CRT has discussed the increasing presence of listing aggregators here at the blog, during speaking events and pretty much whenever someone asks us about marketing their listings. They are filling a niche/void for online marketing and property search. The space is getting so competitive that it seems a new site comes around with a great twist on the typical listing search delivery every week – case in point, Roost entered the game quietly less than two weeks ago and already has heads turning.
With all these places to toss your listings, it gets painful to manually add your inventory. Some have automated process, but for the average agent, or broker, that requires outsourcing some work, constantly getting updates and fixes when formats change. You have to start to ask yourself, if all the information I pass around is the same – why do I need to reinvent the wheel every time I pass it?
Well, the larger players in the consumer listing search space began to wonder this as well, and proposed to work together. They also have given the RETS community an opportunity to work with them in defining what this looks like. With the new formed relationship and commitment to move this initiative forward, the RETS Board charted the Syndication Workgroup.
This is great news, as there has always been a large amount of debate over the relatively simpler methods to get listing data to these third party sites, versus the more robust methods to get listing data from an MLS. This new effort could be the missing link that provides brokers and agents with a simple and effective method of both getting data from an MLS as well as publishing it to third party sites for use in advertising.
Last summer Keith discussed a simple method for listing distribution. Taking that, and moving it one step further, we decided to create a first run concept of an easy to implement, easy to use listing syndication specification.
It is refreshingly simple. It is based on CRT’s discussions with Associations, REALTORS, Brokers and MLSs trying to navigate the complexity of listing exchange, as well as a little of my own personal biases towards listing distribution.
Some of the key points are:
- Drop in replacement for IDX based listing retrieval
- As easy as clicking on a download link from a web browser
- Can be accomplished all via email from the agent/broker side
- Provides full snapshots and updated ’since’ data sets
- Is completely based on existing internet standards and protocols
- If you have a web server, you have a listing server
- Extendable to allow for customized data set requests
Bottom line is, we KISSed it to ensure that it was simple, secure and was geared for the typical use case: ‘I just want my bleeping listings’.
Sounds good doesn’t it? Download and read the full specification here.
We are also strongly encourag you to join the Syndication Workgroup. If you are a vendor, Brokerage Tech Support, or IDX Web Consultant feel free to join or post your feedback in the Syndication Forum. Hopefully this gives the Syndication Workgroup a soild base to launch from.
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