RESO 2024 Spring Conference Recap

By all accounts, the members, workgroup chairs, board and speakers all continue to make RESO conferences the talk of the real estate industry throughout the year by way of ongoing standards advancement and approval.

From surprise appearances of RESO-specific clothing – like the “Keep RESO Weird” t-shirt worn by Broker Public Portal CEO Dan Troup, and the RESO staff-inspired hoodie sported by MLS Grid CEO Joseph Szurgyi – to the rock band of RESO supporters that brought the house down during the final night of celebration, we are feeling the love for data standards!

In addition to making some conference videos available on the RESO website and YouTube channel, we will wrap blog posts around many sessions. RESO members will see slide decks and workgroup notes within the RESO Workgroup Collaboration System in Confluence.

Day 1
After the first evening’s Welcome Reception sponsored by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and a dynaConnections-sponsored breakfast, we began the conference with our traditional Welcome and RESO Today session from RESO Board Chair and MRED CEO Rebecca Jensen followed by RESO CEO Sam DeBord.

Sam brought a few new tricks to enhance the content, including an AI-enhanced welcome from RESO’s “multilingual” Executive Committee and a video from Olympic superstar and Birmingham native, Carl Lewis.

We also highlighted how RESO is spreading its wings into international markets and events in order to get the world on board with RESO standards.

Why do we bother crossing borders? Because real estate is increasingly international, technology is global in scope and because statistics show that the RESO way is working.

RESO will again be participating in the upcoming International MLS Forum, October 8–9, in Milan, Italy. | LEARN MORE

Because RESO’s membership is growing internationally, we talked about the issues that arise when conducting business overseas in Global Opportunities, moderated by Joe Schneider, EVP of Consulting at Modern.tech, with a panel including Ali Attar, Cofounder at Realtyna; Mathew Kallumadil, VP, Technology & Innovation at Stellar MLS; and Kathleen Lappe, CEO at DirectOffer, in an exploration of the new and traditional ways that standards are supporting new markets and their unique local attributes.

Next up, Justin Lundy, Founder and CEO at Lundy, presented Do LLMs Make RESO Obsolete? by delving into how Large Language Models (LLMs) and RESO standards enhance real estate data processing and accessibility in unison, culminating in a call for continued innovation and collaboration. The answer to the presentation question, of course, is no, RESO standards aren’t obsoleted by AI but actually enhance AI capabilities.

Lundy also offered AI-powered voice search to all MLSs as an industry benefit for accessibility.

After a coffee break sponsored by RentSpree, we introduced the Add/Edit API Showcase moderated by Andrew Coca, CEO of Modern.tech, with panelists Rhett Damon, Head of Brokerage Operations & Data Strategy at Opendoor; Richard Gibbens, Executive Director at Southwest MLS; Troy Davis, CTO at Ocusell; and Bill Fowler, President at SourceRE.

The group discussed the broad new opportunities opening up to real estate technology companies and MLSs as “listing input of choice” broadens their technology capabilities.

Accelerating Innovation was up next to share how real estate data standards and scale-up programs like REACH can help fuel innovation in the industry. Ashley Stinton, Executive Director, Second Century Ventures & REACH at NAR, led a group of panelists that included Heather Elias, VP, Real Estate and Homeowner at Pearl Certification; Brendan Fairbanks, Founder & CEO at Perchwell; Ishay Grinberg, President at Rental Beast; and Alex Montalenti, CEO at Real Grader.

Merging the insights of technology incumbents and startups has always been a hallmark of the work of RESO and NAR.

Following lunch, Paul Stusiak, RESO Transport Workgroup Chair and President/Owner at Falcon Technologies, and Sergio Del Rio, RESO Transport Workgroup Vice-Chair and CIO/Managing Partner at Templates 4 Business, provided a Transport Update on the latest RESO achievements in data transport and analytics, as well as a preview of the deeper discussions to be held two days later in the conference’s final session.

The Interoperability and Research & Development workgroups were up next with a joint meeting to provide updates on what each group does and how they work together to move standards forward, led by Chris Haran, RESO Interoperability Workgroup Chair and CTO at Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED); Greg Moore, RESO Board Member, R&D Workgroup Chair and CTO at Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS); and John Breault, RESO Board Secretary, RESO R&D Workgroup Vice-Chair and VP, MLS & Member Services at State-Wide MLS.

R&D solicits and reviews submitted business cases from the real estate community. It identifies how RESO can contribute to a solution and which workgroups should be involved in vetting that solution.

Interoperability creates solutions that ensure the ability of different industry systems to seamlessly work together.

In driving standardized models for sharing listing and customer data across transaction management systems, this workgroup creates efficiency for industry professionals and consumers.

One of the bigger changes to the RESO conference itinerary involved moving the popular Pain Points session to the first day from its usual spot at the back of the pack on day three. The session was hosted this year by Rick Herrera, RESO Data Consumers Subgroup Chair and VP of R&D, Data Services at Constellation1, and Olga Ermolin, Director of Engineering at MLSListings.

Our members asked us for the opportunity to contribute on day one to the session that often leads to specific industry solutions, and the group delivered.

This year’s hottest topics to tackle included:

• Subdivisions, school districts, cities – add more consistency and clarity to lists
• What happens to deprecated data elements in certification?
• Better defining standard statuses and their mappings to local MLS statuses
• Create limits and business rules for Year Built and Days on Market
• MemberType: There are as many as 2,200 different types!
• Validation of data, such as square footage
• How we report the RESO standards compliance status of MLSs
• Time limits on certification of old data
• Updating the standards around saved searches for contacts

Tuesday evening’s reception, sponsored by First Multiple Listing Service (FMLS), was held at the Barber Vintage Motorsports Museum. The largest motorcycle collection in the world was on display along with many shiny, vintage vehicles on multiple levels in a facility with great views of the Barber Motorsports Park Road Course.

Day 2
Wednesday morning’s breakfast was sponsored by Homes.com and was followed by a series of vibrant roundtable discussions sponsored by realtor.com.

Roundtable 1: API Insights: Leveraging Image Tagging, Performance Metrics and realtor.com Data 
Moderators: Lauren Bilkiss-Hayes, Tyler Romeo and Jaime Sipila, realtor.com

Representatives from realtor.com shared how to utilize tools and data provided by realtor.com to speed up business success.

Roundtable 2: Practical AI 
Moderators: Dave Conroy, NAR; Justin Lundy, Lundy, Inc.; Greg Sax, RESO

The group discussed how they are currently using AI for writing, coding, organizing, creating images and starting businesses. The gathering was most interested in the legal ramifications of AI, especially copyright.

Roundtable 3: Association Management Systems (AMS): The Next Great Certification Frontier 
Moderators: Chris Haran, MRED; Nicole Murray, Pocono Mountains Association of REALTORS®; Humberto Ramos, Greater McAllen Association of REALTORS®

The Interoperability Workgroup is working on AMS standards that include RESO Common Format (RCF) for certification which could be obtained by AMS systems and the associations that use certified systems. Representatives from associations and the technology companies that do business with them discussed the greatest pains to solve.

Roundtable 4: Add/Edit with Borders
Moderators: Richard Gibbens, Southwest MLS; Tyler Decker, FBS

Recent RESO standards are making new add/edit services less scary, especially when MLSs, MLS providers and tech startups work together to solve the issues with safety controls in place.

Roundtable 5: Transacting Internationally
Moderators: Ali Attar, Realtyna; Joe Schneider, Modern.tech

Two of the major faces of the first International MLS Forum in Paris led an open discussion about the successes, watch-outs and desires of participating in real estate transactions across international borders. The next forum will be in Milan, Italy, and RESO will be there.

Roundtable 6: RESO Common Format: For Brokers, For Vendors, For You
Moderators: Sergio Del Rio, Templates 4 Business; Paul Stusiak, Falcon Technologies

RCF opens up certification beyond Web API to the lightweight JSON format. The Transport Workgroup chair and vice-chair shared reasons why it matters and why it can pay huge dividends for your organization.

After a Bloody Mary break sponsored by Canopy MLS, we returned for Data Dictionary and Generative Business Intelligence with Rick Herrera for a cutting-edge demo of generative BI: business intelligence powered by AI.

Next, Meg Garabrant, Senior Business Development Manager Real Estate Services, GBR Lead at Earth Advantage; Sara Cooper, VP, Real Estate Market at CRS Data; Kirk Lattner, Director of Product Management at NorthstarMLS; and Allan Nielsen, VP of MLS Systems at Triangle MLS, elaborated on what you get when you combine a nonprofit, a public records provider and MLSs in A Trifecta of RESO Standards: Data Fields, Web API, Cross-Platform Interoperability.

The panel explored the ease of use and positive impact of RESO data field adoption to support data interoperability using Web API to achieve a market transformation via standards for building performance data.

After a coffee break sponsored by VestaPlus, we returned for The MLS Collaboration Blueprint: The Role of Data Standards for an all-Alabama panel with Bill Fowler, President at SourceRE; Chris Lammons, CEO at East Alabama Board of REALTORS®; Michael McKay, VP of Residential and Commercial Services at Greater Alabama MLS; and Jenna Woody, MLS Operations Specialist at Mobile Area Association of REALTORS®.

MLS collaborations related to data have 101 flavors. The group shared their experiences with these flavors and how a trusted third-party like RESO can keep major initiatives on track and satisfied.

Next up, we had the Broker Advisory Workgroup: Spotlight Session, a newer conference staple that is proving to be a true highlight with each iteration. Each MLS may become familiar with their local brokers, as they should, but gathering perspectives from other parts of the world is proving to piece together a valuable puzzle about what RESO should be focusing on for the brokerage community.

Jeff Bosch, RESO Broker Advisory Workgroup Chair and CEO at IRES MLS, and Nina Dosanjh, RESO Broker Advisory Vice-Chair and Chief Technology & Strategy Officer at Vanguard Properties, invited Anna-Marie Ellison, COO at ERA King Real Estate, and John Perry, CMO at ARC Realty, to talk about their technology experiences.

Just before lunch, we presented the RESO Contributor and Leading Edge Awards for outstanding member contributors for their investment of time, knowledge and resources toward the common cause of technology efficiency. RESO would not be what it is today without them | SEE THE WINNERS

During lunch, there was the option to join the “Al Fresco Lunch with RENEW + RESO” to learn more about the RENEW initiative by RentSpree.

At the same time, the livestream roundtables sponsored by realtor.com were led by RESO CTO Josh Darnell and Eric Finlay, Development Manager for Bridge Platform at Zillow. The group mostly focused on new specifications like Add/Edit, RESO Common Format and Web API Validation Expressions and the annual schedule of Data Dictionary releases.

Returning from lunch, Sam provided an extended version of the opening session as Business Issues. This session gives attendees a chance for more Q&A over the current and future topics we should be solving together in a nontechnical breakdown of the business proposals coming to RESO from MLSs, brokers and vendors.

Attendees asked for the ability to submit anonymous questions in the future, which RESO will ensure is available at the next event.

The afternoon was rounded out by two workgroup meetings, the first of which was the Data Dictionary Workgroup with Rob Larson, RESO Data Dictionary Workgroup Chair and Principal at Larson Consulting, LLC, and Kevin Tranby, RESO Data Dictionary Workgroup Vice-Chair and RESO Compliance Manager at FBS.

The RESO Data Dictionary provides the structure for the real estate industry’s universal language for technology, and this workgroup is our most popular.

Rob presented an overview, a roadmap, how to participate, how to use the Data Dictionary, policies and procedures, and the 2024 mission before getting into recent individual topics, including:

• Back on Market Timestamp Field Request
• Water Heater Field or Appliance?
• CurrentPrice as a Synonym of ListPrice
• Waterfront Data Elements
• Subgroup Updates: Building, Commercial Real Estate (CRE), Rental

Two items were passed by vote during the meeting.

1. BackOnMarketTimestamp and BackOnMarketDate will be added to the next version of the Data Dictionary.
2. CurrentPrice will be removed as a synonym of ListPrice, and it will be added as its own field.

The Universal Property Identifier (UPI) Workgroup, presided over by Mark Bessett, RESO UPI Workgroup Chair and Principal at SmartCode FX,and Matt Casey, RESO UPI Workgroup Vice-Chair and President/CEO at CRS Data, closed out Wednesday’s sessions.

 The group has created a single model to globally and accurately identify properties. The UPI standard is already being adopted by technology companies and foreign governments to improve accuracy and information across property data sets.

The agenda for this UPI Workgroup meeting included going over the objectives of the UPI, discussing current challenges and plans, looking deeper at the newly proposed second version of the UPI, and thinking more about international considerations. By the end of the meeting, the workgroup voted to move forward with UPI v2 including URN formatting.

Following the UPI victory, a celebratory Happy Hour sponsored by Constellation1 was held onsite.

Once noses were powdered and evening wear was donned, attendees were shuttled to the Ocusell Party at Dread River Distillery in downtown Birmingham.

It was an enjoyable evening filled with excitement, delightful spirits, delicious food and the musical talents of many surprise performers, including Bill Fowler (SourceRE), John Breault (State-Wide MLS), Dan Ray (CRMLS), Hud Bixler (SFAR), Rob Larson (The Chair), DaVina Lara (bridgeMLS) and John Heithaus (The Legend). It was an unforgettable night!

Day 3
After a final-day breakfast, it was time for Web API Office Hours with RESO member MLS vendors CoreLogic, Bridge Interactive, MLS Grid, dynaConnections and FBS, followed by our famous Mimosa Bar sponsored by MLS Grid. Lots of attendees took advantage of the chance to talk directly to their vendors.

Heading back into the ballroom, Al McElmon, Senior Leader, Software Engineering at CoreLogic, created an entertaining new round of the RESO Quiz Show for cache prizes. No, that’s not a typo.

In Harnessing the Power of AI and Machine Learning with RESO Standards, Lauren Martin, Senior Account Director at RentSpree; Santanu Barua, CTO at VestaPlus; Mathew Kallumadil, VP of Technology & Innovation at Stellar MLS; and Michael Lucarelli, CEO/Cofounder at RentSpree, explained how AI and machine-learning technologies continue to revolutionize industries, including real estate. RESO standards play a crucial role in unlocking the full potential of AI for our industry.

The Transport Workgroup (Session 1 and Session 2) met to expand on their first-day update and to close out the conference, providing details on the technical rules and specifications being worked on to ensure that data can efficiently move between different technology systems.

The group agreed to create a new RESO Change Proposal (RCP) for Add/Edit with Media, and they talked about the new Model and Field resources, as well as the Lookup Resource, internationalization and the RelatedLookup Resource. Transport is also where technical Pain Points items often land for further conversation in that group’s discussions forum.

Conclusion
Thank you all for your participation in RESO conferences. If you made it to the end of this recap, you are our kind of people, and you should follow us on X (Twitter), @RESOStandards, so we can convince you to be at the next meeting this fall, October 22–24, in Frisco, Texas! There is always plenty of (fun) work for volunteer hands.

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