NYC flat fee MLS (Multiple Listing Service) listings are still very rare despite advances in technology and the city having the highest home prices and highest real estate commissions in the nation.
Is it because it the market is too profitable for NYC brokers to offer discounts? But why are discount services so rare when there are over 30,000 real estate agents in NYC alone and not enough listings?
NYC flat fee MLS (Multiple Listing Service) listings are rare for the following reasons:
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NYC’s real estate industry is controlled by only a few major brokerage companies, creating an oligopoly for consumers
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Aspiring real estate agents enforce the status quo, refuse to discount commissions and ‘dream big’
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NYC doesn’t have a traditional MLS, so it’s more challenging to offer FSBO sellers a NYC flat fee MLS service
NYC Flat Fee MLS Reason One: Lack of Commission Competition
Although NYC has over 30,000 agents and many thousands of listings at any given time, the industry is far less competitive than it may appear from the surface. This is because a large proportion of all agents and listings are controlled by a handful of large and dominant brokerages in the city.
While a real estate salesperson license in NYC is very easy to obtain, each new salesperson is required to associate with a brokerage in order to conduct business. Here lies the source of the industry’s lack of competition (and lack of discount services like a NYC flat fee MLS listing package):
Licensed real estate salespeople at these major brokerages aren’t simply permitted to discount commissions. Every listing agreement or deal requires approval and sign-off by a managing broker at the firm. These large, traditional brokerages have unwritten policies which severely limit or altogether prohibit offering any form of discount or reduced commission services.

NYC Flat Fee MLS Reason Two: Agents Enforce the Status Quo
The traditional school of thought suggests that although the vast majority of licensed real estate agents don’t close any deals in a given year and price fixing at 5-6% in real estate sales commissions per given sale only benefits a handful of stars, the masses of agents who don’t close deals still protect the status quo because of hope that they could potentially become one of these high earning star agents.
As a result, even though the system they are helping enforce does not benefit them, these young and aspiring agents go out of their way to enforce the status quo by refusing to budge on prices and boycotting discount brokers (i.e. any NYC flat fee MLS company). This theory has merit because as home prices rise during every economic cycle, the number of licensed real estate agents increase in almost perfect correlation with home prices. Yet, even as the number of agents increases, technology advances and prices rise the typical NYC real estate commission has barely budged.
NYC Flat Fee MLS Reason Three: Lack of an Official NYC Multiple Listing Service (MLS)

I am trying to attract NYC buyers for my home in Bronxville, NY- a 28 min. Metro North commute to GCS and otherwise very close to the city. Would signing up to this site be helpful?
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