It’s déjà vu all over again for the Real Estate Board of New York.
Five years after selecting industry upstart Perchwell to power its residential listings service, REBNY recently tapped national data provider CoreLogic to operate its backend instead, causing another stir in the process.
Several members of REBNY’s RLS board described the migration as the result of a years-long review process, and that the decision to enlist CoreLogic was because of the firm’s ability to create a centralized building database, according to senior vice president Ninve James. CoreLogic, which services 80 percent of multiple listing services across the country, will be the third RLS operator in its 20-year existence.
“We screened and interviewed a number of different provider companies, and the decision was made after a lot of consideration by the RLS board to go with CoreLogic,” said board co-chair and CEO of Bond New York Doug Wagner.
In July, REBNY notified the nine listing management providers that interact with the RLS, including Perchwell, of the change. Last week, three providers integrated with the CoreLogic-powered RLS, and the remaining six are expected to complete the migration on Feb. 11.
But the move away from a homegrown firm has rankled members and brokerage platform providers, who cited concerns over a national provider’s ability to adapt to the notoriously idiosyncratic New York market.
“New York has particular specifications,” said David Elgrabli, CEO of RealtyMX, who works with local firms like Bond New York and Living New York, according to his company’s website. “We’re now working with a vendor that is very big [and] we find some of these issues need to be adjusted.”
The switch, which has been invariably compared to mundane activities like changing cable providers, electric wiring and plumbing, has instead been a repeat of a previous drama-filled operational change.
“As long as I’ve been in business, [REBNY] has never done any technological business or improvement that has been successful,” said Donna Olshan of Olshan Realty. “REBNY is a total disaster.”
Squabble over Perchwell
At the end of 2019, REBNY tapped Perchwell to replace its former provider, Stratus Data Systems. Perchwell was then only two years into its founding and had just developed a new application called the Elastic Listing Service, which would serve as the foundation for the RLS behind the scenes.
At the time, REBNY’s RLS Board chalked the decision up to a need for more efficiency. The panel, along with the residential advisory board, approved the swap with “no expressed dissent,” then co-chair Clelia Warburg Peters said. Most agents likely wouldn’t notice the transition.
But the move to Perchwell sparked controversy anyway. One source told The Real Deal that the decision pointed to a “larger issue with REBNY” over its lack of communication with its members. Another called the switch “a complete clusterfuck.”
But after the initial Sturm und Drang, agents have mostly gone about their business for the past five years.
Meanwhile Perchwell, which made waves when it inked a deal with Sotheby’s International Realty in 2018, has had its share of ups and down since, signing and then losing contracts with with firms like Serhant, Coldwell Banker Warburg and Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in recent years (the tech company still lists clients including Sotheby’s, CORE, Engel & Volkers and Leslie Garfield as clients, and partnered with the California Regional MLS in 2023).
Perchwell CEO Brendan Fairbanks did not respond to a request for comment.
REBNY’s James said the switch “fulfills a multiyear strategic vision set by the RLS Board to create a centralized building database,” which she said promotes accuracy, efficiency and confidence for agents, building owners and consumers navigating the city’s housing market.
“Nobody wants to have to make these changes,” RLS board member Kirsten Jordan said. She added that the database will serve as a bulwark against aggregators that are “ready to jump in and be the source of truth for buyers and sellers” while eating away at agent and brokerage commissions.
But that line of reasoning has not placated everyone in the city’s residential real estate community.
“This isn’t just an inconvenience – it’s a downgrade,” a Sotheby’s agent wrote in a Jan 23 email that made the rounds among brokerage peers. “It’s being forced on us without a clear explanation of why. For the amount we contribute in dues, we should expect better.”
The agent outlined her objections to CoreLogic, including concerns about the national provider’s ability to cater its system to the city’s quirks. She warned recipients about potential issues with the integrity of data under the new system and claimed it wasn’t “seamlessly compatible” with other platforms currently in use.
“REBNY has been made fully aware of these issues by industry tech leaders and has chosen to push forward anyway,” she wrote.
In an email to members of the residential board, REBNY’s James called the email “disappointing and defamatory” and claimed it was “spreading false information” about the migration. She added that the organization was working to identify the source of the agent’s accusations.
“If necessary, legal redress will be sought,” James wrote.
James in a statement also pushed back against the notion that CoreLogic was an outsider, pointing to its work powering Trestle, a syndication product already used in the city, and MLSes in nearby markets such as Brooklyn MLS and OneKey.
The agent later sent a follow-up email explaining that her concerns were her own, not her firm’s, according to James. She added that the agent was not part of meetings about the migration and that the group’s staff “has been working closely with Sotheby’s leadership on daily calls.”
But others in the industry have echoed the same concerns described in the email. Olshan, who uses data from the RLS for her weekly report on Manhattan’s luxury market, said she was worried REBNY was rushing the rollout of the new system without ensuring the data’s accuracy.
“It’s like a doctor letting a patient who is very sick out of the hospital before they’re ready,” Olshan said of debuting a new system without an adequate testing period. “They’re just going to keel over and die.”
Stakeholders in the process acknowledged that, like with any large-scale tech operation, there are bound to be a few hiccups.
“There’s always some bumps in the road, some things that are missed, but then it gets corrected,” said RLS board co-chair Yuval Greenblatt, who compared the migration to the group updating its compliance with the Real Estate Standards Organization last year.
The uproar over what REBNY claims is an innocuous change is likely partially driven by a general sense of dissatisfaction with the trade group, which has long weathered complaints that it doesn’t communicate with members.
“I’m frustrated with REBNY’s lack of transparency and that it’s potentially wasting revenue, most of which is sourced from my fellow agents,” said Berkshire Hathaway’s Brian Meier.
But REBNY is standing strong on its jump to CoreLogic, a move James billed as a “breakthrough for the entire New York City residential eco-system.”
“We believe that we made the right choice, and we’ll do everything we can to make sure it’s the right choice,” Greenblatt said.
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