Our industry has experienced a turning point with data management. Operating brokerages that have adopted the new RESO® (Real Estate Standards Organization) standards for the delivery of data from their multiple listing organizations understand the enormous benefits. Unfortunately, new data service platforms have struggled to become available in every market. Brokerage firms and their technology partners are living the tale of two cities, gaining advantages in some areas, but lagging behind in others.
For decades, industry pundits and technologists alike have discussed the idea of a national MLS. Regardless of the perception of benefits, the reality is that the national theory fails. The great wisdom that has emerged from the discussion is the pursuit of national data standards that can make MLS data great again. RESO has created and delivered on the data standards, and the National Association of REALTORS® has supported the standards with an MLS policy that mandates adoption by association-owned MLSs. The big flaw in the strategy was the uniform adoption of the standards. Given the goal of sameness, what has happened has fallen short.
Like other technology vendors who service the local multiple listing organization, CoreLogic commenced efforts to deploy a data portal for brokers and technology partners to access the RESO standardized data. Trestle™, CoreLogic’s portal, was launched in 2015 and now serves our Matrix® markets, as well as 14 other MLS markets that use other MLS system providers. The thinking behind Trestle follows a thesis of broker entitlement to assure data rights. We roll all data markets together into Trestle, but brokers are restricted through entitlement to only consume data for the markets where they’re a participant.
The second big idea of Trestle is payload normalization. Even though RESO standards are the same in their scope with the field names and field enumerations, every market starts out with a dataset that’s different from any other market. In years past, the broker or technology partner needed to invest in custom mapping to every market, then process the data to normalize it for an application like your broker or agent websites. Trestle took the bold step of doing that work for brokers and their technology partners. Trestle delivers a standard payload regardless of the market the broker is entitled to access. This is also an enormous benefit to the technology companies.
Has it ever taken days or weeks to process data agreements between you, your MLS and your technology vendor? Trestle has taken a crack at fixing this dilemma also. The Trestle solution offers you or your vendors a contract management system that enables you to complete the application and submit it to all parties for digital signatures and routing. This has taken the pain out of contract management for everyone.
We Added a Twist
There are just over 600 MLSs in the country, and Trestle is available in more than 120 of them today. MLS executives share information about the success of their RESO compliance and the delivery of the new data solutions that improve these services for you. Based upon feedback from the marketplace, CoreLogic is now offering Trestle for any market in America. Many MLS markets offer multiple solutions, ensuring that brokers and technology providers can choose the solution that’s right for them. We can add Trestle to any market solution like FlexMLS®, Rapattoni®, Black Knight® or any other system. The best part is that we will install Trestle into your market for free. If you have a market where data services could be improved, please invite your MLS to contact us about Trestle. #TrestleForEveryone
Amy Gorce is principal, Business Development at CoreLogic®. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com.
CORELOGIC, the CoreLogic logo, MATRIX and TRESTLE are trademarks of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
In Canada, the trademarks MLS®, Multiple Listing Services® and the associated logos are owned by The Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) and identify the quality of services provided by real estate professionals who are members of CREA. CoreLogic is not a member of CREA, but is authorized to provide certain services to CREA’s members.
