Letter from the Chair
During times of economic change, being prepared for challenges is critical for continued success. But so is being ready to embrace problem-solving innovation.
One of the best things about working with my MLS, broker and real estate technology colleagues is how we collaborate toward outcomes that jet the industry forward. Under the RESO banner, we add precision and consistency to our collective efforts toward meeting strategic objectives.
Innovation by RESO and RESO members is happening all around us, and we want to celebrate it!
Last year, a number of MLSs, including mine, announced a bold initiative to create standards to support showing service choice for the MLS industry that we call the Showing Hub. The Showing Hub is ready and vendors are connecting. One outcome will be a roadmap that others can benefit from with expanded showing standard fields through RESO.
The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) continues to support new technology solutions through the acceptance of 37 companies to their 2022 REACH, REACH Commercial and REACH Canada programs. In collaboration with NAR, RESO welcomes REACH program participants with two years of free RESO membership and one free registration at RESO conferences during that time in order to expose them to data standards at the earliest stages of their development.
MLSs are keenly focused on improving their rental-related services for their brokers. From the 2022 REACH Canada class, Ishay Grinberg, CEO of Rental Beast, has already been an active participant at RESO conferences and, as the chair of the RESO Rental Subgroup, has brought a fresh perspective to the Data Dictionary in the increasingly important rental space.
RESO’s crown jewel of 2022 is RESO Analytics, the new data-reporting platform that brings transparency to real estate information by providing insights into industrywide data trends. This new trove of information will fuel the capabilities of consumer-facing technology companies. | READ MORE
Many of you have already learned from a past cycle of real estate turbulence. The 2007–2009 recession exposed holes in the housing transaction process that we continue to fix. Our joint experience has strengthened us to be prepared for oncoming storms and ready to grab hold of new opportunities.
If you’re new to the industry, we are excited to have you and your ingenuity aboard, helping us take on new challenges with determination and enthusiasm.
Rebecca Jensen
CEO, Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED)
Chair, RESO Board of Directors
RESO Fall Conference
October 25–27 in Sarasota, Florida
We look forward to welcoming you in a few short weeks to Sarasota! Our thoughts are with our friends in the Caribbean and the Southeast as you recover from last week’s weather events, and we are thankful that our conference venues were spared from the damage.
We have an exciting lineup of speakers, workgroups and networking opportunities for our attendees. Plus, thanks to our amazing sponsors, we will also have a lounge for meetings, delicious coffee, a mimosa and Bloody Mary bar, some fun happy hours and receptions and, of course, awesome swag. | AGENDA
Haven’t registered yet? Time is running out! Register now! | ONSITE | LIVESTREAM
Reasons to Attend
Still unsure if you should attend this year’s fall conference? Check out our list of why we think it’s worth your while. | SEE THE LIST
Door Prize and Sponsorship
We are still accepting door prizes. Contact Suzanne Biegenzahn at suzanne@reso.org for more information on how to spotlight your brand.
Certification Update
Growing the list of RESO certifications for the Data Dictionary 1.7 and Web API Core 2.0.0 endorsements is a welcome daily activity at RESO now. Congratulations to the following additions to RESO Analytics:
You can see the status of all MLSs on the RESO Certification Map. To attain Certified Current status, MLSs must accept their certification reports from their vendors. If you are an MLS, you will approve two items, one Data Dictionary endorsement and one Web API endorsement. These two endorsements will arrive in your email inbox for approval as a pair.
The RESO Certification Map is a good place to review your address and subscriber count. Contact certification@reso.org for changes.
If you have questions about your RESO certification, contact your MLS vendor. If you have questions about self-testing or the technical aspects of certification, contact dev@reso.org.
New Members – Welcome to RESO!
Ocusell
Ocusell modernizes the listing process for residential real estate professionals.
RESoft
RESoft is a productivity software solution for brokers, managers and real estate agents.
T-RETS Extinction List is Growing!
There are now 114 MLSs committed to fully transitioning away from the old Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS) in favor of the modern RESO Web API.
The latest addition to the 100% converted list is REsides, the MLS formerly known as MLS of Hilton Head Island (HHIMLS).
We are actively seeking your updates about how far along you are in your transition as we build toward an industry majority. Contact us at certification@reso.org with your updates. | SEE THE LIST
WWRED (Pronounced Red)
In WWRED (Working With Real Estate Data) news this month, 364 people have now completed the course! Here’s who completed their RED-B designation during Q3 2022:
SEE THE COMPLETE LIST OF RED-B DESIGNEES
Consider incorporating WWRED into your new staff and volunteer leadership onboarding strategy today. | MORE INFO
On the RESO Blog
Data Share Redesigned: Single Entry, Universal Distribution
MLS mergers and acquisitions continue to occur across the country. But if a merger is not the desired answer to the problem of overlapping market disorder, other options for sharing data are possible through the use of RESO standards. Lori Coburn, VP of Information Technology at MetroList, and Jay Pepper-Martens, CTO at the San Francisco Association of REALTORS® (SFAR), described their creative approach to maintaining listing input features unique to individual MLSs while also displaying universally efficient and accurate listing output. | READ MORE
RESO’s Ten-Year Tune Up
In 2012, RESO Chair, Rebecca Jensen, set the tone for the next ten years of effort in a set of slides that were compiled and simplified into a blog post. Note the progress in those 2012 goals, then continue to help us reduce redundancy and increase productivity in the real estate industry. | READ MORE
RESO@
RESO is often invited to participate in industry events, and we’ve had a busy month.
CREA
RESO CEO Sam DeBord attended the Canadian Real Estate Association’s conference in Ottawa, Ontario, continuing to advance the progress of RESO standards gaining traction in Canada. CREA recently helped add French-Canadian translations to the Data Dictionary, and several Canadian members hold prominent positions within RESO workgroups.
NAR Meetings
Sam DeBord attended the NAR governance meetings in Chicago, where he was given an opportunity to share how RESO’s certification testing analytics have exposed a high number of unique local MLS fields. A fascinated collection of real estate executives provided support for NAR’s desire to do more in-depth research on why MLS statuses are so varied, the standard status solution for national initiatives and how more efficiency might be possible across MLS organizations.
iOi
RESO Director of Growth Management, Greg Sax, was on hand at NAR’s Innovation Opportunity and Investment (iOi) Summit in Los Angeles to welcome new REACH participants to their free two years of RESO membership and to meet with several representatives of new and growing entrants into the real estate technology space.
CMLS
Sam DeBord and Brian Ohnesorgen, RESO’s Membership Manager, were both on hand at the Council of Multiple Listing Services meeting in Indianapolis. Brian headed up the RESO booth, where we continued to promote our Working with Real Estate Data course and RED-B designation. Sam was on stage for “Analyzing Your MLS Data,” a chat about RESO Analytics with RESO board member and Research & Development Workgroup Vice-Chair, John Breault, and Dr. Mathew Kallumadil from Stellar MLS.
T3 Sixty ORE – 2023 MLS Trend Preview: MLS Future State Strategies
Sam DeBord participated in a webinar with Clint Skutchan, SVP of Organized Real Estate at T3 Sixty, Jon Coile, VP of MLS & Industry Relations at HomeServices of America and Matt Consalvo, CEO of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service, to discuss the current state and future of organized real estate from the broker, MLS and RESO perspective. Data shares, business-minded strategies across borders and not getting caught up in the rivalry mindset were all discussed. The hour-long chat is now available for viewing on YouTube. | WATCH NOW
Industry News
2022 CMLS Shuttleworth MLS Executive of the Year Award
This year’s winner, announced at the Council of Multiple Listing Services (CMLS) annual conference in Indianapolis, was Brad Bjelke, the CEO of UtahRealEstate.com, a man and organization that have been exceptionally supportive of RESO standards, particularly the transition from RETS to the RESO Web API. Take a bow, Mr. Bjelke! | READ MORE
John Mosey Inducted Into CMLS Hall of Fame
John Mosey, President and CEO of NorthstarMLS, was inducted into the CMLS Hall of Fame during the organization’s annual conference in Indianapolis. The honor is a means of recognizing and acknowledging a lifetime of leadership, energy and intellect that improves and elevates the MLS industry. Mosey has spent more than 40 years working with organized real estate in Canada and the U.S., with 20 of those years spent at the helm of NorthstarMLS. To know John is to know excellence, and we at RESO offer him a huge congratulations and wish him well on his impending retirement. | READ MORE
iOi Pitch Battle Winners
The National Association of REALTORS® announced Revive, a RESO member, as the winner of the fourth annual “Pitch Battle” competition at the 2022 Innovation, Opportunity & Investment (iOi) Summit in Los Angeles. The Pitch Battle was held by NAR’s strategic investment arm, Second Century Ventures, providing an opportunity for 12 finalists to showcase innovative new tools and resources for commercial and residential real estate marketplaces.
Revive’s mission is to guide home sellers through renovations to sell their property for more money. The company, founded in 2019, enables sellers to make practical and impactful updates. Revive Founder and CEO Michael Alladawi explained how they provide capital at no upfront cost to the homeowner and a vetted contractor to execute those plans. Revive was awarded $15,000, a booth at NAR’s annual conference in November and will present the next Pitch Battle winner at the 2023 iOi Summit.
The Pitch Battle’s Crowd Favorite, as voted on by the in-person and virtual audience, was awarded to Stake, an innovative loyalty program delivering cash back for renters. Stake empowers renters to save, build wealth, and unlock free and equitable banking services. Co-Founder and CEO Rowland Hobbs explained during his pitch how rental communities that offer Stake outperform with dramatically improved demand, loyalty and retention. | READ MORE
The International MLS Signs Three More Partners
The International MLS (IMLS) has signed three new partner organizations: Venice Area Board of REALTORS®, Lakeland REALTORS® and Flagler County Association of REALTORS®. The IMLS Global portal has residential, commercial and new development listings in 100+ countries in 100+ languages, as well as a full agent/broker membership platform. IMLS has also partnered with Stellar MLS, FMLS, the Miami Association of REALTORS® and the Royal Palm Coast REALTOR® Association. | READ MORE
Three Questions
The Three Questions interview series introduces you to real estate professionals with a hint of personality and humor.
Here’s who has been interviewed since the last RESO Monthly:
- Three Questions with Michael Wurzer of FBS
- Three Questions with Michael Lucarelli of RentSpree
- Three Questions with Denee Evans of CMLS
- Three Questions with Jay Pepper-Martens of SFAR
RESO Workgroup Meetings
Research & Development Workgroup | September 1, 2022
The meeting included a presentation about smart home / Internet of Things (IoT) devices and a business case to handle their involvement in the sale of a home. The group also discussed two items that the Data Dictionary Workgroup requested research on, Days in MLS and Improvements Only, of which neither were found to have any current implementations. | CALL NOTES
Board Liaison Committee | September 2, 2022
This meeting is held every other month in order to give workgroup chairs an opportunity to converse about their top agenda items, request help from each other and provide summary reports to the RESO Board of Directors. The reports of each chair are collected and shared as part of the meeting’s official call notes. | VIEW REPORTS
Transport Workgroup | September 12, 2022
The workgroup approved the Payloads 2.0 and Web API Core 2.1.0 testing rules; the next step is to create the testing tools in preparation for ratification. The group also discussed rate limiting, local extension and Industry Aggregates from the RESO Analytics system (some of which will be published in the Data Dictionary Wiki). | CALL NOTES
Interoperability Workgroup | September 13, 2022
The meeting covered the status of the Offer Management (OM) project, which is now in the phase of collecting OM-related metadata to align with the Data Dictionary in order to identify needs. Additionally, the vice-chair spoke about the industry map and some of the pain points behind its illustration. RESO CTO Josh Darnell added some information about tools that can be used to address those pain points. | CALL NOTES
Certification Subgroup | September 15, 2022
The group discussed how the Field and Lookup resources might be used to help advertise attributes that were previously handled by OData annotations – no longer part of the standard since they were difficult for data consumers to parse – and explored sample data from the RESO Analytics Industry Aggregates service, which helps the workgroups and organization make data-driven decisions about standards creation and adoption. There was a request for implementations for the Add/Edit specification, as RESO will begin manually certifying it as well as “Data Dictionary JSON Payloads” (which there are three implementations of) so these proposals may be ratified. | CALL NOTES
Distributed Ledger Workgroup | September 27, 2022
The meeting covered further discussion of the two current business cases, Listings on Blockchain and User-Defined Terms-of-Use and Tracking, specifically the task of obtaining two or more implementations to meet RESO policy. The group formed a high-level plan to lay out these cases and the general concept of blockchain in real estate to the larger audience at the 2022 RESO Fall Conference with the goal of garnering feedback. | CALL NOTES
Upcoming RESO Workgroup Meetings
If you want to participate in any of the following workgroups or subgroups and don’t already see that you are a member of the group(s) in your Confluence member profile, please write to Jason Darrough at jason@reso.org. RESO also uses Google Calendar for invitations, and most of these are recurring meetings. The meetings from October 25 to 27 will require in-person or virtual attendance at the 2022 RESO Fall Conference.
- Thursday, October 6: Research & Development Workgroup and Unique Licensee Identifier (ULI) Subgroup
- Friday, October 7: Board Liaison Committee
- Tuesday, October 25: Data Dictionary Workgroup
- Tuesday, October 25: Transport Workgroup
- Wednesday, October 26: Interoperability Workgroup
- Wednesday, October 26: Internet Tracking Workgroup
- Wednesday, October 26: Broker Advisory Workgroup
- Wednesday, October 26: Research & Development Workgroup
- Wednesday, October 26: Unique Licensee Identifier (ULI) Subgroup
- Wednesday, October 26: Universal Property Identifier (UPI) Workgroup
- Thursday, October 27: Distributed Ledger Workgroup
