How much data should real estate startups share?

Real estate is having a Napster moment as the industry wrestles with how to share Big Data — if at all.
That was a key takeaway from a panel on Thursday at the launch of TRData, The Real Deal’s new real estate research platform.

“We don’t want to give away our data set,” said Harley Courts, CEO of Nooklyn, a Brooklyn-based online rental brokerage. “It’s a big, big, big mistake to give away your data.” He was referring to the recent decision by StreetEasy to use user-generated data — a.k.a. listings — from agents with a new feature that directs buyers to agents who pay to be listed as “premier agents.”