"Once we were able to provide that quality feed, the Times-along with others-began a discussion with us about being able to accept the RLS to put it on their portals to ensure as broad and diverse listings as possible." "REBNY will be responsible for coordinating and ensuring that the listings are consistent, clean, and without error," says REBNY president John Banks. (The Gray Lady is also the most high-profile New York-focused outlet to sign a "direct feed" agreement with REBNY other sites that use its listing service include, , RentHop, LeaseBreak, Whichdoor, LeaseHop, CampusCribz and YourNeighborhood.) Partnerships like this one, then, are crucial for its success. It’s also a boon for REBNY its RLS feed, meant to streamline the process for sending rental and sale information to listings aggregators, does not have a consumer-facing website. “Part of that is to have a comprehensive, complete set of listings … and putting agents, via their exclusives, directly in touch with their customers is part of this as well."
"As the industry has gone to a free model, we've thought long and hard about how we can provide a better customer experience,” says Andy Wright, senior vice president of advertising for the paper. By tapping into that feed-rather than charging brokerage firms to list on the Times, as has been its practice-the real estate section's decades-long history of paid listings is over.
Starting this fall, the New York Times Real Estate section will feature residential listings from the five boroughs, provided by the RLS. One month after the Real Estate Board of New York launched its long-in-the-works syndication service, known as the RLS, the group has announced a big partnership with one of the city's best-known listing marketplaces-though perhaps not one that you’d expect.