Great post, Andrew! Regarding RETS, the primary reason to use RETS for IDX today is for incremental updates. The only other method of getting data from an MLS typically is FTP, which is delivered once a day. RETS, on the other hand, can be update much more frequently.
Also, in terms of data standards, two developments will make your job as an IDX vendor much easier in the next six to twelve months: (1) new schema are very close to being finalized, and they are much broader and deeper; and (2) the NAR MLS Policy Committee has created a new policy for all MLSs to support RETS, and so the mapping to the new schema will be a focus for all MLSs. These two developments, combined with pressures from MLS regionalization, will make RETS the "go to" method for getting MLS info for IDX sites even more than the update frequency does today.
Hojin
· 2 years ago
Very informative post. I've been looking to add a map based search for my sites and this list really helps. So far I've found that Realbird seems to be the most bang for the buck but they do not service my area. I believe Diverse Solutions offers the best interface but it's too darn expensive. Can anyone suggest a lower priced alternative?
Andrew Mattie
· 2 years ago
Advanced Access has a map search for their IDX, but it doesn't work with Firefox. Wolfnet has a mapping IDX search, but I'm fairly certain that it's more expensive than ours. I've also seen Real Estate Webmasters do custom IDX searches with Google mapping interfaces, but they charge a fairly significant upfront development cost and a moderate monthly hosting fee for it.
Other than those three (and the one you mentioned), I don't know of anyone else who does a mapping IDX search.
Andrew Mattie
· 2 years ago
@Michael:
You make a really good point with the update frequency that RETS allows. Along those same lines, I hope that RETS will be more stable than the myriad of custom FTP dumps that most MLSs have; I can't even tell you how often I get notices that an FTP feed for an MLS is broken.
Other than that, I'm really looking forward to a new and standardized data schema! I hope it will mean that we will no longer have to hunt around in the data feed for the column that represents the number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, etc, as those sorts of things can definitely be a big time sink for us.
Michael Price
· 2 years ago
IDX,VOW,RSS,RETS......OMG! This is why technology must seem like water coming out of fire hose to most agents and brokers. Technology providers and the IT staff at MLS organizations really need to do what they can to simplify and demystify all of this. In the end it's really not complicated at all. We're just making that way.
It's commentary from tech vendors like this that I really admire. It's transparent and written with the intent of educating and informing.
Great job Andrew!
Alex
· 2 years ago
Most of you don't get the point of an MLS. It is not to help you the consumer get access to listings but to protect a real estate brokers's 6% commission and the monolopy by restricting access only to local brokers.
There is no incentive for the MLS vendors to open up their data feeds because thier customers are the large real estate brokerages (Century 21) not the average joe trying to buy a home.
It is possible that someone like Zillow cracks the nut and creates an open free national MLS, if accomplished then that will be of huge $$$ value.
The other option would be for congress to regulate open and fair access to a free real estate market, I'm not holding my breath on that one as the real estate monopolgy lobby is very large.
RealBird.com
· 1 year ago
Hojin,
Unfortunately, we (RealBird) still do not have your market covered with the Map-based IDX Search, but will release a big one very soon and will add many more during 2008!
Also, we just introduced a new concept, i.e. widgetizing MLS hotlists so that agents and brokers can capture visitors from blogs and from the "edge" of the Internet.
I am an agent in Memphis, TN. I am trying to figure out a way to create a database with MLS data, which automatically returns zillow zestimate values into the table or report.
Does anyone know how to do this, or have a link that explains it? I have access to the local MLS.
Even something as simple as pasting in a string of addresses and getting the returned zestimates would be so much better than indivually going through each listing.
Thank you so much for your time.
Kauai real estate guy
· 1 year ago
We work with several IDX feeds and RETS is by for the best and easiest to work with. I hope more MLS systems adopt it.
Jeff in Hawaii
· 1 year ago
Andrew - Do you think they will have a RETS standard any time soon?
Your solution is one of the better ones I have seen from website site design companies :-)
Drew Meyers
· 1 year ago
Jeff- A standard feed format is well underway -- take a look at this post.
Jeff in Hawaii
· 1 year ago
Thanks for responding Adrew and pointing me in the right direction!
http://housedom.com -- Custom
· 1 year ago
Although RETS has been advertised as "the future", IDX is most certainly here to stay, for the time being. It's easier to implement and consequtively has a lower price-tag, which might be a decisive factor to small agents and realtors.
Heather McCroan
· 1 year ago
In my research I have found the following that provides websites and will import your MLS:
Many vendors don't offer RSS because it isn't compliant with the rules regarding redistribution specified with every MLS I've checked.
ADR Hawaii
· 1 year ago
You are correct Bob, many do not allow it because it breaks IDX rules and too easy for scrappers to get all the MLS listings.
Branson Real Estate
· 11 months ago
Thanks for the great list and explaination of IDX. As a realtor, we have been using the services for Innovia. But we are about to make the transition to RETS. We currently get all of our MLS data via FTP push and it's all raw data coming in. So, we hope it will be better (and less stressful on our server resources) when we switch to RETS. Thanks for the great info!
real estate questions?
· 10 months ago
i am completely new to this stuff here so thanks for the really good explanation here.
Branson Homes
· 10 months ago
We are not using any IDX feeds. Instead, we simply use our own featured lisitngs system.
Memphis TN HOmes
· 6 months ago
i am completely new to this stuff here so thanks for the really good explanation here.
lilyphan
· 2 months ago
I'm completely new to this so the article helped a lot. Thank you. However, I'm still kind of fuzzy on the details.
I work for a home builder company and we have a MLS that contains several listings that we want to put up to as many websites as possible. The task is assigned to me. From what I've learned so far, most (if not all) of those websites require XML data feed in order to have those listings uploaded and updated automatically. What is the connection between IDX and XML? Do I have to write an XML feed myself? But each .xml document can only have one home in it, right? I'm by no means a programmer, so I'm really confused.
Pardon my silly questions. I greatly appreciate your help on this.
All Comments
Also, in terms of data standards, two developments will make your job as an IDX vendor much easier in the next six to twelve months: (1) new schema are very close to being finalized, and they are much broader and deeper; and (2) the NAR MLS Policy Committee has created a new policy for all MLSs to support RETS, and so the mapping to the new schema will be a focus for all MLSs. These two developments, combined with pressures from MLS regionalization, will make RETS the "go to" method for getting MLS info for IDX sites even more than the update frequency does today.
Other than those three (and the one you mentioned), I don't know of anyone else who does a mapping IDX search.
You make a really good point with the update frequency that RETS allows. Along those same lines, I hope that RETS will be more stable than the myriad of custom FTP dumps that most MLSs have; I can't even tell you how often I get notices that an FTP feed for an MLS is broken.
Other than that, I'm really looking forward to a new and standardized data schema! I hope it will mean that we will no longer have to hunt around in the data feed for the column that represents the number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, etc, as those sorts of things can definitely be a big time sink for us.
It's commentary from tech vendors like this that I really admire. It's transparent and written with the intent of educating and informing.
Great job Andrew!
There is no incentive for the MLS vendors to open up their data feeds because thier customers are the large real estate brokerages (Century 21) not the average joe trying to buy a home.
It is possible that someone like Zillow cracks the nut and creates an open free national MLS, if accomplished then that will be of huge $$$ value.
The other option would be for congress to regulate open and fair access to a free real estate market, I'm not holding my breath on that one as the real estate monopolgy lobby is very large.
Unfortunately, we (RealBird) still do not have your market covered with the Map-based IDX Search, but will release a big one very soon and will add many more during 2008!
Also, we just introduced a new concept, i.e. widgetizing MLS hotlists so that agents and brokers can capture visitors from blogs and from the "edge" of the Internet.
See the write up about the concept at http://realbird.typepad.com
Andrew, great post and good to see you guys coming along with nice products. Competition is what drive innovation, as we all know !
-- Zoltan Szendro
RealBird.com
Does anyone know how to do this, or have a link that explains it? I have access to the local MLS.
Even something as simple as pasting in a string of addresses and getting the returned zestimates would be so much better than indivually going through each listing.
Thank you so much for your time.
Your solution is one of the better ones I have seen from website site design companies :-)
A standard feed format is well underway -- take a look at this post.
IntAgent.com
Top Producer
Terabitz
We currently get all of our MLS data via FTP push and it's all raw data coming in.
So, we hope it will be better (and less stressful on our server resources) when we switch to RETS.
Thanks for the great info!
I work for a home builder company and we have a MLS that contains several listings that we want to put up to as many websites as possible. The task is assigned to me. From what I've learned so far, most (if not all) of those websites require XML data feed in order to have those listings uploaded and updated automatically. What is the connection between IDX and XML? Do I have to write an XML feed myself? But each .xml document can only have one home in it, right? I'm by no means a programmer, so I'm really confused.
Pardon my silly questions. I greatly appreciate your help on this.