VOW Implications for Organized Real Estate Mona Beckam – Allan Dalton Homestore

RETS UpdateBruce Toback - RETS Working Group

Steve Verba - Compliance Tester Mark Scheel - An MLS Perspective

Kevin McQueen - Summary of 2003 Goals Q&A

VOW Implications for Organized Real Estate

Mona Beckam – Allan DaltonHomestore

The RETS Working Group Organization

Bruce Toback, OPT, Inc.

Real Estate Transaction Standard 3

History

• Started in late 1999 by NAR– “Skunk works” project– Several vendors, several MLS and/or

association representatives, NAR– Published RETS 1.0 in October of 2000


Current Structure

• Open membership– Membership determined by participation– About 40 people– About 20 entities (companies/individuals/associations)

• Patterned after other Internet standards groups– Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO)


Current Operations

• Meetings sponsored by NAR

• Governance by consensus based on initial open meeting (May 2002)

• Expect to become independent sometime in the future


Current Process

• Approximately three meetings/year

• Change proposals submitted by any interested party

• Change proposals must be approved by an 80% vote of those at a meeting


Sausage Grinder

• Workgroups meet via email and conference call between full meetings

• Workgroups are responsible for detailed discussion and writing of proposals

• Workgroup work product submitted to full group for approval when it directly affects the standard

• Workgroup membership open to all


Joining or Monitoring the Process

• Central location for standards maintenance activity

• Check the Workgroups page for most ongoing activity

www.retsinfo.com


Why Join?

• Early notification of issues and features

• Provide an end-user perspective on the standard

• No need to wear ties at the meetings

The RETS Logo Program

Compliance Certification forRETS-enabled products and

services


The Problem

SuperAgent!

More listings!

Faster sales!

Sell more services!

100% RETS

Compliant!


The Problem

SuperAgent!

More listings!

Faster sales!

Sell more services!

100% RETS

Compliant!

What’s it mean?


Other Industry Solutions

• Wide variety of certification and logo programs– Everything from fully-insured to hope-for-the-

best

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The RETS Solution

• Independently-verifiable self-certification

• Public access to verified certification via www.retsinfo.com

• Verified certification available at semi-annual “plugfest” events

• May eventually certify third-party testers to provide verified certification


Kinds of Compliance

• Client– Update– Search

• Server

• Site


Independent Verificationfor Clients

• RETS Verifying Server available– Open-source for local testing– Server operated by rets.org and other hosts– Verify a client by running against any

available test server


Independent Verificationfor Servers and Sites

• Open-source RETS Compliance Tester – Can be run against any site– Can be run after metadata changes– Can be run by anyone with a logon to the

server to be tested


What does the logo mean?

• Product or site in question passes the publicly-available tests

• Intent of the tests is that a client product displaying a logo will communicate successfully with a server displaying a logo


What doesn’t the logo mean?

• Does NOT mean that a product will meet any particular need: you still need to evaluate functionality

• Does NOT mean that a product is error free or produces accurate results: you still need to evaluate product quality


The Future Solution

SuperAgent!

More listings!

Faster sales!

Sell more services!

100% RETS

Compliant!

Yes! It works with our (compliant) MLS!


What It All Means

If you run a RETS logo-compliant server, your members/users can use any RETS logo-

compliant client that meets their needs.


About the Timetable

• Work proceeding in the Compliance Workgroup on the compliance test protocols for clients and servers

• Logo program legal framework in progress now

• First logo certifications expected for the November NAR meeting


Tracking Compliance Activity

http://www.rets.org/workgroups/compliance

RETS Compliance Tester

Steve Verba

Avantia, Inc.


RETS – Compliance Tester V.1.1

• Provide a means to check for RETS compliance of any

RETS server

• Exercises core aspects of RETS Compliance checklist

• Provides ability to see details of any compliance related

failures

• Written in Java

• Code and documentation available at RETS-ORG site

The “Run All Tests” button runs all defined tests. “Run Selected Scripts” brings up the following dialog from which you can select one or more scripts to execute.


RETS – Compliance Tester V.2.0

• RETS Upload Compliance Checking to be added • Metadata Test Suite to verify proper use of Metadata• RETS 1.5 test upgrade to existing Compliance Tester

(currently RETS 1.0)• Upgrade of Compliance Tester to test more of the

Optional RETS requirements

• New “user-friendly” RETS Requirements document • Available July 2003

R.E.T.S @ Metrolist

Mark Scheel

Metrolist, Inc.


Summary

• About Metrolist

• RETS @ METROLIST• YESTERDAY• TODAY• TOMORROW

• Concluding Remarks


Metrolist, Inc.

• Premier MLS in Colorado• 17,000 participants• 25-30,000 Active Listings• In business for 19 years• Goal: Share our participants data to third party

vendors to increase their value• Not always easy


Yesterday

• Difficult to share data• Screen Scrapers, Customized Downloads• Third party providers needed custom code for each

market – increased time to market and cost• Frequent changes to data consistently broke others

software• Photos a nightmare (now have 2.5 photos per listing)


Today

• Late 1990’s – Early 2000’s• Developed first RETS server in the nation in 1999,

interfaced with Intellitouch in 2000, in 2001 with Wyldfyre

• By 2003 20+ clients connect to our server, servicing thousands of real estate professionals

• Usage up 49% from January 2002 to 2003• Superior photo functionality (2.5 per listing)• Easy to code in for developers


Today (continued)

• Changes are easier because Metadata is self documenting (data flexibility)

• National standard, decreases barrier to entry for national vendors (no custom code), Increased competition from national vendors leads to better tools for our market / customers


Tomorrow

• Compliance - Logo program this year• RETS has taken hold, Plugfest event clarifies

standard and improves compliance• Metrolist uses RETS internally for IDX data and

CCM extracts• Involved in Homestore beta program


Summary

• About Metrolist

• RETS @ METROLIST• YESTERDAY• TODAY• TOMORROW


Concluding Remarks

• Sharing data is important to us and our participants• RETS is a superior tool for data access & sharing• In 3+ years, has moved from infancy stages to

mainstream• Metrolist involvement has led to earlier adoption,

increased competition in our marketplace & ease of entrance to new players

• RETS increases the value of our markets real estate professionals by making better tools more widely available to them


Contacts

• Bruce Toback – Working Group [email protected]

• Steve Verba – Compliance Tester, RETS Integration [email protected]

• Mark Scheel – Metrolist MLS [email protected]

• Myron Adams – NAR [email protected]• Kevin McQueen – questions, News, Marketing

opportunities [email protected]

VOW Implications for Organized Real Estate Mona Beckam – Allan Dalton Homestore

Documents

Transcript of VOW Implications for Organized Real Estate Mona Beckam – Allan Dalton Homestore