Rental Property Investor · Boston, MA · Member since 2018 · 17 posts · 8 votes
Fellow New York Real Estate Agents,
I have been a Real Estate Broker for about 15 years in Massachusetts. I have recently gotten my broker's license in New York. I am trying to figure out what MLS to join. I am going to be doing business in Brooklyn, Bronx, Westchester and Rockland Counties primarily. I see there is a NY State MLS which claims to cover all areas but there are also Brooklyn MLS, Hudson MLS, Long Island MLS and Staten Island MLS and maybe more. I am interested in current and historical data as well. Which MLS do I need to join?
In Massachusetts, this is something we don't need to think about, we only have 1 MLS there, MLSPIN.
Hi Damien, you want to join the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors. Sometime this year they will merge with Long Island Board Of Realtors and encompasses everything you want.
Hi Damien, you want to join the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors. Sometime this year they will merge with Long Island Board Of Realtors and encompasses everything you want.
@Charlie MacPherson I have indeed heard of the Cape & Islands MLS now that you mention it. I was not aware that Berkshire had their own. I'm primarily inside 495 so I probably haven't had the need to cross those paths yet.
Hudson Gateway will cover most of what you need. If you are hoping to do a lot of deals in Brooklyn then you'll also want to join BrooklynMLS. It's not an NAR MLS and it's relatively inexpensive. If you want to do deals in the prime areas of Brooklyn then you'll want to join REBNY which is also not NAR (it covers Manhattan and prime Brooklyn and western Queens). I don't think you need NY State. Keep in mind you also have to find a broker that is a member of all the MLSs you want to join so more likely a larger brokerage that has offices in all the different locations.
@Jason Lee Thank you. That's a lot of MLSs, but thanks for breaking it down.
I am a Broker and working independently. I got the reciprocal NY Broker license from my Massachusetts creds.
I wound up calling the the NY State MLS and they told me that they cover the entire state and many of the brokerages are migrating over to them over time and are poised to becoming the default MLS for the entire state where they said the smaller MLSs will go away after some time.
It doesn't matter if it covers the whole state. You need an MLS that is used by the majority of agents that do deals in the areas you plan to focus. Who's migrating over? There will never be a default MLS covering the entire state. It's too large. My brokerage and I get NY State MLS access for free and I never use it. Why do you think they give it away for fee? Find out how many members each MLS has. I'd guess NY State has the fewest.
@Jason Lee Those are all good points. The representative from NYStateMLS on the phone did not tell me exactly which brokerages were migrating over. It may have been lip service.