Guest Blog by Morgan Taylor, Realtyna
Let’s start with the basics.
What Is the RESO Web API?
The RESO Web API is a standard designed to streamline data transfers between Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) and agent websites to facilitate IDX and the development of real estate software.
This is important because the real estate industry is decentralized. Instead of having a single, national MLS, the U.S. real estate industry is broken into 500+ MLSs of various sizes. This can cause headaches for developers seeking to serve clients in multiple markets.
RESO has been working to streamline data practices between MLSs for more than a decade through its implementation of RETS and the RESO Data Dictionary.
The RESO Web API is simply the latest evolution of these standards designed to provide new levels of coordination in the industry and spur new product development.
How Is the RESO Web API Different from RETS?
The RESO Web API is different from RETS because it is an application programming interface rather than an XML feed, which allows for direct calls to the MLS in response to a user search.
There is no question that RETS transformed the real estate industry. But it came with a tradeoff – storage. RETS works by keeping a database of property listings on an agent’s web servers and updating that database incrementally with new and modified listings from the MLS.
It’s a system that works. But it’s no longer the most efficient way to go about a data transfer.
What Are the Advantages of RESO Web API?
The advantages of RESO Web API are:
- Streamlined data transfer procedures
- Common protocol for product development
- Lower hosting costs
- Enhanced security for MLS data
- Easier integration with third-party applications
- Reduces coding requirements
How Specifically Does the RESO Web API Work?
Now that you have some background, let’s get into the details of how it works.
The RESO Web API works by providing a streamlined access point to an MLS database. Where RETS required developers to duplicate the MLS database on local servers and update it incrementally, the RESO Web API packages MLS access into a single component.
This decouples the MLS database from websites and other applications, while retaining the ability for users to query the data in real time.
The RESO Web API still fully supports replication and has additional methods as compared with RETS, including Queuing and the future option of a Publish/Subscribe version that RETS does not have. Some companies still need to replicate based upon product need, like big data analytics, where others, as noted can access MLS data on the fly (think agent IDX websites) and on demand and not need to replicate data in any manner.
The RESO Web API also takes advantage of a more open approach to data real estate transfers by using a Representational State Transfer (REST) architecture. REST has a community of tens of thousands of developers all over the world, and it should help drive real estate technology development deeper into mobile and social media applications.
To interact with the data, the RESO Web API uses the OData, a widely used global technology protocol. This provides a level of consistency with other technologies and frees developers from having to learn and write unique code.
There are many “off the shelf” OData clients available in various platforms and programming languages, and RESO has also created open source free clients for industry use and will continue to enhance them based upon community feedback.
Where the Google Maps API served as the catalyst for mobile mapping technology, RESO hopes its Web API serves as the catalyst for real estate technology.
So that’s how RESO Web API works!
