License vs. Marketing the house

[Brian Becker]

Hello,

New on here, awesome resource this is. I'm in Buffalo, NY. Lately there have been a couple for sale by owner companies popping up. That they market the house for sale by owner but "the owner" sells it. If an agent is involved most of these companies offer a 2-3% one sided commission fee while the for sale by owner company usually gets a flat fee. A lot of them also offer a higher fee to put it on the MLS. Some of these companies do seem like they are a brokerage while most right in the Q and A portion of these companies website openly acknowledge they are not a brokerage.

My question is legally in New York if I don't own the house and market it for a flat fee when do I cross over into needing a New York real estate license. I know the obvious answer is "if you are selling it" but technically these for sale by owner marketing companies are trying to sell the houses. What is the crossover legally? When do you need a license vs. when can you get away with not having one.

 I'm looking for details other than "if you are trying to sell it" which I've already received that answer a few times from agents and lawyers. These marketing companies popping up seem to be extremely close to being illegal but technically legal somehow.

Thanks for the clarification on this in advance. Interested to see what experts have to say on this.