November 20, 2007

No Limits With RETS

It's one thing to be an open, unencumbered, standard, but it's another thing to become a widely adopted standard. For years, the Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS), an XML language for marking up real estate data, languished. It was never widely used and didn't fully serve the needs of B2B users. With the RETS 2.0 standard, however, large MLS (Multiple Listing Service) data providers are poised to adopt, and all kinds of technical real estate users are excited about its prospects. While RETS 1.x will still be used for listings transfers, the RETS 2.0 standard directly addresses the needs of B2B users - the brokers and MLS companies who need to distribute real estate data.

To sort out the state of RETS, and give a little insight into how developers can use the RETS data, I had the opportunity to speak at a session last week at the National Association of Realtors (NAR) conference with Chris McKeever, Strategic Architect for the NAR, and Matt Lavallee, Programming Lead at MLS Property Information Network. What I found out was that the RETS standard is quite comprehensive, with over 600 data points covering the minute details necessary for even the most demanding real estate transactions. However, the standard also defines data subsets that are much more reasonable to use with mashups and general web applications. Ever wonder if a house has a bank barn or loafing shed, is less than six blocks from the ocean, or has marlite wainscoting in a bathroom? This RETS XSD file (one of several) includes plenty of property interior description elements.

Here's a quick programming example I created using a very small subset of RETS data, in JSON format, plotted with our Yahoo! Ajax Maps API, and geocoded in real time. Download the complete sample code here.

Jason Levitt

Posted at November 20, 2007 1:55 PM

Comments

Posted by: Jon at November 20, 2007 3:04 PM

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Posted by: Brad S at January 28, 2009 11:49 PM