Do agents typically have exclusives in commercial real estate in NYC?

[jerryf]

I heard from a friend that does a lot of commercial real estate deals in NYC that quote 99% of all commercial listings are non-exclusive. They are handshake or verbal agreements to try to market the listing at best, and are basically open listings. He said that's why you'll often see 5 different brokers marketing the same building. Whoever finds a buyer can bring it to the building owner. There doesn't seem to be a MLS of any sort either. I know commercial brokers don't use the RLS (residential only), and he told me the CoStar is mainly for commercial leasing? And LoopNet while popular seems to be a sort of StreetEasy or NY Times, i.e. a consumer search portal.

Totally seems like the wild west to me. Anyone have any ideas? I had a friend who was looking at a vacant lot in the Lower East Side. It was only advertised on LoopNet. Couldn't get in touch with the so called listing broker at all. Super sketchy!

[aslan]

I've heard the same thing. LoopNet is basically the StreetEasy equivalent for commercial real estate. However, there isn't an equivalent RLS broker database for commercial brokers. So it becomes a true Wild West like the residential rental market. I wouldn't doubt the statistic, I've often seen commercial properties being listed by multiple brokers, which wouldn't be allowed for residential listings in the RLS (only one exclusive broker allowed).