The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) announced to members Thursday that it’s eliminating the days on market calculation across all consumer portals that participate in the trade associations’ Residential Listing Service network. Real estate agents are split on the decision.
REBNY doesn’t power a traditional multiple listing service but sends its members’ listings to realtor.com, RentHop and Homes.com — but not the Zillow-owned StreetEasy.
“In light of the continuing COVID-19 crisis and its impact on the real estate industry, REBNY has issued an order to stop Days on Market (DOM) calculation across all consumer portals in NYC that participate in the RLS network,” the association said, in a statement to members. “All our partners have been notified and are expected to disable Days on Market calculation as of Friday, March 20 until further notice. We believe that this is one of many steps to support the residential brokerage community during this difficult time.”
Michael J. Franco, a broker at Compass, is among those that are happy that REBNY is taking steps to help the industry, although he’s uncertain what the impact of the decision will be in the long run.
“There’s so much going on right now and there are so many uncertainties that anything that an association can do to help brokers, agents, and sellers is worthwhile,” Franco said. “I can’t say whether it’s going to help or not but it certainly can’t hurt.”
Franco doesn’t believe that there are going to be many transactions for at least a few weeks — with very few agents even doing private showings currently.
Noemi Bitterman, an agent with Warburg Realty, is also mixed on the decision.
“Although this initiative will attempt to give all listings a fresh new look by making it appear that all listings are new and active, it feels a bit deceiving,” Bitterman said. “The actual new and priced to market value properties will be pooled together with the properties that have already been on the market, making all listings seem the same; however this can cripple the real estate professionals that are hired by sellers and buyers to price their property, put in offers for a property and provide a real up to date climate of the market.”
Others think the move is an overwhelming positive. Tania Isacoff Friedland, a broker with Warburg Realty, believes it will avoid putting sellers at a disadvantage and have a positive impact on agent’s ability to market properties at a time when agents cannot physically show properties.
“While prospective buyers are working from home and spending infinitely more time browsing properties online, we would be putting our sellers at a great disadvantage by taking listings temporarily off the market and reducing their visibility,” Friedland said. “While this change may reduce the transparency of stale listings, buyers are still extremely savvy about the market and appropriate pricing and I don’t think that will change.”
New York City has become the epicenter of the coronavirus spread in the United States, with cases essentially doubling each day. By Noon, Thursday, Governor Andrew Cuomo reported more than 4,000 positive cases of the illness in the state.
