It's Still about Location, Location, Location.

When REALTORS® first adopted the Web, the technology race was about showing listings. Today, having listings on your site is not a differentiator. To set your site apart, you need to give consumers information that engages them in the real estate market. Text descriptions of neighborhoods, pictures of local landmarks, and videos of the home’s interior are all part of many online listings. But you can now become much more creative.

One feature popular with consumers today is maps. Maps not only show where a listing is located, but also can show surrounding services like trains stations, shopping centers and schools. This technology gives new meaning to the mantra "location, location, location."

There are at least two approaches to putting maps on listings that do not require a significant investment on your part. Google and Yahoo provide excellent tools for this purpose. Later this year, we should see a competitive offering from MapQuest as well. In order to "up the ante" for the competition, you should look into the features provided by these map services. Take advantage of "balloons," which show some basic information about the listing like price, bedrooms, and baths. If the map engine allows for it, directions from point A to point B are also attractive to consumers. You may need to tap into a technical resource familiar with connecting information to maps to achieve the results you are looking for though.

As an industry, it is heartening to see Web sites with listings being replaced by Web sites that address the needs of consumers. It allows REALTORS to better engage the increasing sophistication of online real estate buyer and sellers.

Mark Lesswing
Vice President, Center for REALTOR Technlogy
mlesswing@crt.realtors.org
312 329 8273

The Challenge: Moving MLS data integration into the 21st century

The CRT Solution: RETS 2.0, an improved standard for sharing information

Standards are important in all facets of our lives. Can you imagine a world where every electrical outlet required a different plug? Standards that enable MLSs to connect are as critical to the real estate industry as plugs are to electric devices.

Custom MLS formats hinder the ability of vendors to support high-quality broker tools because so much of each vendor’s development budget is dedicated to customizing formats. Applications that populate your Web site or create custom CMAs benefit from efforts to make them easier to use.

Earlier this year, the real estate technical community began planning to update the current RETS 1.X structures. The update will improve security and data handling. It will also incorporate techniques associated with "Web services," a popular, flexible architecture that allows RETS to be used for more than MLS listings. Transaction management systems will also benefit from a dependable standard such as RETS. Later this year, the Real Estate Transaction Standards group will roll out an updated RETS 2.0 specification.

In April, vendors serving the real estate industry voted to adopt the new RETS 2.0 standard and made a commitment to support it. Vendors will continue to support current applications that use RETS 1.X for another year or two. You should begin to see more MLS systems using RETS within the next 12 months.

Learn More: To review the benefits that the RETS standard can provide, go to http://www.rets.org 

The Challenge: Making the real estate sales process more efficient and less frustrating for yourself and your clients.

The CRT Solution: Transaction management software, a solution for today that can save you time, money, and hassles.

Many real estate consumers, particularly those in higher end markets, expect online capabilities and transaction transparency when they buy real estate. So if you’ve dismissed transaction management as too complicated for you, think again. The transaction management systems available today can save you time, simplify the closing process, and help you provide better service to your clients. Integrating TMS into your business operations can also make you more productive, lower your costs of doing business, and reduce your liability by keeping a complete record of transaction activity.

The CRT "2006 MLS Technology Survey" revealed that an increasing number of REALTORS use transaction management software in their businesses. Forty-eight percent of transaction management users believe that the greatest value of TMS is that it gives them a competitive advantage, helps them sell more real estate, and improves communications. Another 28 percent believe TMS helps lower their costs, improve efficiency, and reduce risk and paper.

TMS automates the transaction process and monitors key due dates such as inspections to ensure that all activities are completed in a timely fashion. TMS also allows all the parties involved in a transaction to manage, view, and share information during the process. It takes the guesswork out of what tasks need to be completed, what deadlines need to be met, and who needs to do what. A TMS product allows information about a transaction to be imported automatically from other systems such as public records, the MLS, and contact management and brokerage back-office applications. Importing eliminates the need to rekey data. Customers like TMS because it allows them to review the status and progress of the transaction online and more fully participate in the transaction.

Transaction management software can be used by an entire brokerage office or an individual sales associate. Brokerages can host TMS themselves or use an application provided by MLSs or a state or local REALTOR® associations. Vendors such as title companies also provide TMS solutions that may be used by individual sales associates, usually on a per-use fee basis.

While TMS is already of benefit to the real estate industry, it will become even more valuable in the future. TMS is still a fairly new application, so standards haven’t yet been established for the technology. As TMS standards evolve, they’ll lead to further efficiencies and benefits and allow for easier exchange of information among all the parties to a transaction.

CRT is actively involved with a group of vendors working to establish TMS definitions and interoperability requirements. If you decide to implement TMS in your business, insist on working with a vendor that will commit to standards as they’re developed. The use of standards will be a big win for the industry. In a world where practically anything can be purchased online, real estate must give consumers what they want and expect — online access to their transaction.

Learn More: For more information on TMS, go to http://www.realtor.org/rmomag.NSF/pages/TechWatch2006012?OpenDocument and read the article in the January issue of REALTOR Magazine Online. For more on the CRT "2006 MLS Technology Survey," go to http://www.realtor.org/crtweb.nsf/pages/CRTsurvey?OpenDocument 

CURRENT SOLUTIONS

The Challenge: Overcoming the assumption that information security is too technical for anyone but your IT department. 

The CRT Solution: Train each computer user in your company to put security first and build a culture of data security in your organization. 

Through programs such as REALTORÒ Secure, NAR is raising awareness of the need for information security. Still, too many real estate companies wrongly assume that security is a complex task best left to the organization’s technology group. In reality, IT is only part of the solution. To be effective, sound security practices need to permeate the entire organization. The good news is that raising your company’s security awareness is SIMPLE.

Safeguard information. Whether in the office or in the field, taking the right steps to secure information protects business assets and company reputation. Begin by establishing straightforward policies and procedures, such as acceptable passwords or an Internet use policy for all employees. It’s equally important that your organization provide the infrastructure, like firewalls and intrusion detection systems, necessary to keep your electronic assets secure.

Implement policies. Remember an effective security policy must be put to use, not left on the shelf. Set specific expectations for keeping information secure and train all your staff on how to implement these procedures. It’s also critical to determine appropriate actions and consequences if someone doesn’t adhere to those policies. A thorough security policy will also help protect you from liability if an incident occurs.

Measure risks. By assessing risks you can determine what to protect and how to keep what you want to protect secure. Risk is defined as the possibility that an adverse event will occur. Considering the magnitude, cost, and likelihood of potentially adverse effects will help you to decide on the amount of protection you’ll need.

Promote continued awareness. Security is an ongoing issue, not a one-time problem. You need to let your staff and associates know that you take information security seriously and that you expect others to as well. Include information security as a part of your new hire program to ensure that all staff is current on procedures. Create a series of regular reminders and ongoing training activities that reinforce good information security practices. If a small breach occurs, use it as teaching tool to confirm correct procedures.

Limit liability. A well-run security program can lessen the likelihood of a breach. It can also lower liability and possibly decrease the cost of errors & omissions insurance by demonstrating that you use best practices to minimize compromises.

Expose vulnerabilities. Security audits and assessments can reveal flaws in your security infrastructure and help you prevent breaches. Simple checklists, like the one provided by the REALTORÒ  Secure program, will show you areas of possible vulnerability that need attention.

While security has its technical aspects, you can significantly improve your information safety with these SIMPLE rules. Begin implementing them today, and you’ll discover where you need to focus resources to protect yourself, your organization, and your customers.

Learn More: For more on REALTOR® Secure and how you can take your company’s security to the next level, go to http://www.realtor.org/secure . Also see the special REALTOR®  Secure booth at CRT wireless hot spot location at the NAR Midyear meeting. 

FUTURE TRENDS

The Challenge: Gaining a clear understanding of the issues facing today’s MLSs.

The CRT Solution:  CRT's fourth annual MLS Technology Survey

Multiple listing services are facing significant information security issues and user pressures for consolidation. At the same time, MLSs have made significant strides in integrating real estate data from multiple sources so as to improve efficiency and service, according to the 2006 online survey conducted by the Center for REALTOR® Technology.

The survey asked MLS staff and real estate practitioners to rank the importance of such issues as the impact of consumer-accessible Web sites on the future of the MLS and the risk that the MLS will become a “public utility” open to consumers. MLS respondents and REALTORS® differed significantly in their ranking of issue priorities.  

For REALTORS®, the most important issue facing MLSs is the need for consolidation and the ability to share listings from several MLSs. One survey respondent said, “I do not understand why there is such a fragmented MLS system both locally and nationally. Why is it so hard to search in other areas?”

A second major concern for brokers and sales associates is the risk of the MLS becoming a public utility. Respondents expressed concern that consumer access to the MLS might diminish the role the real estate practitioner plays in a transaction.

The No. 1 concern from MLS respondents was MLS information security. A reported 37 percent of MLS respondents said they had experienced some type of security incident. The largest category of breach was unauthorized system access, information use, or data feed. Said one respondent, “The spread of the MLS listing data far and wide across the Internet without check is a worrisome trend that creates possible risk for participants.”

Yet, despite concerns and breaches, the number of MLSs with security policies in place - 46 percent - has not changed from the previous year.

In another security-related area, only 11 percent  of MLSs reported they are tagging or seeding their listing data with traceable characters or entries to make it easier to identify data breaches. Over 60 percent of MLSs are not watermarking their photos to improve identification.

MLSs also focused on the need for their organizations to reinvent themselves to meet the evolving needs of the real estate industry.  One MLS respondent stated, “MLSs should come to grips with the fact that, with the free flow of information on the Internet, they will soon be obsolete.”

Past CRT surveys uncovered a strong desire among REALTORSÒ  for more integration of MLS listing information with related property data. The 2006 survey indicates that MLSs are improving their level of data integration. Seventy-eight percent of respondents now have access to tax data and other information attached to listings from the MLS. Many MLSs also have the ability to auto-fill contact information throughout the MLS system where contact information is required.  MLS respondents stated that many systems also have the ability to map and export data to third-party products.

The number of respondents using transaction management increased from 16 percent last year to 22 percent in the 2006 survey. Half of respondents using TMS said it helped them strengthen their customer relationships and businesses in some way.  It does not appear that clients fully realize the value of transaction management systems, however. Almost 70 percent of REALTORÒ respondents stated that their clients are not interested in using transaction management because they want the REALTOR® to handle the entire transaction on their behalf.

Stay current on the latest CRT happenings. Check out the CRT blog at: http://blog.realtors.org/crt/ 

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