RETS...Can't You Get That From Mosquitos?
Posted in Northwest Inhabitants By Austin Smith, Monday, February 23, 2009.There's been a loud hullabaloo in the industry lately concerning IDX feeds. Unfortunately, the staggering amount of people who are unreasonably excited about IDX is equaled and possibly even surpassed by the amount of folks who couldn't tell IDX from their own left hand. I myself was included in the ranks of the un-knowledgeable until I received enlightenment not twenty minutes ago. Now, verily do I pass unto you:
Methinks that most of the confusion surrounding IDX has to do with the fact that IDX is an acronym. Allow me to define IDX, and while I'm at it, some of IDX's acronym'd friends: IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange, and is nothing more than the concept of displaying MLS information on a website. FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol, and is the old standard for networking MLS information. RETS stands for Real Estate Transaction Standard, and is the new standard for networking MLS information. Think of it like this: IDX is what you do, RETS and FTP is the way you do it. Let's break these down a little further:
There are several problems with the FTP standard, hence NAR's mandate concerning the obligatory RETS switch. First off, FTP feeds are only updated once in a 24-hour period. This means that there is a one day turnaround from when an agent updates his/her listings to the point at which the information is made available through the database. The extreme variation of data in FTP feeds has also led many organizations to simply 'framing' a listing search engine into their website; this results in a serious blow to their SEO, not to mention aesthetic appeal. FTP has been described as 'clunky' since information must be aggregated and verified from Point A and B, then delivered to Point C.
RETS, on the other hand, is a real-time feed that is updated in, you guessed it, real time. RETS cuts out the middle man (Point B), allowing for one-stop info exchange between MLS offices. The "common language spoken by systems that handle real estate information" also makes life easier for website developers by standardizing data input. This means that a RETS feed will deliver the same data fields in Virginia Beach as it would in San Luis Obispo.
So Why Should We All Be Happy About RETS?
Beyond the peace of mind achieved by using tried and true methods (reliable and standard in any area), RETS has several role-specific benefits. Agents will enjoy an influx of available vendors to choose from that will augment their business by integrating with the agent's standardized MLS. For vendors, a switch to RETS means saved development time and resources, as well as a larger pool of market opportunities. In other words, an entire industry operating off of the same standard is one big possibility for tech vendors. Brokers will profit as well; due to the increased competition between vendors, the productivity tools available will only get more refined and more valuable. Office websites will be populated easier, and data will be easier to compile and manage for offices who deal with more than one MLS.
While the mandated IDX switch may be an administrative burr under the saddle of most brokers, it is undeniable that such a change will do loads for the productivity of the industry. I have a hard time seeing how someone might have an issue with simplified data sharing. Short and sweet, it benefits everyone involved: from vendors to brokers down to buyers. I'm with NAR on this one; this could pan out to be the crucial change the industry needs to begin correcting itself.
You must login or register to post a comment.
Submitted by Tina Merritt on March 1, 2009 - 8:49am.
And then there are the MLS's that do not offer their agents any IDX - like the one I belong to: REIN (Real Estate Information Network). In our case here in Southeastern Virginia, the agents don't need to know what IDX is because they can't get it. Sad.
Submitted by Antonio Ciccarone on March 1, 2009 - 9:06am.
There are lots of stubborn vendors out there who would rather not change there 2002 code-base.
Framing IDX isn't that bad, think about the duplicate MLS data / numbers / keywords around the web. The best SEO is your featured properties and personal touch. I'd be willing to say that I don't think agents need an idx search on their own site anymore.
Being a web developer, not really in the real estate market, looking to buy... I'd never ever go to a personal site to search. I would go, however, to learn more about that agent.
Submitted by Jim Lee, Knoxville TN Realtor on March 1, 2009 - 9:14am.
Tina,
There are lots of outside companies that can build you an IDX search capability for a reasonable fee.
Jim Lee, CRS, ABR, GRI, NAR Certified e-PRO Trainer
Realty Executives Associates, Knoxville, Tennessee
www.KnoxvilleHomeCenter.com mailto:Jim@JimLee.com
(865) 693-3232, My Personal Toll Free # 1-800-662-2488 ext. 163
**********************************
Submitted by Lance Ziegler on March 1, 2009 - 11:06am.
Unfortunately having duplicates around the internet are not the ideal way to optimize your online marketing campaigns. Indexing spiders and Google bots will disregard duplicates when they find them and in most cases disregard websites with frames. They also ignore flash sites and virtual tours built on flash technology. If you are using virtual tours that are built with flash they never even see the search engines. Using a VT technology that is SEO compatible will make sure even your virtual tours will be indexed. The ideal way to optimize your listings for search engines is to mix up your titles and descriptions on each inclusion. This helps to eliminate duplicate info and gives you a better chance that all your inclusions will be indexed. You see, indexing robots will search the whole internet for relevant content and if it finds duplicate info, it will ignore all but one. So you wasted your time.
As for IDX, there are much better ways these days to post your properties and to get real results locally and globally. Social Networks and bookmarking sites are a good way to create viral marketing and world wide exposure. Plus, each networking site or bookmarking site allows you to optimize your inclusion with titles and descriptions and in some cases tags and keywords. This gives you freedom from expensive SEO. This will allow you to create multiple content over several networks and have all them tied together under one roof such as Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. You can also connect RSS feeds from any site and keep fresh content on your sites daily. It takes time to set up, but well worth the effort. We have been developing new marketing strategies using these techniques with our virtual tour technology and have had tremendous success in helping our clients to spread there data all over the internet. We have a network of 1500 dealers in 25 countries working together to post, blog and comment on each others client's property listings. I'll be glad to show anyone what we show our clients.
Lance Ziegler
e-toursonline Interactive Media
Bradenton Virtual Tour Company
www.e-toursonline.com
941-795-6978
Submitted by Antonio Ciccarone on March 1, 2009 - 11:08am.
What Lance Said.
~ Antonio Ciccarone
~ Web Developer / Designer
~ darkcss@gmail.com
~ blog.urbiance.com
Submitted by Jolynne Ash on March 1, 2009 - 2:16pm.
I get the IDX stuff. Buy here's a question. I'm thinking about putting a widigt on my site that is linked to my blog and updates everytime I post. Is a widigt something the indexing spiders can read? If so does this qualify for that daily update you mentioned?
Jolynne Ash, Broker/Owner
DreamStreet Real Estate
www.jolynne.com
Submitted by Jeff Manson on March 1, 2009 - 2:20pm.
@Antonio - Most consumers go to a real estate site to search for properties. So having a good IDX makes sense.
Jeff Manson
American Dream Realty Hawaii
Hawaiis
Submitted by Antonio Ciccarone on March 1, 2009 - 2:33pm.
Well yea, but most of them are going to the large and trusted sites before going to site where they have to say... sign up before viewing a specific property.
~ Antonio Ciccarone
~ Web Developer / Designer
~ darkcss@gmail.com
~ blog.urbiance.com
Submitted by Riel Roussopoulos on March 1, 2009 - 2:34pm.
RETS and IDX are not the same thing.
IDX doesn't offer you much flexibility, it's basically just a feed of the data in a format that lets you display it in a window on your site.
RETS (Real Estate Transaction Server) allows your database programmer (like me :) to access the raw data and format it in a nicer / more unique way than the IDX feed would allow .. giving you more freedom to have an individual look, not like those of your other agents.
Also from an SEO point of view, it allows you to have the listings appear as their own pages rather than a feed from another (more important in google's eyes) site.
Placing the address in the URL and Page titles has a very positive effect on search engine rankings and that's not something most IDX feeds will allow you to do.
Check out how we're using RETS to build community specific sites with local listings on
http://liveonmain.com/real-estate/listings
or
http://liveinyaletown.ca/real-estate/listings
Learn more about the livein project here:
http://liveinmyneighbourhood.com
let me know if you'd like one for your area.
--------------------
http://ViralListings.com | http://YourFarmer.com | http://rem20.com
We build your business online.
Submitted by Jeff Manson on March 1, 2009 - 2:37pm.
It all depends on who is getting the traffic. Has nothing to do with trust.
Jeff Manson
American Dream Realty Hawaii
Hawaiis
Submitted by Jeff Manson on March 1, 2009 - 2:45pm.
You can do the same thing with an IDX feed. Usually RETS has more data, but you can display it the same way if you have a good vendor. I have three boards on my site. One is RETS and two are IDX. Can display them the same way.
Real Geeks will be offering the solution in about two months once they finish the map search and lead management system.
We put it on a San Diego site that used to have the 1 Park Place IDX solution (they claim to convert 3 times higher) and the leads have gone up 4 to 6 times.
Jeff Manson
American Dream Realty Hawaii
Hawaiis
Submitted by Austin Smith on March 2, 2009 - 8:42am.
Tina - Jim has a good point. I would encourage you to pressure your Board/MLS to provide some sort of IDX feed. If they won't do it, secure your own 'private contractor'. An office w/o a property search is simply ineffective.
Anthony - Same thing. A website w/o a property search is simply ineffective. True enough, most people will go to larger sites first to search for properties, but ultimately real estate transactions are hyper-local, and to receive hyper-local information you need to access a hyper-local agent. These local agents may or may not require some sort of 'registration' for property search, but this is by no means the standard and is in fact frowned upon due to the negative user experience you referred to.
As far as property search goes, they are the standard. In fact, they are so important that agents were risking their licenses/careers by offering property searches on their websites, to hell with NAR's mandate. That is what the consumer wants, and that is what the DOJ saw fit to grant them. SImply put, an agent website w/o a listing database is a terrible idea and will generate zero business. Jeff Mason echoes this point in his comment above.
Riel - Right you are...RETS and IDX aren't the same thing. Thank you for elaborating on this point and adding some technical expertise to the mix. However, RETS stands for Real Estate Transaction Standard (check out http://www.rets.org)
Submitted by Lance Ziegler on March 2, 2009 - 8:52am.
Jolynne,
Yes widgets are a good thing when used properly. And yes it does count as fresh material daily. By doing this you are making the right steps toward what we believe is the next big trend. The social networking and bookmarking business is exploding!! This is viral marketing at its best. If your content is attractive and really stands out people will like it and bookmark it to their network and then their friends will and you see the big picture.
Make sure your feeds are linking back to your pages. Use anchor text at least two times for each keyword and make sure your keywords are in the title and description. Spiders don't actually read the widget, they read the content that is posted within the widget. Making sure that you mix up your postings with different titles and descriptions will help search engine spiders recognize the content as unique, even though it is the same listing or article. And, my liitle secret, try to post to sites that have powerful backlinking power. This will improve your website page ranking with Google.
Jolynne, go to my friendfeed at this address.
http://apps.facebook.com/friendfeed/lanceziegler
This is our network of virtual tour dealers around the world. We all use Real Tour Vision technology. But what we learned is that by bringing in feeds from other dealers not only helps them, but helps me too. When they post, it goes to my facebook account and auto posted to my friendfeed. When I make posts or blogs or comments, it goes to there feed. So we are literally building each others networks with very little effort. We have seen the value of social networking and bookmarking and we are now mastering it with the direction of our National Marketing Manager. I hope this helps.
Personnally I think IDX is going to be a thing of the past. RETS is probably going to be the main system in the very near future. And ten years from now rETS will be a thing of the past. But let me leave all of you with this, your listing pages are just a final resting place for your properties. You really have to put your content out there, everywhere you can. Why, because it all leads back to one place.....you and your listings. Average consumer will stand a better chance of finding you if you are everywhere.
Lance Ziegler
e-toursonline Interactive Media
Bradenton Virtual Tour Company
www.e-toursonline.com
941-795-6978
Submitted by Austin Smith on March 2, 2009 - 8:57am.
Lance - awesome. Thanks for filling in the blanks where i fell short.
Submitted by Lance Ziegler on March 2, 2009 - 9:21am.
Your welcome Austin.
Lance Ziegler
e-toursonline Interactive Media
Bradenton Virtual Tour Company
www.e-toursonline.com
Submitted by Lance Ziegler on March 2, 2009 - 9:21am.
Your welcome Austin.
Lance Ziegler
e-toursonline Interactive Media
Bradenton Virtual Tour Company
www.e-toursonline.com
Submitted by Lance Ziegler on March 2, 2009 - 9:21am.
Your welcome Austin.
Lance Ziegler
e-toursonline Interactive Media
Bradenton Virtual Tour Company
www.e-toursonline.com
Submitted by Austin Smith on March 2, 2009 - 9:24am.
Haha...thank you thank you thank you.