Real estate agents and brokers are surrounded by data, but it often comes from a variety of sources, doesn’t necessarily play well together, and lives in places where agents can’t show it off to their clients. One of the largest real estate data companies in the nation may change that.

  • The new Trestle dashboard from CoreLogic will offer brokers, MLSs and tech companies a marketplace to purchase MLS and CoreLogic data.
  • Brokers and tech companies will be able to get a single data feed with standardized data from multiple MLSs to use in their agent tools and websites. Brokers will also be able to syndicate their own listing data.
  • Trestle will help MLSs earn non-dues revenue and manage their data contracts.

Real estate agents and brokers are surrounded by data, but it often comes from a variety of sources, doesn’t necessarily play well together, and lives in places where agents can’t show it off to their clients.

One of the largest real estate data companies in the nation may change that.

In August, Irvine, California-based CoreLogic will launch what it has called a “data mart” for real estate data. The new software product, dubbed “Trestle,” will function as a marketplace where brokers and technology companies will be able to request access to data from as many as 300 MLSs as well as several additional datasets offered by CoreLogic.

“Whether you are a broker looking for unique content to give your website a competitive edge, a technology provider coding the next killer app, or a multiple listing organization supporting numerous subscribers and data relationships, Trestle by CoreLogic simplifies, unifies and transform the marketplace through which content is provided,” the company’s website states.

Chris Bennett

Chris Bennett

CoreLogic first developed Trestle as an effort to help multiple listing services meet data standards developed by the nonprofit Real Estate Standards Organization and required by the National Association of Realtors, Chris Bennett, CoreLogic’s general manager of real estate solutions, told Inman.

“This began as [a way to meet] RESO certification on data standards, but we are expanding it to where there will be a dashboard and user interface for MLSs, brokers and technology providers to access an API not only with MLS listing data but also public record data, school data, AVMs — the types of assets that Corelogic has,” Bennett said.

Trestle takes the real estate industry “a little bit further” into what has long been a goal of real estate data standards: “plug and play” tools that can be used by any agent or broker whose MLS complies with the standards, Bennett added.

Three MLSs representing at least 100,000 agents and brokers nationwide have already expressed support for the Trestle dashboard: the Houston Association of Realtors, My Florida Regional MLS, and Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (MRIS).

What’s in it for agents and brokers

Through Trestle, a broker that belongs to multiple MLSs will be able to get a single data feed that unifies each MLS’s listing data. Brokers will also be able to syndicate their own listing data and subscribe to use MLS or CoreLogic data in their own systems.

Bob Hale

Bob Hale

“Trestle will streamline the way that brokers can access real estate information,” HAR President and CEO Bob Hale said in a statement.

“Brokers and their franchisees that span multiple markets will be especially excited about Trestle’s ability to provide unified and standardized data sets.”

When asked how agents will benefit, Bennett said, “It probably is somewhat in line with benefits to the broker. It’s the ease of access and the ability to marry up data assets from CoreLogic as well as the the active listing and historical information from MLSs that will allow websites to have a more robust level of information to capture more consumers.”

“Trestle will help local real estate brokers give their agents and clients a richer experience than they can get from a national portal,” Bennett said in a statement.

The types of CoreLogic data brokers can purchase include historical public record data, occupant data (who is living in the home according to the deed, how long they’ve lived in the home, number of occupants), school information, neighborhood information, AVM (home value) data, analytics on the home and neighborhood data, Bennett said.

Trestle itself is free, he said. The cost for brokers, MLSs and tech firms will depend on which data sets they want, he added.

MLSs that charge for their data will post those fees on Trestle, and CoreLogic will not get a cut of those fees — the company will only receive fees for CoreLogic data that is licensed, Bennett said.

What’s in it for MLSs and tech companies

Trestle will allow MLSs to set up data feeds to brokers and tech companies; manage data contracts, fees and payments; and track usage of their data through administrative controls, CoreLogic said.

In addition, Trestle will keep participating MLSs compliant with RESO data standards, “removing a future concern and cost for MLS participants,” the company added. The next RESO requirement deadline is June 30 and CoreLogic will be assisting MLSs to meet it, Bennett said.

David Charron

David Charron

“Compliance is one of the most important business issues any MLS faces,” said David Charron, president and CEO of MRIS, in a statement.

“We are considering aligning with Trestle not only because it delivers RESO-compliant content, but because it also will empower MLSs to swiftly deliver cross-market listings and other enhanced content to their members as we all push to alter and dramatically improve the real estate transaction process.”

Tech companies will, like brokers, be able to obtain a single data feed that unifies listing data from multiple MLSs and subscribe to use MLS or CoreLogic data to develop and deliver new applications, the company said.

The process would work like this, according to Bennett:

On Trestle, MLSs would spell out their requirements for different levels of data access. If the tech firm agrees to an MLS’s requirements, the firm would fill out an online agreement and request the data from the MLS. The request then goes to the MLS.

At that point, either the MLS agrees to the request or negotiates an agreement on its own. CoreLogic won’t manage the negotiations, but will distribute the data according to the permissions laid out in the agreement.

Any tech firm that wants to access MLS data can use Trestle, including sites such as Zillow and realtor.com, Bennett said.

A competitor to Zillow’s Retsly Connect?

Portal giant Zillow recently launched Retsly Connect, a tool that offers standardized MLS data and public property data to software vendors through an API (application programming interface).

In that sense, Trestle may be a competitor to Retsly Connect, though Bennett was hesitant to say so.

“I don’t know that we would consider it to be a competitor. I don’t know everything that Retsly does. We’re just providing a service to MLS partners and brokers that allow them to have an easier access to information and data,” he said.

One difference is that so far only six MLSs are making their data available through Retsly. By contrast, 20 or so MLSs have already signed up to offer their data through Trestle, according to Bennett.

“Because CoreLogic already aggregates and normalizes data for more than 300 MLS platforms, we have the scale and capacity to rapidly deploy Trestle, whether an MLS is on a CoreLogic platform or uses another vendor’s system or is even a homegrown solution,” Bennett said.

CoreLogic has already used Trestle to help 126 MLSs comply with RESO standards, which means that all those MLSs have to do is reach out to let CoreLogic know they’d like to be added to the dashboard — no agreement needed, Bennett said.

“The CoreLogic Trestle service will be a game-changer,” wrote Victor Lund of WAV Group in an Inman article commenting on Retsly Connect’s potential influence in the industry. WAV Group provides consulting services to CoreLogic.

“It has the largest, most well maintained MLS and public record data found anywhere — and it is the incumbent in more than half of the MLSs. Black Knight could do the same thing, but I am not sure whether it plans to at this point.”

Email Andrea V. Brambila.

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