Well the day has finally arrived! We have been working diligently behind the scenes for the last 2 ½ months on replacing our MLS gateway solution with a new RETS based database solution.
What is RETS you ask? The Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS) is a new web-services protocol standard that facilitates the exchange of data between Multiple Listing Services (MLS) and Brokers/Associates. The current Internet Data Exchange (IDX) system is not a standard at all and in fact one of the main problems with the current system is that it is often proprietary to a particular MLS. RETS will solve these compatibility problems and ease communication issues across the industry, thus benefiting consumers as well.
But there is more! Since RETS is web-service based there is no longer any need to download the entire local MLS database in the wee hours of the morning or do weekly updates. RETS facilitates a near real-time database update procedure that deals only with modifications that have occurred since the last query and also supports queries on individual properties. No more out of sync distributed IDX databases littered with already sold properties!
Don't get me wrong, the last 2 ½ months have been plenty painful and full of bug fixes on both sides of our MLS link. Nevertheless, we are proud to have served (even as a guinea pig) in blazing this technology trail for our local Huntsville market. The National Association of Realtors has mandated member MLS' support this standard by June of 2009 and our North Alabama MLS (NAMLS) is already compliant.
The new RETS website can be accessed via the normal links of our Huntsville Real Estate Blog or it can be accessed directly at www.NorthernAlabamaHomes.com . The public interface is free to the public without registration, however registered Users and Members receive advanced property search services.
I want to thank my husband Tim, for working so hard developing this for me. Every moment, of every weekend for the past couple of months. Literally! I"m so proud of my new MLS search tools but more importantly, I"m so proud of Tim.
Enjoy and Thanks for Visiting - Elizabeth
Relocating to Huntsville Alabama or need information on Huntsville Alabama Real Estate please call or email me today.
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Elizabeth:
Great info. I just learned about RETS the other day and was glad to see a confirmation that I sort of understood what the person told me. I am on our MLS committee so I know what hard work you had to put in without people appreciating it. Thank goodness there are people like you out there!
Mary