A new real estate information technology standard that enables brokers and vendors to use one program instead of many different ones to access multiple MLSs was unveiled last week at the National Association of Realtors’ Midyear Legislative Meetings & Trade Expo in Washington, D.C.
The Real Estate Transaction Standard, or RETS, Version 2 Web Service addresses a need in the industry to use open standards to exchange information, improve tool support, lower development costs and improve security, while accommodating new technological developments, like transaction management.
RETS is the open standard for exchanging real estate transaction information and is being implemented by many real estate industry leaders in their next generation of real estate information systems.
The new RETS was adopted last month by the RETS Workgroup, composed of NAR representatives, MLS officials and other industry leaders.
Myron Adams, NAR vice president of information technology, called the adoption of the new RETS Version 2 a significant step that will guarantee the future value of using RETS in real estate transaction.
“MLSs and brokers and anybody else who wants to extract listing information will benefit from this new standard,” said Adams. “Before, brokers who belonged to multiple MLSs needed different programs to access each MLS; but now, they will be able to use one program to access all. That’s a great savings in time, energy and money.”
