By Jeremy Crawford
It’s the biggest update in the history of its RESO Data Dictionary. The RESO Board of Directors gave the nod to the release of a 1.6 update, and the real estate industry’s “Rosetta Stone” is about to help even more real estate data be easily understood and shared across all technology systems. This massive upgrade will deliver huge benefits to everyone.
The data field standards added improve the ability for MLSs, brokerages and software technology firms to provide a wide range of new website, apps, and other technologies that will leverage the Accessibility, Showing Data, Saved Searches, Internet Tracking, Member Data, standardized Universal Identification of Organizations distributing data, Historical Transaction information and more, now able to be captured.
The new 1.6 release (RESO Data Dictionary Wiki is here) includes more than 225 new data fields that are available through both RETS and the Web API and over 625 additional “look up” values, making this the largest update in the history of the Data Dictionary. The RESO Data Dictionary 1.6 version features 1,272 Fields and 2,108 Pick-List Lookup (Enumeration) Values.
Putting it in perspective
Art Carter, Chair of RESO and CEO at CRMLS, the nation’s largest MLS, calls it “a giant spring forward to greater innovation,” and that’s such a terrific way of capturing the significance of what RESO members have attempted to accomplish with all of the work behind Data Dictionary 1.6.
Art notes that with all these new fields, it will help the industry maximize Big Data “in a way that will give agents, brokers and consumers better information, and help us all make the real estate transaction process better.” That’s really at the core of RESO’s mission and what makes this news so exciting for everyone involved.
Benefits of the update
Take the new Showing Data fields that are being standardized, for example. Agents in many markets often use more than one MLS. With these news standards, it can allow agents that use MLSs in two different markets that have contracts with different Showing companies to no longer have to log into two different systems to set appointments for their clients.
Portable Saved Searches would be another big time saver for agents, and it would help agents to provide a much better experience for their clients. With Saved Searches now being standardized, for example, a client could search on their phone on an agent’s website, and then go back later and search on their laptop and keep track of the properties they wanted. Their agents can see what the client was interested in and later suggest more homes as soon as they hit the market to improve the customer experience.
Personally, I am most excited about the new RESO Accessibility Features fields. There is a new industry designation, HAPS, or Home Accessibility Property Specialist Designation, and these new fields are fully aligned with the HAPS efforts. They are also aligned with the efforts by both the California Association of REALTORS® and the National Association of REALTORS® to promote including Accessibility Features in property listings. Most importantly, RESO was able to get help from people who really know this space, the Rogue Valley Council of Governments (Senior and Disability Services), who helped us in developing these new standards.
We feel great about what we’ve accomplished here, but also are excited about the new market opportunities we are helping to create with these efforts. It’s a concrete example of how RESO standards are helping real estate brokerages help their agents build more business by providing new – and much wanted information – to consumers.
Kudos to RESO volunteers
The Data Dictionary 1.6 update was truly a Herculean task, but it was only possible because of the remarkable and tireless dedication of RESO Workgroups, which is a 100% volunteer effort by RESO’s members.
It is volunteers like Rob Larson, who chairs the Data Dictionary Workgroup and has been relentless in his pursuit of improvements that gives RESO the ability to release what is really a blueprint for the near-future of real estate technology.
Everyone involved in the Internet Tracking Workgroup lead by Chair Chris Lambrou has added countless volunteer hours, ensuring the listing activity statistics across multiple advertising channels are now standardized so a brokerage can have a common standardized consolidated view of the marketing performance of their listings across all advertising outlets. All collectively have volunteered hundreds of hours of their time and energy to make this massive rollout possible.
How you can help
Updating to Data Dictionary 1.6. is crucial, and then moving to utilization – making sure everyone can get access to the RESO data standards — is the most important way everyone involved can help.
If you are not involved in RESO, join here to become a member and volunteer for a couple of Workgroups to help change real estate’s future. If you are a member of RESO, but have not registered for the Fall Conference in San Diego, register now, before we sell out, as we limit the number of attendees to ensure an intimate interactive experience you won’t find at any other industry conference.
If you are a member of RESO, are a member of a Workgroup, and are coming to the Fall Conference, then we need you to share the RESO story with folks who need to know what RESO is and what RESO can do for them and their businesses. We have a story to share not just with MLSs or technology firms, but also with brokerages. There is no better time to demonstrate to real estate brokers the power of RESO and data standards than with the Data Dictionary 1.6 release and all the exciting new innovations it is sure to spawn.
