At the RESO Spring Tech Summit, TRIBUS presented on our experience migrating to the Data Dictionary; as well as the importance of standards in the real estate industry as a whole.
19. Less frustration over market specific/unique fields
• Rent control
• Grazing permits
• Business sale fields
BENEFIT OF FOLLOWING STANDARDS
FOR BROKERS
24. 1. Get credentials
2. Map our best guesses
3. Import sample set
4. Check sample results
5. Re-map based on sample results
6. Import full data
7. Deliver to client (broker)
8. Update mapping based on client feedback
9. Re-import
10. Repeat until everyone's happy
PROJECT POST MORTEM
RETS PROCESS: BEFORE
26. TIPS FOR OTHER VENDORS
1. Read the documentation – it's very thorough
2. Stay up to date on which MLSs are certified
(and certification level of each)
3. RETS specific: Offset isn't 0
Katie
K – 2nd gen REALTOR / sold in GA. Join TRIBUS in it’s infancy, as one of the first people in the tech support department. Now lead UX and internal design/dev teams.
E - intro
Eric
Build custom platforms for med-lg sized brokerages.
Work only in RE ind., focus on experience from consumers > agents > staff
No RE site would be complete w/o IDX home search & prop pages, so dedicate substantial time to our IDX product
Katie
Like I said, recent migration
1. Step back from RESO's DD to look at bigger role standards play in our lives
2. Process, what we learned, vendor tips
3. Always room for improvement – more standards we'd love to see
Katie
Can be empowering / restricting
Job = focus on needs of collective group – not the individuals
Most effective when entire group/majority adopts
When that happens, they limit confusion and unexpected outcomes
Eric
Standard of conduct: facing forward
Eric
Standards of weight and measure
If building a home, would be much more error prone if architect used feet and inches, while your contractor used meters, even though it's possible for those values to be converted
Eric
Dvorek keyboard, arguably a better standard than the commonly followed one – but not widely adopted, so more cost than benefit – Apple II for instance allowed this configuration but required soldering hardware directly to the computer. Can you imagine the mutiny that might take place if you went back to your offices tonight and switched all the keyboards to the Dvorek layout? Though doing so is much easier than it was in 1984 with the Apple II, how much time would be lost from forcing an unfamiliar standard.
Eric
Standards of time. We all adhere to specific time zones, which were created to help solve a problem regarding train arrival/departure times. Previously, each town adhered to its own local time based on the sun, which made it difficult to predict when trains would arrive. We still follow this convention despite no longer using trains as a primary mode of cross-region communication, thought it presents its own problems. Have you ever tried to schedule a meeting with someone in a different time zone than you? Or received an invivitation, completely unaware whether it was in your time zone or the senders? How about when a TV show premiers at 9/8C. When will that be in mountain? There's a better alternative we could choose to adopt here, known as universal time. With universal time, it would be the same time all across the globe – 8am in London might be the start of the work day, while 8am in Los Angeles the end. While this could solve a number of problems, until it becomes the commonly adopted standard, as with the keyboard, it can cause more problems than it solves if most aren't following it.
Eric
You're not a beautiful and unique snowflake
Free from deliberation over recurrent & insignificant choices
(e.g. names of database columns)
Free to depend on standard assumptions and grow deeper abstractions
Eric
How about tabs vs spaces?
Eric
HTTP requests
Katie
The primary job of standards is to establish order.
Every person may not agree w/ every decision – like eating veggies, they're good for you
Whether you're following globally accepted standards (time zones) or company in-house standards – save time and headaches
Katie
In our industry, establishing order is extremely necessary.
When you've got well over 1M ICs entering listing data themselves, there should be certain restrictions.
Picture wackiest thing you've seen?
Here's an example of something you've probably come across before – it's a beautiful home
Only to scroll down and see something like this
Katie
Some agents = too ‘innovative’
Now before you get concerned – no listing was harmed in the making of this GIF.
Some MLSs still allow HTML in the IR field, and this is actually still pretty common
Agent = happy, but broker who has the carefully designed website is not so pleased
Katie
Pretend that all MLSs adopted the Data Dictionary tomorrow
Few ways that it would positively impact each party interacting w/ data
1. Buyers = More accurate and complete search results (data less likely to be skipped)
2. Sellers = listing appears on brokerage websites right away (less likelihood of importing errors)
Katie
Know what this is? Anyone here from Pittsburgh?
Pitt = Industrial area, full of steelworkers and miners
‘Pitt Potty’ became popular so they could enter through ground floor and wash up before entering home
Beyond the Pitt Potty, bathrooms fields can present a lot of issues - all homes have bathrooms, and types matter.
Full and half – most standard
Add 3/4 and even 1/4
And how do you handle oddities like the ‘Pittsburgh Potty’? How would you classify that? Shout out
To overcome this, vendors have to then come up with their own solutions to satisfy clients, like our old ‘Total Baths’ field
Use of standards can alleviate these pain points.
Katie
Without DD, there are many more examples of ‘unique’ fields, and fields with seemingly random names
DD eliminates confusion and the need for vendors to work with each MLS to figure out what fields like this represent
Katie
Just a few examples of unique fields that are included in the DD
Without it, we may have overlooked these data points, had we not known to expect them
Eric
1. Simpler to co-mingle data from multiple MLSs
2. Saves time (in RETS mapping and decision making)
Eric
Catch issues much more rapidly, since the majority is using the same standard
Also employee cost of vendors asking RETS specialists questions
Eric
When: Once they're readily available and widely adopted
Public vs. Internal usage
- Adhere to RESO conventions publicly
- Internally, want to adhere to other conventions (example: casing)
Katie
Choices:
1. Web API exclusively
2. RETS exclusively
3. Build both importers
Preference = Web API – unfortunately not enough MLSs are on that yet, so we considered using both.
Both = App would need to be much more complex, so ruled out for MVP.
RETS = choice – More clients (even those who are members of many MLSs) we could migrate using RETS since all of their MLSs are DD certified
Plan to continue development on this project and add support for DD soon
Katie
Lots of repeated steps
Credentials = lots of steps within step 1
Repeat steps 7-9 until everyone is happy – including the MLS (get to that later)
Katie
Get credentials > import with confidence
Simple & better
Katie
Katie
As PM, handled this myself and have trained other PMs on this
Overly complicated process involving different forms for each MLS, which are sometimes really tough to find
Some MLSs already working on this – applaud you guys and can’t wait to see where this may go
Katie
Get rid of all subjective statements ‘Display the listing broker’s name in a prominent location’
Leads to sites not passing the MLS’s review, and lots of delays that could be avoided
Katie
If the MLS requires that they host listing images – convert to SSL
Avoids broken SSL (mixed content warnings), which hurts the broker’s site’s SEO
When HTTP2 is also enabled, the images will also load faster