Attending the RESO 2019 Spring Technology Summit was informative and fun, but one challenge resonated with me. The industry continues to be full of pitfalls and barriers when it comes to real estate information and standards. A common challenge that echoed during the Broker Advisory Group was the lack of compliance to the policy requiring the adoption of the RESO Data Dictionary and Web API. Why?
Brokers have not yet put their foot down and demanded that their technology partners, along with their MLSs, are compliant to the policy.
What are the reasons that this hasn’t happened since the implementation of the policy in 2016? There are many.
Understanding the benefit
While the term RESO is becoming more familiar in the broker community, a significant number still asks “what is RESO?” or “what does RESO do for me?”.
An example of a question asked especially by smaller brokers was, “Why should we make data easier to access for the larger brokers?” The benefits support everyone through lower costs, consistency, conformity of data, and increased innovation. Winnings that translate to a lower price in the delivery of products and services to ALL brokerages and their agents.
As an example, let’s look at nuts and bolts we buy from the hardware store. Standards determine nut and bolt sizes. But, imagine if there were no standards to manufacture nuts and bolts.
Repairing cars, lawnmowers, or any other product held together with nuts and bolts would become very difficult. Think about how difficult it is to make repairs with the two current standards – metric and American standard sizes.
Establishing a standard saves time and money through efficient access and easier on-going management of the data. Tech companies, like Tribus and Homes.com, found financial gains by shortening the onboarding process to engage a new MLS for their clients.
Portability from one system to another is another benefit. When an MLS or broker wants to move from one platform to another without standards, a significant part of the cost comes from mapping data between the two systems. This, in and of itself, leads to data inconsistency during a migration of the data.
Participation
Panelist Bill Fowler of Compass voiced a callout for more broker participation during the Broker Tech Adoption of RESO Standards session. He is correct. Less than 8% of the conference attendees were from the brokerage community. I had 20% of those broker attendees as panelists for a session I had moderated.
Brokerages like eXp Realty, RE/MAX, and Compass have continued to participate in helping to shape standards. I just received confirmation that a new person from Redfin is joining the Broker Advisory Board.
Participation means being at the table. Discussion of standards needs a practitioner’s viewpoint.
Good news – Sam DeBord is the new RESO CEO. Sam comes to RESO not only with a practitioner’s background in a brokerage, but has participated in various capacities at the local, State, and National Association level.
No Time
I get that devoting time to RESO is an investment some brokerages cannot expend, but there is one thing brokers can do now.
It is time for brokers to take a stand and demand compliance to standards.
As you can tell, I am passionate about this topic. If you need any assistance with an MLS or technology partner, call WAV Group. There are pathways to entice compliance.
