Building a better cookie cutter for real estate data
By Glenn Roberts Jr., Friday, April 11, 2008.Bookmarking Sites
The National Association of Realtors today announced approval of a draft standard for real estate data exchange, with buy-in from a long list of industry representatives.
The effort builds on the Real Estate Transaction Standard, or RETS, an effort that NAR sparked in 1999.
Some big players are a part of this standardization effort: Google, Move Inc., RealEstate.com, Trulia, Yahoo, Zillow, and some big MLSs and industry vendors. RETS adoption will become mandatory for all Realtor-affiliated MLSs by the middle of next year, and earlier this year a group of online companies announced a collaborative push for adoption of data standards.
The concept is simple: to make it easier for brokers, MLSs, vendors and others to exchange property data across a variety of different platforms.
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Submitted by removed on April 13, 2008 - 8:57am.
The concept is not so simple. It's all about control, and no one should feel that is a good idea. No one.
MLS's are far better off as independent groups, choosing independently to share with such as Google, Move Inc., RealEstate.com, Trulia, Yahoo, Zillow, or even NAR.
Releasing proprietary data isn't smart, and just because it seems like the wave of the future doesn't mean it's a good strategy.
Submitted by Bud Hovell on April 13, 2008 - 4:43pm.
Hi, leanne ...
Whether an MLS (or brokerage) elects to share its listings with anyone else is entirely unaffected by this initiative, which simply standardizes an agreed date format for transferring listings whenever such voluntary sharing may take place.
This initiative coerces no private trade association (MLS) or commercial business (brokerage firm) to share its listings with anyone.
Submitted by Kevin Schmidtchen on April 14, 2008 - 9:03am.
I have no idea whether this concept will prove to be so simple as it is made out to be in the article above. Time will tell with this.
If it does work, then I think it is a good idea to standardize the content so that the consumer is not misinformed and can obtain the data and information they need, from wherever they choose to gather there info.
Ideally, more localized info about any market should be obtainable via Realtors and their websites/blogs being more informative than just a standard static website...this is the old way in my mind. Blogging about your market and town is a great way to provide the needed info and trust that consumers want. This info is not obtainable from any of these major sites.
Blog: www.SantaBarbaraRealEstateVoice.com
Submitted by Joe Cline on April 15, 2008 - 2:27pm.
The RETS idea is now what, almost 10 years old? I thought when I first started playing around with data feeds that RETS would make it simple. It's going to be a long painful road to RETS if it ever truly does happen. It will cost the associations a ton of money to standardize as well. It would be great for tool and service providers though.
Joe
Great Hills Real Estate | Why Work With Joe