The Real Estate Board of New York Partners with Real Estate Technology Leader Homesnap to Launch Public Portal For New York City’s Residential Listing Service
NEW YORK, NY, OCTOBER 13, 2021 – The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the City’s leading real estate trade association, today announced a partnership with Homesnap, one of the leading national providers of technology solutions for the residential real estate industry, to create the first-ever, consumer-facing search website and mobile app for its Residential Listing Service (RLS). Citysnap is expected to include the most complete inventory of residential real estate listings in New York City when launched in Q2 of 2022.
In partnership with REBNY, Homesnap, a CoStar Group (NASDAQ: CSGP) company, will provide a custom version of its national search portal specifically for New York City and exclusively feature data from REBNY’s RLS. Citysnap will provide complete, accurate and real-time residential listing data to brokers, agents, building owners, property managers and consumers. Built for the industry and by the industry, Citysnap will be governed by “your listing, your lead,” meaning all leads will go to the listing broker or agent — with no additional cost or daily listing fee. Spearheaded by REBNY’s RLS Board of Directors Co-Chairs, John Wollberg and Clelia Warburg Peters, this strategic partnership will provide 12,000+ New York City real estate professionals who are participating members of the RLS at REBNY with free access to Citysnap Pro, a professional version of Homesnap’s top-rated agent-only productivity mobile app.
“As a community, the real estate industry has worked together to create a tech-friendly solution that will give consumers the same real-time access to residential listings as agents. From its inception, the RLS was conceived as a tool to improve the home-searching process for agents, renters and buyers alike. The creation of Citysnap will take that vision to the next level,” said Pamela Liebman, President & CEO of The Corcoran Group. “The Citysnap portal features the type of transparent real estate information New York City buyers, sellers, renters and agents are craving right now. Through this incredibly valuable platform, data integrity will no longer be an issue when it comes to searching for properties in the five boroughs," said Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens.
“The creation of Citysnap is a major inflection point for the New York City real estate industry. For the first time ever, agents will have the full power of the RLS in the palm of their hands and consumers will have a single source of truth they can rely on when searching for a new home. It will be the ultimate gamechanger,” said Richard Ferrari, President & CEO of Brokerage, NYC and Northeast Region at Douglas Elliman.
“The public portal for New York City’s RLS will improve access to listings for consumers and empower agents to grow their businesses,” said Rory Golod, President of Compass Tri-State. “We are very excited to deliver this innovative solution and the positive impact it will have on the New York real estate community.”
“New York City is the most dynamic and complex real estate market in the world. Our partnership with Homesnap underscores our commitment to providing our community with the robust tech solutions needed to close the real estate transactions that drive our local economy,” said REBNY President, James Whelan. “This extraordinary effort – driven by the industry, for the industry – represents a significant upgrade in both technology support for the industry and in transparency and accuracy of listing data that consumers and the entire residential real estate community can trust and adopt. We are excited to hit this significant milestone and we thank our members for their incredible involvement and thoughtfulness throughout this process.”
“CoStar Group believes that agents deserve to capture the value of their listings and that consumers should have access to complete, transparent and accurate information. We have a track record of building successful products for the real estate industry, and we are committed to investing the resources needed to make Citysnap successful in the New York City market,” said CoStar Group Founder and Chief Executive Officer Andy Florance. “REBNY spent years searching for the right technology partner to help it develop the right product for its members, and we are proud to be creating that product for New York City’s brokers, agents and consumers and to arm New York City with the most comprehensive, accurate and user-friendly home search platform for the area.”
REBNY’s RLS includes an average of more than 40,000 active listings from nearly 600 brokerage firms and property owners, representing a total of $50 billion worth of residential real estate in New York City. The RLS provides the infrastructure that allows brokers to share residential property listing data with other brokerage firms and a powerful network of third-party websites and products so consumers can find new homes. The RLS provides the most accurate and up-to-date listing information available in the five boroughs because it comes directly from brokerages and property owners and is centralized through a single feed. REBNY’s listing service offers maximum exposure for sellers and property owners, while also providing transparent inventory of available real estate listings to buyers and renters.
Launched in 2012, Homesnap combines people, property and data with enterprise-grade software for real estate professionals to run and grow their business at every stage of the residential real estate transaction. Homesnap features listings from over 240 MLSs throughout the country and is the public-facing brand of the Broker Public Portal, the collaborative nationwide venture between real estate brokerages and MLSs to provide a national home search experience that connects home searchers directly with the listing agent and delivers leads for free.
MEDIA CONTACTS
REBNY
Sam Spokony
(845) 536-4767
press@rebny.com
Homesnap
Abigail Sanders
(202) 808-0223
awsanders@homesnap.com
CoStar Group
Matthew Blocher
(202) 346-6775
Mblocher@costargroup.com
ABOUT THE REAL ESTATE BOARD OF NEW YORK
The Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) is the City’s leading real estate trade association. Founded in 1896, REBNY represents commercial, residential, and institutional property owners, builders, managers, investors, brokers, and salespeople; banks, financial service companies, utilities, attorneys, architects, and contractors; corporations, co-partnerships, and individuals professionally interested in New York City real estate. REBNY conducts research on various civic matters including tax policy, city planning and zoning, rental conditions, land use policy, building codes, and other city, state, and federal legislation. REBNY regularly publishes market data, policy reports, and broker surveys. In addition, REBNY provides for its members: informational, technical, and technological resources; networking and charitable service opportunities; qualifying and continuing education courses; professional education programs, seminars, and designations; career-changing awards; legal advice; and a wide range of additional member benefits. For more information, please visit WWW.REBNY.com/.
ABOUT HOMESNAP
With easy-to-use mobile technology fueled by real-time data intelligence, Homesnap has changed the way residential real estate agents connect with consumers and serve their clients. Homesnap combines people, property and data with enterprise-grade software for residential real estate professionals to run and grow their business at every stage of the real estate transaction. The industry-endorsed Homesnap platform leverages AI, machine learning and data from over 500 data sources and over 240 MLSs to provide more than one million U.S. agents with access to powerful mobile software that automates workflow and optimizes the search and sell experience for their clients. With the Homesnap mobile app, the highest rated consumer home search application; Homesnap Pro, the industry-standard mobile business platform for agents; and the Homesnap national home search portal, a joint venture with the industry-backed Broker Public Portal, the integrated Homesnap platform has transformed the residential real estate business. Homesnap was acquired in December 2020 by CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP), the leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics, and online marketplaces. More information can be found at www.homesnap.com.
ABOUT COSTAR GROUP, INC
CoStar Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: CSGP) a leading provider of commercial real estate information, analytics and online marketplaces. Founded in 1987, CoStar conducts expansive, ongoing research to produce and maintain the largest and most comprehensive database of commercial real estate information. Our suite of online services enables clients to analyze, interpret and gain unmatched insight on commercial property values, market conditions and current availabilities. STR provides premium data benchmarking, analytics and marketplace insights for the global hospitality sector. Ten-X provides a leading platform for conducting commercial real estate online auctions and negotiated bids. LoopNet is the most heavily trafficked commercial real estate marketplace online. Apartments.com, ApartmentFinder.com, ForRent.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, Westside Rentals, AFTER55.com, CorporateHousing.com, ForRentUniversity.com and Apartamentos.com form the premier online apartment resource for renters seeking great apartment homes and provide property managers and owners a proven platform for marketing their properties. Homesnap is an industry-leading online and mobile software platform that provides user-friendly applications to optimize residential real estate agent workflow and reinforce the agent-client relationship. Homes.com offers real estate professionals advertising and marketing services for residential properties. Realla is the UK’s most comprehensive commercial property digital marketplace. BureauxLocaux is one of the largest specialized property portals for buying and leasing commercial real estate in France. CoStar Group’s websites attract tens of millions of unique monthly visitors. Headquartered in Washington, DC, CoStar maintains offices throughout the U.S. and in Europe, Canada and Asia with a staff of approximately 4,900 worldwide, including the industry’s largest professional research organization. For more information, visit www.CoStarGroup.com.
This news release includes "forward-looking statements" including, without limitation, statements regarding REBNY’s and CoStar's expectations, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. These statements are based upon current beliefs and are subject to many risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements. The following factors, among others, could cause or contribute to such differences: the risk that the collaboration between REBNY and Homesnap does not produce the expected results or benefits for REBNY, CoStar or other industry participants, including the most complete inventory of residential real estate listings in New York City when launched, and the most comprehensive, accurate and user-friendly home search platform for the area; and the risk that the custom search portal does not launch when and as expected. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to REBNY and CoStar on the date hereof, and they assume no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
