Why Brokers Should Care About Data Standards

As we mention in our 2016-17 Technology Guide, there's one important question that brokers should ask when considering a solution that uses listing data:

Is this vendor RESO certified?

RESO, or the Real Estate Standards Organization, was the subject of much discussion over the past year, thanks to a NAR mandate that required all MLSs owned by associations of Realtors to implement RESO standards by Jan. 1, 2016.

While that may make it seem like data standards are an MLS issue, nothing could be further from the truth. Brokers and their agents are the no. 1 recipient of the benefits of standardization. That's because, before RESO, real estate data was in a real "Tower of Babel" situation. Every MLS used their own format for listing data, so it was like each one spoke a different language and struggled to understand the language of the others. This made everything from data sharing efforts to developing industry-wide technology difficult.

RESO has standardized data into a single 'language' that all MLSs and technology vendors can use. Now organizations and solutions can speak to each other much more easily. This makes the real estate transaction much more streamlined and solves many pain points and grievances that brokers had against their MLSs.

But brokers shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that RESO is just an organization for MLSs. In fact, RESO is actively reaching out to brokers in hopes that they'll join and contribute their crucial point-of-view to evolving data standards.