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Improving the property market requires widespread updates. Real estate standards regulate those changes so buyers, sellers and relators have better experiences. Learning more about the leading organizations driving those changes will reveal how they help you and where future developments will form in the coming years.
What Is RETS?
RETS is the Real Estate Transaction Standard that outlined standards for data transport before RESO began. The program integrated MLS platforms that used XML feeds in the 1990s. Realtors could pull listings located across the internet for the first time and prevent people from accessing RETS technology except for licensed realtors.
How It Impacted Real Estate Agents
When RETS real estate listings began consolidating, relators had more time. They didn’t have to input listing details into various websites manually. They also didn’t need to double-check where they listed properties to organize updated text and photos at the time.
How It Affected Property Owners and Buyers
When RETS began, property owners started seeing more accurate listings across multiple MLS sites. They could see updated pricing quickly and verify the accuracy of each listing’s details. People may have experienced a faster buying and selling process with additional information at their fingertips. Property owners also got more for their money if they paid someone to arrange their home for listing photos because those pictures started showing up on more than one site at a time.
What Is RESO?
Reso is the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO). The nonprofit sets universal regulations for data use and transactions within the industry to make it more efficient, safe and trustworthy for everyone involved.
RESO wouldn’t be possible without RETS. The organization emerged from beneath the RETS umbrella to more specifically address transactions and data related to modern tech use in the real estate world. Today, RESO provides a standardized data dictionary to guide professional language among real estate professionals, offers its Web API and provides certifications for new property-market tech tools.
How It Impacts Real Estate Agents
Realtors benefit from RESO in numerous ways. The nonprofit standardizes property data and descriptions across all industry platforms, so every listing uses the same language from the organization’s data dictionary. Lot size, square footage and room details are examples of regulated terminologies that simplify listing descriptions and searches.
Industry professionals also benefit from RESO’s tools. They can rely on the Web API to transfer data securely between third-party listing websites, multiple listing service (MLS) systems and brokerages. Meanwhile, the RESO certification guarantees that any program or tool complies with RESO standards. Professionals have an easier time finding reliable, safe and secure tech resources.
How It Affects Property Owners and Buyers
Guaranteed accurate listings reduce the risk of bad deals for homeowners and buyers. When you make an initial $1,225,000 investment in a luxury property to flip it, you won’t worry that you’ll never get your money back. RESO ensures that all listings are current and speeds along secure transactions.
How Both Standards Compare
RETS and RESO improved real estate standards over time. RETS was a crucial development as the internet boom developed in the 90s. People needed to guarantee that what they saw on digital listings was accurate, especially as more people began surfing the web for their next property.
However, RETS became outdated as software advancements continued. The system catered to outdated feeds so that it couldn’t integrate data on other application programming interfaces (APIs). Redesigning RETS to create RESO helped the industry move into the modern tech age.
RESO’s Web API wouldn’t exist without RETS’s previous protocols. The platform works with multiple listing formats to instantaneously pull more data from across the internet. If someone adds green features to their property and increases its value by 10%-21%, potential buyers will see that update immediately on any of their preferred listing sites.
Will RESO Ever Change?
RESO will likely update in the future, but may never need the complete overhaul that RETS received. RETS worked with one specific feed, while RESO started pulling from multiple kinds of listing websites from the start. RESO also constantly updates itself with its Web API service, so it’s adapting to real-time platform changes without disruption to financial transactions.
The nonprofit also works with international partners to make global markets more accurate. Swapping it with a new real estate standards program would disrupt the international industry. RESO is easier to update alongside emerging technologies like virtual tours, so you won’t likely see a replacement.
Understand the Real Estate Industry Better
Once people and realtors learn more about the history of real estate standards, it’s easier to see why RETS and RESO are interconnected. While they shaped the formation of the modern property market, RESO will guide it into the future. The essential services created a more transparent, accurate industry that benefits everyone involved.
About The Author
Evelyn is the founder and editor-in-chief of Renovated with over 5 years of experience immersed in researching and writing on interior design, construction, and renovation. She is a passionate advocate for improving mental health and safety in the construction industry. When she's not writing, you can find her reading at coffee shops in Lancaster.
Her insights have resonated far beyond Renovated, gracing publications like the National Association of Realtors, Construction Executive, Fieldwire, DecorMatters, and Renewable Energy Magazine.
For more sharp takes on design, construction, and everything in between, you can follow Evelyn on Twitter at @renovatedmag.
