I noticed today a press release describing an agreement between Yahoo!, Zillow, and Trulia regarding the adoption of a new data format standard for the distribution of real estate listings online. Speaking as a web site application developer who has spent over 5 years in the real estate industry, let me just say "Hooray!!".
This press release is pretty benign looking, but to those in the real estate industry it should send chills down your neck. For years Multiple Listing Services have fought over their little regions. They were governed by boards which were heavily influenced by regional politics. Their listing inventory systems were created in response to politics & egos…and it shows. In many cases these MLS systems are nothing short of a complete mess.
If you’re talking about real estate listing inventory then all we’re really talking about is a database. Databases are easy. Yahoo!, Trulia, and Zillow have lots of people that know databases and they know how to organize enormous volumes of data.
My suspicion, is that in the coming years these web sites will gain dominance with customers because they were always designed for customers (not REALTORS & not REALTOR Associations). With this dominance MLS’s will find they have to react to this standard, rather than the other way around.
And lastly, this is all really good, in my opinion. The Internet is good at innovation and the Real Estate industry is failing to lead the charge in this capacity. We can do better for our customers and trust to their empowerment. It's time the real industry was dragged kicking & screaming into the "Internet Age".