Where Real Estate Gets Its Dirt

The Official Vendor Alley Clubhouse Event

My first Clubhouse event was a big hit! Thank you to everyone who participated. I’m going to make this a recurring event, I’m calling the room, “Alley Cats”.

Every Tuesday at 3PM PT we will choose 1 topic and discuss it for 1 hour. It’s that simple. I will announce the topic ahead of time. If you want to make a topic suggestion, hit me up.

This week we discussed, what actually is an “active user”. We had a great conversation with MLS vendors, brokers, agents, and third-party vendors.

Don’t miss out. iPhone only for now and requires an invite. Let me know if you need one. Join us next week. See link below:

Alley Cats – Tuesday, March 16th.

Join me on Clubhouse, today at 3PM Pacific.

First off if you don’t know what Clubhouse is, here’s a brief description from the New York Times.

“What is it?

A social networking app that lets people gather in audio chat rooms to discuss various topics, whether it’s sports, wellness, art or why Bitcoin is headed to $87,000. Rooms are usually divided into two groups: those who are talking and those who are listening (participants can see a list of everyone who is in a conversation, and the numbers sometimes run into the thousands). Unlike Twitter, Clubhouse is a closed, hierarchical platform: A moderator oversees discussions and has the ability to let someone chime in or to kick out the unruly. In addition to the “clubs” sorted by topic, two or more users can join together and start their own chat room.”

You’ll need to download the app and have an invite. I have a few to give out. First come, first serve. Also, Clubhouse is iPhone only for now.

I’m going to start the room on Clubhouse at 3PM today, PT. The topic I want to discuss is What is an “active user”.

If an agent has created a website but doesn’t login to the backend every month, do they not find value in having the website?

If an agent creates listing alerts for their past/active clients but doesn’t login to the backend of the app and change anything, does that mean their clients don’t see any value? Is “set it, and forget it” a bad thing?

If a vast majority of agents barely do one transaction per year and barely log in to the MLS, why should they pay monthly MLS dues?

Let’s face it, if you tied value to app usage then the clock on your computer desktop would cost $500 per month.

It’s complicated. I see all sides to this. But most times “logins” are not the answer. Sometimes just using the app once a year is worth it.

Increasingly vendors are under pressure because MLS organizations and associations are under pressure to deliver services that members value. But how we define “value” is, well, complicated. Especially since most agents don’t do many transactions.

The nature of Clubhouse is that it’s a live conversation, and not recorded. So join me at 3PM for a safe space to discuss this topic, hopefully, it can spur more offline conversations that can lead to a greater understanding of this complicated issue.

Listing Bits Episode 66: How Standards Streamline PropTech – with Sam DeBord of RESO

Policy may not be sexy, but without standards around how we format real estate data and build technology systems, we simply can’t share data or integrate the tools we need to do our jobs well.

Sam DeBord serves as CEO of the Real Estate Standards Organization, the trade group responsible for developing the open standards that drive efficiency and streamline technology for the industry. His resume includes a wide range of leadership positions in the real estate space, including President’s Liaison for MLS and Data Management at NAR and VP of Government Affairs with Washington Realtors. Sam is also the VP of Strategic Growth for Coldwell Banker Danforth in Seattle and writes for REALTOR Magazine, Inman News and the Swanepoel Trends Report.

On this episode of Listing Bits, Sam describes RESO’s role in the real estate industry, explaining how the standards set by his organization provide certainty for developers and support data shares and tech integrations. He shares the progress RESO has made in the last year, discussing what they have done to streamline compliance certifications and initiate the proposed Listing Exchange Access Policy. Listen in for Sam’s insight on the constraints of the current market (and the new tech that’s emerged as a result) and find out how he thinks about the kerfuffle surrounding the most recent mergers and acquisitions in the real estate space.

What’s Discussed:  

What RESO does to create efficiencies and streamline tech for the real estate industry

RESO’s evolution to an independent trade organization and how it relies on thousands of volunteer SMEs to build its Workgroups

RESO’s recent work to streamline its compliance certifications and create a new development guide for vendors

How RESO standards provide certainty for developers and support data shares and integrations

Why Sam is a proponent of creating a single policy for how data is used and displayed (and how that would help brokers)

RESO’s work with the broker community and CMLS to draft the proposed Listing Exchange Access Policy

The progress RESO has made in just the last year to align industry trade organizations, brokers and MLSs around common goals

How RESO standards helped facilitate the NorCal MLS Alliance

Sam’s take on how the artificial constraints of the current market impact agents and the tech facilitating the trend to buy homes sight unseen 

How Sam thinks about the most recent mergers and acquisitions in the real estate space

Why proptech companies need to recognize our cultural preference to work with an agent

The potential problems associated with a broker-member of an MLS being paid by that MLS for a technology service

Connect with Sam:

Real Estate Standards Organization

Email sam[at]reso[dot]org

Sam on Twitter

Resources:

RESO Workgroups

RESO Web API Tools & Software

RESO’s Broker Advisory Workgroup

RESO Certification

2020 RESO Certification Updates

Andy Woolley

CMLS

NAR

NAR’s MLS Technology & Emerging Issues Advisory Board

Summary of NAR’s 2021 MLS Policy Changes

CMLS’s Participant Data Access Policy

LeadingRE

The Realty Alliance

CMLS’s CCP Implementation Guide

RESO Compliance Guide

NorCal MLS Alliance

Zillow Economist Jeff Tucker on Industry Relations EP059

CoStar

Zillow’s Acquisition of ShowingTime

Greg on Twitter

RESO’s Unique Organizational Identifier (UOI)

Victor Lund at WAV Group

RESO Remix

RESO’s 2021 Fall Conference

Our Sponsor:

Cloud CMA

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