Takeaways:
- The Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) hopes to use data standards to make a fully automated real estate transaction a reality.
- A new work group focused on online data tracking could help brokers and agents better target their advertising efforts for listings.
- Multiple listing services could also use a standardized tracking method to glean information to make business decisions about which vendors to use.
A nonprofit whose goal is a fully automated real estate transaction has formed a work group focused on tracking real estate data online. The move could ultimately help brokers and agents figure out which advertising channels give them more bang for their buck.
The Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) counts associations, multiple listing services, brokerages and vendors across the industry among its members. RESO formed its new Internet Tracking work group in response to growing interest in big data analysis and in developing ways to measure the value of data displayed, according to a press release.
Jeremy Crawford
“Today across the nation, brokers and agents advertise listings through hundreds of different outlets,” said Jeremy Crawford, RESO’s executive director, in a statement.
“Understanding the value proposition of their advertising efforts and the reach of those efforts are critical to their everyday business.
“The new Internet Tracking work group chartered by the RESO board of directors will strive to create standards, which will allow for brokers and agents to have transparency into the Internet listing activity and even behaviors by consumers so the brokers and agents know where best to focus their efforts and what is truly successful.”
The listing tracking information will also help technology and advertising companies tailor their products, services and “targeted outreaches” to best serve their broker and agent customers, Crawford said.
The work group’s first chair is Chris Lambrou, director of special projects and research and development for Chicagoland MLS Midwest Real Estate Data (MRED).
Chris Lambrou
Lambrou noted that RESO’s standard on tracking real estate data would be beneficial to all involved.
“Tracking data is a key component for any modern-day data set,” he said in a statement.
“No longer is having the data secure and readily available enough. True analytics that show value are now expected and commonplace in the software industry.”
MRED President and CEO Rebecca Jensen said tracking product usage among MRED’s vendors is key.
“MLSs need to make business decisions with this data, and it will help us compare ‘apples to apples,'” she said in a statement.
