers are used to shopping on sites like Elliman.com, as Elliman already has one of the most technically advanced and consumer-friendly web sites in NYC, and I think that will continue as they develop their VOW technology. Just as people continue to watch ABC, CBS and NBC more than even the largest cable stations, they will continue to go to the largest brokerage firms for their real estate content. This will be contingent, though, on the ability of large firms to to create that content. The business model is changing and content, not listings, might be the driving force to the real estate websites of the future.
How Virtual Office Websites Work
There have been aggregator sites like StreetEasy and Trulia that gather and post information on local listings for years. The difference is that these are third-party sites that end up being comparison starting points for buyers. The new access could lead to a Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for the New York market, the kind of service that many regions around the country already use.
VOW’s, on the other hand, have an opportunity in every listing on their site.
Let’s say Hoch Group was a VOW and we listed properties from all over Manhattan, both our listings and those of other firms. If a buyer is browsing through listings and they find one they like that isn’t ours, they can inquire about it through us and we can be the buyers broker for that deal.
Eventually, acceptance and use of VOW’s could create space for expanded use of Multiple Listing Sites (MLS’s), where a variety of firms voluntarily list their properties alongside those of other firms. That’s would be an even bigger step, but it may be just around the corner.
What’s is certain is that VOW’s will take the Manhattan real estate market one step closer to both level competition and transparency.
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