RESO Monthly, February 2024: RESO Can’t Stop Won’t Stop, Sees Massive Growth Potential Amidst Industry Change

Letter from the Chair

Real estate is no stranger to pivotal, industry-changing moments. From massive recessions and belt-tightening inflation to an explosion of suburban housing growth and great leaps forward in technology, we have endured for the last 100-plus years because we do not stop to stare at the noise.

Whether it means selling homes during a global pandemic or navigating the soup of the situation we have today – lawsuits, layoffs, high mortgage rates, low inventory and other subjects that sell online newsletter subscriptions – true leaders find the breaks between the blaring.

This is why it is such a joy and honor to be the RESO chair for another spectacular year. This incredible group of staff and volunteers are focused on ways to advance the industry to somewhere more positive tomorrow than yesterday.

To that end, the RESO Board of Directors met last month to establish a growth strategy for the next two years and beyond by looking closely at where we have been.

What we determined is that RESO has historically been about the creation of standards.

We will continue to build and innovate in our workgroups and at RESO conferences, but the board also believes that now is the time for more standards adoption and utilization.

The book by Richard Rumelt, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, struck a vibrant chord during our planning, and I highly recommend it for its practical advice and insights.

For example, I was inspired to read about the return of Steve Jobs to Apple in the 1990s and how his strategy of extreme focus turned struggle into one of the greatest business success stories of my life.

Focus is a RESO keyword for 2024. More emphasis will be placed on education, marketing and the promotion of industry ambassadors and influencers who use RESO standards to drive their businesses forward.

There will be more targeted outreach to our brokerage community and technology partners to join forces with the current crop of MLSs that have made RESO a core efficiency.

RESO has become an internationally recognized organization, and we will continue to build a global community and to foster new leaders that will help the organization reach new peaks.

Your investment and involvement in RESO matters. We want your unique ingredients in the mix, so keep letting us know what you think and are doing. We are better when we work together.

Rebecca Jensen
Chair
2024 RESO Board of Directors

Call for RESO 2024 Spring Conference Presentations: Deadline Approaching

The 2024 RESO Spring Conference will be held April 16–18 in Birmingham, Alabama. Registration is open!

We are accepting speaker requests for innovative presentations. The deadline for submissions is February 29.

VISIT EVENT SITE | SPEAKER PRESENTATION REQUESTS

RESO 2024 Winter Developers Workshop

The RESO 2024 Winter Developers Workshop will be held in Bellevue, Washington (near Seattle), Tuesday, March 5–6.

There is no cost for the workshop itself. | REGISTER

The workshop will be hosted by Constellation1 and may be attended in person or virtually.

Product Updates

RESO Web API Add/Edit is Official
The newly ratified standard is now available for certification. | LEARN MORE

Data Dictionary
Data Dictionary Naming Conventions – Approved the motion to change the following resources to singular form in the next version release:

ContactListingNotes to ContactListingNote
ContactListings to ContactListing
Contacts to Contact
PropertyRooms to PropertyRoom
PropertyUnitTypes to PropertyUnitType
Rules to Rule
TeamMembers to TeamMember
Teams to Team

Approved the motion to add a field called OpenHouseModificationTimestamp to the Property Resource.

New Members

Broker Public Portal
Broker Public Portal (BPP) is a collaborative venture between real estate brokerages and MLSs to create a national consumer home search experience powered by real-time MLS data that connects home searchers directly with agents.

Concierge Realty
Concierge Realty is a full-service real estate company that offers personalized and tailored solutions for buyers, sellers and investors.

Welcome to RESO!

RESO@

RESO at Inman Connect New York (ICNY)
RESO CEO Sam DeBord emceed the MLS Reinvented track at ICNY in January.

The sessions focused on how MLS organizations would change in practice and technology going forward. Speakers included:

Ed Zorn, California Regional Multiple Listing Service (CRMLS)
Annie Ives, The MLS
Matt Consalvo, Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS)
John DiMichele, Toronto Regional Real Estate Board
Emily Chenevert, Unlock MLS (Austin Board of REALTORS®)
Tim Dain, NorthstarMLS
Denee Evans, Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS)
Gene Millman, REcolorado
Josh Coleman, SkySlope
Matt Fowler, Triangle MLS
Richard Haggerty, OneKey MLS
Chad Jacobson, PrimeMLS
Bill Fowler, Modern.tech

Industry News

Inman Announces MLS Awards
The MLS Reinvented Awards honor the individuals that are pushing the boundaries and shaping the future of the MLS landscape by embracing cutting-edge technologies, redefining industry standards and propelling the MLS into a new era of efficiency and effectiveness. All 21 winners are members of RESO. | SEE THE WINNERS

Intentionally International

Festival of Nations
RESO has grown from an American effort to a membership spanning many continents. Read or watch how three international organizations are benefiting from data standards. | MORE

D’abord Paris, Puis le Monde!
Real estate leaders from more than 30 countries gathered in December 2023 for the first International MLS Forum in Paris, France. We have the pics to prove it. | MORE

wwRED

It’s celebration time. We are thrilled to announce that RESO’s Working with Real Estate Data (wwRED) course has reached a major milestone: 1,000 registrations!

Fernando Herrera from Homes.com, an amazing RESO supporter, captured our lucky milestone marker.

Thank you to all who have embarked on this incredible journey.

And now if you register by April 14, 2024, you can win our RED-B Raffle!

Custom RED RESO Polo and a $150 Amazon gift card
Join our growing community of passionate learners
Gain valuable knowledge
Develop new skills
Connect with like-minded individuals from all over the world

Email membership@reso.org to sign up today!

The wwRED course continues to be the best primer for understanding how data flows through the industry. Onboard new employees and volunteer leaders with a group rate and make wwRED your organization’s default training course on your way to earning the RED-B designation. | MORE

Three Questions

The Three Questions interview series introduces you to real estate professionals with a hint of personality and humor. | VISIT THREE QUESTIONS

RESO Workgroup Meetings

Transport Workgroup | January 8, 2024
The group continued the discussion of Data Dictionary 2.0 testing rules and the requirement that data elements available in the payload must be advertised and match their definitions in the metadata. An updated proposal for Add/Edit with Media was discussed. | NOTES

Interoperability Workgroup | January 9, 2024
The group discussed the Payload Filter Business Case for the Offer Management (OM) use case and a plan to have subject matter experts tag the fields needed for it. Business Linkage Resource (Experience Record) Business Case has been put on hold. The group is collecting nontechnical user stories on the Industry Map Use Cases – Brokerage, Vendor, MLS for creation of a Best Practices Guide. | NOTES

Building Subgroup | January 11, 2024
The initial meeting was held and a Potential Building Resource Fields sheet was presented. Building metadata from REsides (formerly known as MLS of Hilton Head Island) will be added and incorporated into the list, and implementations will be counted. There was a recommendation to add a lookup option for “Building” to the ResourceName field of the Media Resource in order to link the Building and Media resources. | NOTES

Fast Track Subgroup | January 16, 2024
The group reviewed and approved mapping suggestions for Appliances, Sewer and Utilities fields from the [Fast Track 2023-12-19] Suggested Mappings sheet. Recommendations were made for the Data Dictionary Workgroup to discuss possible methods for conveying that a property contains multiples of specific appliances and for RESO staff to reach out to providers about unclear lookup data, such as Storm Sewer being an option under the Sewer field. | NOTES

Data Dictionary Workgroup | January 18, 2024
The group discussed Certification and Certain Open Enumerations, focusing on which enumerated fields may have validation turned off during certification testing. The option of creating a standalone field to convey water heater information was reviewed. Volunteers will submit their water heater-related metadata to be aligned and posted for further consideration. A request for a Restrictive Covenant Yes/No (Boolean) field was reviewed, ending with a suggestion for restrictive covenant to be conveyed in the Disclosures field. A request for two new GreenVerificationStatus lookups and definition changes for existing lookups was surfaced and will be voted on at the next meeting. | NOTES

Certification Subgroup | January 18, 2024
The group approved a recommendation to disable validation for a limited set of enumerated Data Dictionary 2.0 fields. A motion was also approved to disable LookupName validation where no lookups were defined for the field, as DD 2.0 testing rules will ensure that if data were ever found in the payload for that field, it must be advertised (except in the limited number of cases mentioned). | NOTES

Commercial Real Estate (CRE) Subgroup | January 23, 2024
The group reviewed and addressed comments on the CRE Fields Proposal. A list of the highest priority lookups to be defined will be created and sent to the group for feedback. A new CRE Class and Property Type are proposed, similar to Commercial Lease and Commercial Sale, but without any residential or MLS connotation. A vote on the proposal will likely take place virtually. | NOTES

Universal Property Identifier (UPI) Workgroup | January 24, 2024
The meeting included discussion of a possible interim UPI version, which would help reduce collisions prior to the release of the UPI v2.0. The group discussed the need for consistency in the fields from the county authorities that are used in generating UPIs. A continuously updated “living” resource may be created to hold this information. Additionally, it was proposed that standalone and more frequent meetings to discuss UPI implementation details be scheduled. | NOTES

Rental Subgroup | January 25, 2024
The group discussed aggregate data research that was done on recommendations for a Move-In Costs field and its lookups. Also discussed were research and recommendations for new lookups of Gardener and Internet to be added to the RentIncludes and TenantPays fields. A recap of all of the recommendations from the group will be consolidated, posted to Confluence and emailed to the group. The recommendations will be sent to the Data Dictionary Workgroup, who will determine proper names for data elements, with consideration of consistency and precedence. | NOTES

Upcoming RESO Workgroup Meetings

If you want to participate in any of the following recurring workgroup or subgroup meetings, email support@reso.org to get started.

Thursday, February 8: Research & Development Workgroup
Tuesday, February 13: Interoperability Workgroup
Thursday, February 15: Data Dictionary Workgroup
Thursday, February 15: Certification Subgroup
Tuesday, February 20: Fast Track Subgroup
Wednesday, February 22: Broker Advisory Workgroup
Wednesday, February 28: Universal Property Identifier (UPI) Workgroup
Monday, March 4, Transport Workgroup
Thursday, March 7: Research & Development Workgroup

Certification Update

Congratulations to the following organizations for achieving their Data Dictionary 1.7 and/or Web API Core 2.0.0 endorsements. Results are viewable in RESO Analytics.

Hudson County MLS
Realcomp

View the certification status of all MLSs on the RESO Certification Map. Please send any address or subscriber count changes to certification@reso.org.

Questions about RESO certification should be directed to your MLS vendor. Questions about self-testing or the technical aspects of certification may be directed to dev@reso.org.