The National Association of REALTORS® Chief Executive Officer, Bob Goldberg has been making some impressive moves this week. The first move is to send threatening letters to about 90 MLSs who have not adopted the RESO Standards or are not adhering to the MLS Policy required to maintain NAR affiliation. Some of the MLSs are being cited for not being certified with the RESO Data Dictionary and some do not yet have availability with the RESO Web API.
While many MLSs still believe that RESO is not critical to their business, we hear from brokers regularly that they are requesting RESO feeds and their MLS says it is not available. Worse yet, some MLS don’t even know what the broker or their tech company is TALKING about when they ask for a RESO certified feed. This proactive step in policy enforcement will go a LONG way to help fix this problem. We are so excited to see NAR get serious about compliance with NAR policies. By putting more teeth into policy compliance, NAR is helping brokers to leverage technology in new and exciting ways to differentiate their business, compete more effectively and most importantly, remain vital for the long haul by better serving the needs of their clients.
For all MLSs who are RESO compliant, there are better ways for you to promote availability of RESO Standards too. RESO has created a FREE marketing toolkit with videos, articles and logos you can use to make it easier to help your brokers take full advantage of your RESO compliance.
Now that NAR is getting serious about RESO compliance, it’s time to turn its attention to IDX rules compliance. We have worked tirelessly side by side with Leading Real Estate Companies of the World and the Realty Alliance to update IDX rules to make them broker-friendly including options to offer Pendings and Solds, co-mingling data from multiple MLSs, requiring approval of IDX feeds more quickly, and a myriad of other proactive changes that have helped IDX feeds work harder for brokers. Many MLSs are in full compliance with all of these new required policies and they are making it easier for their brokers to compete more aggressively for consumer attention and engagement. Just like RESO compliance, however, there are MANY MLSs that have ignored the new required policy changes and simply say NO when one of their brokers calls to ask for a feed with Solds or to allow them to co-mingle data with neighboring MLSs. I wrote an article last year outlining a plan to fix this problem too. I sure hope the NEW NAR that has got their brokers’ backs and will go after this important issue too!
I love that we’re kicking off 2018 in such a positive way! We’re all going to have a much better year with this type of support!
WAY TO GO NAR!
