Boost Your Real Estate Organization's Productivity with RETS

Advances in technology have allowed countless industries to enhance their business practices and streamline their operations in ways never thought possible. The use of Real Estate Transaction Standards (RETS) in the real estate industry has made it so all computer systems that interact with real estate information do so in a standardized language and format the data in a universal style. By being able to securely exchange information with many different MLS systems, RETS-compliant real estate organizations have been able to gain an advantage over their competitors and provide faster, more updated results to their customers.

Importance of RETS in Real Estate Operations

The framework known as RETS originally came about as a means to solve the inefficiencies that arose from numerous real estate groups wanting to share information among one another. Traditionally, this data was stored in FTP servers and exchanged via FTP protocols. This presented a number of issues as software from different locations could not work uniformly and formatted information in various ways due to lack of standards. Additionally, the only way to perform search queries was to download the datasets again and compare them to a local copy.

The widespread adoption of the RETS framework in the real estate industry has allowed for a standardized manner in which software interacts with Multiple Listing Service (MLS) servers to securely transfer data in a universal format. The use of RETS when building a real estate solutions that receive data from an MLS has also helped organizations gain a large customer base. Real estate brokers using RETS can list multiple properties and sort the entries by specific attributes to help customers find the right home.

RETS Connector and Its Features

Before using RETS, it is imperative to understand the standard RETS documents in order to become RETS-compliant. In many cases, a local MLS can provide access to a RETS server, a RETS client and even tools like RETS Connector. A RETS server must be registered in RETS Connector prior to creating tasks or running search queries from the specified server.

No more than two servers can be registered with the standard version of RETS Connector. Upgrading to the Multiple Server feature, however, will give users the ability to add an unlimited number of servers. Utilizing the RETs Connector application allows users to access a variety of RETS data and create custom search queries and tasks.

The RETS Connector application can be used with a number of compliant RETS servers. The RETS Connector Scheduler service is a feature that is automatically installed with the RETS Connector application. This built-in service lets users schedule and run tasks automatically. RETS Connector can also be designed to send email notifications to alert users when a task has been executed.

Competitive Advantage with RETS Adoption

The adoption of RETS can give your organization a competitive advantage in many ways. Not only will your computer software be able to communicate securely with other MLS systems and display information in a uniform language, but the use of RETS can also help produce reports and other materials quickly and automatically. Imagine being able to grow your client base while also being able to offer higher quality customer service through accurate listings and detailed documents.