Michael Wurzer I wrote about this briefly just after the NAR convention, and want to reiterate that it’s important to get the word out about the new NAR Policy encouraging all MLSs to adopt the RETS standards. Inman has a great article on it this morning. (Too bad it will be behind a pay wall before the end of the day; kind of funny isn’t it, that Inman runs behind a pay wall?)
Does anyone have a link for the actual policy from NAR? I can’t seem to locate it. I know it’s only a sentence or two and simply says something to the effect that all MLSs should become RETS compliant by June 2009. Helping to define compliance will be the role of RESO, the Real Estate Standards Organization, which just met last week in Miami. As the newly elected Chair of the RESO Board, I will be working with the other Board members to both define and promote the RETS standards to make adoption as easy and broad as possible over the coming years.
Update (12/13/2007):
Here’s the language from the NAR MLS Policy: “The integrity of data is a foundation to the orderly Real Estate market. The Real Estate Transaction Standards (RETS) provides a vendor neutral, secure approach to exchanging listing information between the broker and the MLS. In order to ensure that the goal of maintaining any orderly marketplace is maintained, and to further establish REALTOR® information as the trusted data source, MLS organizations owned and operated by associations of REALTOR® will comply with the RETS standards by June 2009, and keep current with the standard’s new versions by implementing new releases of RETS within one year of ratification.”