A cooperative spirit among brokers is leading to the development of several different multiple listing type services, some of which are already operational. Another effort by the Real Estate Board of New York is expected to be up and running within the next year.

While a true multiple listing service has never been implemented in Manhattan, because by its caveats, brokers must immediately share their listings and the costs are perceived to be too high, a cooperation of sorts has evolved since the market turned sour and buyers were few and far between.

Exclusive brokers typically fax their listings to other brokers around the city and the fees are split 50/50. The listing broker is also most often present to show the apartment when the other broker arrives with the potential buyer.

But, as Elizabeth Stribling and others explained, not all listings are always shared by every company. "Here in New York [City] using the exclusive system, the seller has a choice for the broker to list with 150 or 200 firms or start out gradually."

With such a co-brokerage listing arrangement, explained Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), the firms can decide to list only with certain firms. "And under a co-brokerage agreement, there should be a relationship with setting up and bringing [buyers] to the apartment."

Stribling said in the past, many cooperative boards, for instance, wanted to ensure that brokers would bring appropriate buyers. "Traditionally, the form of cooperative ownership made the tenant owners more selective on how they wanted to do their own selling," she said. "The sale was dependent on the board of directors, so to comply with the rules they tried to keep it at a lower level so people would bring buyers suitable to the building."

When the co-op market was booming and buyers were everywhere, co-brokerage was nearly limited to other brokers in the individual firm. Most apartment units put up for sale were also done through the managing agent's in-house department.

But as buyers became scarcer in the very late 1980s, brokers were pulled together by the Real Estate Board of New York. REBNY made it plain to everyone that the industry was in the business of making deals and it was in everyone's interest to get the job done.

"They said we were in the business for the buyers and sellers, and no deal was the end all be all," said Adrienne Albert, president of The Marketing Directors. "In the late Eighties, any sale was better than no sale, and any commission was better than none."

That led to the current system of faxing information between agencies that have signed agreements with each other.

Susan Merdinger, president and managing partner of Jean-Marc Levet, said companies have annual agreements to share their exclusives. That way an agreement does not have to be signed for each property. "When they show a property, its under the guidelines of a credible relationship," she explained. It also defines the commission splits.

"I prefer only to work with people who work on those terms," insisted Merdinger. "Every single listing we obtain we co--broke, and if I get a broker that doesn't do that, they can't work with me."

Many brokers and managing agents have long wished for such a system. "I wish there was one," said David Kuperberg, president of Cooper Square Realty, who primarily manages co-op and condo buildings. "It would benefit the brokers and the seller and buyers and property. It works like a charm in Westchester County and in every other location."

Albert says such MLS systems have both pros and cons. "The benefit to the general consumer is that a buyer can go to any broker and see everything on the market. The disadvantage is that frequently, sometimes to get a listing someone will promise the seller the moon, just to get the listing, and they put it out to MLS just to put it in, not because they will work the listing."

In her view, brokers should market the properties, place and arrange the advertising, conduct open houses, be at the site to show off the property to its best advantage, and be able to make changes based on the feedback as buyers walk around.

But in many instances, she added, the true MLS discourages servicing the listing. "If you just make the listing you don't necessarily spend the effort making sure the listing is working," she said.

In the past, groups that approached the New York City firms to start multiple listing services were mostly rebuffed, recalled Merdinger. "The MLS fell on deaf ears," she said. Some of the businesses asked for one percent of the sale as a total from both brokers and she said to give up a 1/2 percent was too much. "Other groups approached us and wanted a percentage of the gross, and others wanted 10 percent of the commission."

Since it wasn't the listings that were the problem, but the lack of buyers, most of the firms passed on such systems.

To avoid the commission conflict, more recently, firms like Barbara Guralnick's MetroList Services and another known as Links have begun operating on the premise of paying for the listing service on a flat monthly basis. Guralnick, a former broker, founded her firm two years ago and has about 20 clients signed up, primarily large rental owners and management firms.

She updates her system daily and modems the new listings to her clients every night. MetroList also has separate rental and sales systems, so firms only pay for the one they subscribe to. While she started with the rental system, Guralnick said so many people asked her for a sales listing service that she started that one earlier than she expected.

As to cost, she said, "It's much less than you would expect."

The service provides building information, apartment information and contact information, with each listing comprising a separate screen.

Another system that is currently being marketed and took two years to develop is Jonathan Greenspan's On-Line Residential. Greenspan has had experience in the industry with Coldwell Banker's commercial investment group and with Feathered Nest renting apartments. He is currently a principal at Colourfields, a three-year old boutique residential brokerage firm.

His system already contains a full Manhattan building data base that runs generally from the 100 blocks to the Battery in Manhattan. To that he is adding apartments as the listings are made and currently has thousands available for scrutiny. Such historical data will also be available for his clients to use later.

Greenspan feels the time is right for such services. "Prices have dropped tremendously as far as technology is concerned and people just recently got comfortable with sharing information," he said. "The philosophy is: Move The Product."

For years, agrees Lucette (Luke) Neal, a managing director of The Corcoran Group, the computer systems didn't work. "I've gotten frustrated with data bases for years," she recalled. "Now, they've gotten to the point where they do what they say."

Neal just this month combined her relocation-oriented rental firm, Towne Properties, with The Corcoran Group, emphasizing the growing trend towards full residential services. "The MLS has been a current phenomena and only because of the shortage of listings," Neal said. "That is another reason we are happy to be part of a big company. The industry is so information-based now, we have to have the ability to trade information quickly."

Neal, a member of the residential committee, praised REBNY for bringing together the residential brokers. "Now we all work together," she said.

REBNY is beginning to pull together a listing system under the auspices of the residential brokerage committee and the guiding hands of Nancy Packes, president of Feathered Nest, whose long-respected rental company recently went the other way and added sales to its services. "The object is to move real estate," she said of the listing service. "The community is eagerly awaiting this."

The intended system would hopefully be able to integrate with member's current computer systems with members responsible for updating their own files.

"We are at the selection process for a vendor to do the actual programming," she said. "As far as I can see, the number of people who belong to the Board and want to be a part of it will make other systems superfluous. The first step is the creation of the active data base and then auxiliary functions will be put on and we will grow it to be the active resource brokers need in all of its respects."

While this system is being designed as an at-cost or possibly free member service, non-REBNY members are expected to have access for a fee.