MLS PIN, Massachusetts’ largest multiple listing service (MLS), has signed on to become one of the first multiple listing services nationwide to launch a new technology project – the “Spark Platform” – which aims to help standardize real estate data.

The Spark Platform is the brainchild of FBS, a North Dakota-based MLS vendor which developed the Flex MLS product in use by more than 100 listing services nationwide – but not MLS PIN.

Even though MLS PIN has its own internal developers to manage its data, helping standardize real estate data seemed like an important goal, MLS PIN CEO Kathy Condon told Banker & Tradesman.

“It helps us in establishing more standards in the industry,” Condon said. “It may help some young entrepreneurs get started who will be providing products to my customers. That was why we signed on to it.”

The platform is the latest attempt to solve an age-old problem in the real estate industry: Getting the roughly 900-odd multiple listing services across the country to play well together.

“The primary impetus for it is to help promote standards for data,” said FBS President and CEO Michael Wurzer. “We’ve been working on data standards for a long time. There’s been a lot of work that’s happened, but not a lot of implementation. [We want] to make it happen.”

Making sure real estate data is successfully standardized is increasingly important as consumers do more and more of their home searches on mobile devices. Hiring developers to create a customized mobile app can be costly, well beyond the reach of many independent brokerages. That means mobile-generated leads end up in the hands of large franchisors or third-party gatekeepers like Zillow and Trulia.

If real estate data becomes standardized, it opens up the field for developers to create apps that could work with MLS’ nationally – and thus be affordable to smaller players.

Under Control

While a handful of large MLS’ serve tens of thousands of agents, many serve far fewer, and idiosyncrasies abound in their rules regarding what information agents are required to include when entering a listing.

And that can cause problems when it comes to adapting – and adopting – new technology. An organization was launched in the late 1990s to come up with “data standards” to help tame the problem, and the Real Estate Transaction Standards (RETS) it came up with have officially been endorsed by the National Association of Realtors. But while the RETS standards have been diligently updated over the years to keep up with new technology, many smaller listing services have proven less nimble and are still using outdated versions.

The problem is compounded by MLS requirements that any service or application using their data be frequently updated to cull outdated listings. Using current technology, vendors generally keep a copy of the MLS data on their own servers and continually update it.

But that also means designing a new piece of software for brokers and agents requires a considerable upfront investment – and makes any change in the way the data is presented a huge hassle for vendors. It also means that info an agent or broker has collected using one application can’t be easily transferred to another.

FBS’ Spark Platform is a two-pronged effort to change this, by making it easier for developers to create new applications and funneling those new applications through an “app store” to make it easier for brokers, MLS’ and agents alike to find and use them.

The first step involves the creation of an application program interface (API) for the real estate industry. APIs act as a kind of digital universal translator, allowing data from one site or service to be safely displayed on another.

With an API, the data itself stays on MLS’ servers, under their control. That makes it easier for outside developers to come up with new programs, since it reduces upfront costs. It also means information stays in one place, and can be easily transferred from one service to another.

Compatibility Issues

FBS is hoping that agents will take advantage of those advantages through its own app store, which mimics the app stores smartphone users use to add new programs to their phones. Like Apple, FBS said it plans to take a 30 percent cut of sales processed through its store.

“Everybody agrees that standards are important, and they can see the long-term benefits of it,” Wurzer said. “But there’s nothing to make them do it right now. The reason we created the store was primarily to create that economic incentive.”

“[With an iPhone] you download an app and it just works for you. It knows who you are. That can’t be done today in real estate,” said Victor Lund, a consultant with WAV Group and president and CEO of RE Technology, Inc., an information source on real estate technology. “It cannot exist unless [the industry moves to] APIs.”

But, warned Lund, convincing existing vendors to switch to an API may be tricky, as it won’t be compatible with their current products. And convincing new entrepreneurs to enter the market will depend on getting enough real estate agents to buy into new applications. That might be a tough sell, with the proportion of tech-savvy agents chomping at the bit to try out new toys vastly outnumbered by old-fashioned agents reluctant to spend time learning new tools if their current ones are sufficient.

“It’s going to make everything a lot easier, but it’s going to be very complex getting there,” Lund concluded.

Still, Condon said, she thinks there’s enough virtue in the new possibilities allowed for by an API to tempt agents.

“The hope is that a lot of the vendors and the developers will adopt these standards, because it gives the customer a heck of a larger choice,” Condon said. “‘All of a sudden, my information’s portable!’ How delightful.” said Condon.