
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has
defined a set of standards for the transfer of real estate related
data. The sets of standards are referred to as RETS (Real Estate
Transaction Standards).
A common use of RETS would be to allow property data to be downloaded
from an MLS. Right now, without RETS, this is difficult since
every MLS system is unique. RETS makes it easier to sort out these
differences and transfer the data. In order to use RETS for this
purpose:
- a RETS Server would be set up in front of the existing MLS database
- a RETS Client would be set up in front of an web-based user
application (CMA package,
broker IDX website, etc.)
In our sample web demo for the RETS Reference
Implementation we created a sample MLS
database and a sample web-based user application to view MLS data
using RETS, as seen below
.

Creating a RETS Server and/or RETS Client is the
starting point for using RETS.
The NAR asked Avantia, Inc to provide all the
computer code and documentation needed to make it possible to
create, test and deploy RETS Clients and RETS Servers.
(click here to download the code and documentation)
This "Reference Implementation" is meant to help accelerate adoption of RETS by
MLS vendors, third party real estate software vendors, broker
IT staff, IDX web site developers, and other members of the real
estate transaction community. In order to make this Avantia RETS
Reference Implementation as useful as possible, we also created
a running demo web site that shows the Reference Implementation
in use.
Click here to go to the RETS demo web site