Real estate lives in a world filled with acronyms and perhaps nowhere is that more true than in the business of real estate property data. Dozens, if not hundreds of MLSs, for example, frequently refer to themselves simply by their acronyms. That means we have duplicates. Did you know we have had as many as a half-dozen RMLSs in the U.S.? The same is true for real estate brokerage firms and for even technology providers, as many firms share similar names.
This has caused an ongoing problem in the real estate industry: how do those dealing with multiple property data feeds – coming from multiple states and involving different data providers, firms and technology partners – trace their data accurately? And the problem has become exacerbated as more and more brokerages, MLS technology providers and other firms expand their reach, dealing with more property data feeds than ever before.
RESO helps solve the problem
We tapped two industry experts and RESO members – Bill Kellogg, CIO ofShowingTime, and Greg Moore, Vice President of Technical Systems of RMLS in Portland, Oregon, who also heads the RESO R&D Workgroup where this all began – to help create the RESO Organization Unique ID with an open API and make it available to anyone – not just RESO members – to help fix this problem.
“When you start gathering and blending data,” said Greg, “it is really the source, where that data truly was sourced, that becomes vitally important.”
Their work is now complete with the new RESO Organization Unique Identifier – and here’s another acronym – or OUID, which now is available as an API. It provides every organization within the real estate industry with a unique ID. This includes an exhaustive list of associations, MLSs, system technology partners, technology partners and other affiliated businesses and data providers.
“It is a simplistic solution,” Greg said, “but it also is a strong solution.”
How the new API works
The RESO OUID API provides the ability for anyone to query the API and it will return basic organization information, including the organization’s name, city, state and zip code, and its Organizational Unique ID. The goal is to get everyone in real estate to use the same unique identifiers, Bill and Greg emphasized.
The good news is that the RESO Data Dictionary Version 1.5 and beyond will contain standardized containers of the Organizational Unique ID for MLSs and technology partners (or data distributors). Data providers will include their own OUID in data feeds based upon the RESO Web API or RETS data distribution standard so that those receiving their data can accurately identify the organizational source (or publisher) of each piece of data in their aggregated databases.
Business cases
For Multiple Listing Services and other data providers, using the RESO OUID can help them better protect their data that is distributed to licensed technology partners. For MLS Technology Partners, the OUID helps them to better manage multiple feeds, especially in overlapping service areas, as the OUID gives the exact source of the data originator. It will also help improve their ability to de-duplicate content in the data, and will know the source to make sure they are keeping the correct data.
Greg adds, “Too often you can get triplicate listings and more,” and the new API should go a long way to helping reduce this.
Moreover, MLS Technology Partners can utilize the new RESO OUID to lookup the MLS(s) who would be a data provider for an association. Believe it or not, this can be a complex and time-consuming process. With the OUID, it’s now fast and easy.
OUID has some very practical applications, notes Bill Kellogg, who gives this real world example.
“We work with associations that provide their members the lockbox services, but the underlying data must be linked to the Association lockbox system,” Bill said. “So while lockbox and showing systems often are Association provided services, they typically require MLS data to serve the membership. So having a look up method to say ‘This association matches this MLS and matches this data feed’ just makes the whole process of working with large streams of data so much easier.”
Pushing for adoption of the OUID
From protecting data concerning copyright issues, to reducing the time spent matching up data, Bill and Greg believe adoption will be compelling.
“Matching data has been an ongoing problem in the industry, especially when you are dealing with lots of data, and have to figure out after the fact where it came from,” Bill said. “Many vendors work with feeds from dozens, if not hundreds of MLSs, and it becomes very hard to establish the source, and it’s time consuming to reconcile everything.”
Greg believes knowing the source will aid with copyright protection. “Think of the Upstream and when those listings get to the marketplace. They are directly sourced from a brokerage or somewhere else, so it just becomes more and more important regarding ownership of copyright,” he explained.
Looking ahead to what’s next
Bill wants everyone to know that the new OUID is not just for RESO members. “It’s a service provided by RESO to anybody working with data and the real estate industry,” he said. And if your firm is not listed, or the information provided needs updating? Just email your information to info(at)reso.org.
Bill notes that the next phase is the most important one. “Our work doesn’t mean anything until it is implemented into everyone’s data feeds,” Bill said, and as RESO adds the OUID to the next version Data Dictionary (1.5), this will help fuel adoption.
“Everybody wants to be standards compliant over the next year,” Bill said “Those IDs should start appearing in everyone’s data and it should be a very trivial process to put them in place,” he added.
Bill sees more work coming to better identifying sources in the industry.
“I see this as a step down the road to getting an Agent Identifier for each agent nationwide and a step forward towards a Unique Property Identifier, because these things make it so hard with 750 MLSs and 2000 associations. And if you get records for all of them, you probably end up with three times as many properties and agents as actually exist,” Bill said.
Remember that great things happen when professionals come together, as they did with the OUID, to make a small but vital change that moves us towards greater efficiency as an industry. Your next opportunity to take a seat a the table comes on October 24-26 in Nashville at the 2016 RESO Fall Conference, “Accelerating the Reach of Data Standards.” Save by registering now and learn more at www.reso.org/fall-mtg.
