Boost Your Real Estate Organization’s Productivity with RETS
As a real estate company, you’ve gotten used to working with your local multiple listing service (MLS) to keep listings on your agents’ pages. The MLS allows your brokerage and agents to show local listings on their personal blogs and your agency’s website.
A RETS integration or RETS feed allows you to do the same thing, but do it faster and more easily. It also improves the look of your listings, your agents’ websites and the overall online experience for customers. A RETS feed can increase your agents’ productivity and help them sell more property.
What Is a RETS Feed?
A RETS feed connects raw data directly from the MLS to your website using the Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS). The RETS is the standard format and language used by all realtors to describe their properties on the MLS. It includes a specific format, acronyms and terms that all professional real estate agents understand.
By using this universal real estate language, a RETS feed allows you to import and show property listings directly on your website.
Is Your MLS RETS-Compliant?
In order to work with a RETS feed, your local MLS must become what the National Association of Realtors (NAR) calls RETS-compliant, meaning the MLS is ready to transmit raw feed. Once that happens, the MLS is able to update listings and send out updated listings every few hours.
What does this mean for real estate agents? It means an opportunity to have the latest, most complete listings possible. It means having the ability to move your personal websites and broker websites higher up in the search rankings.
How Does a RETS Feed Differ From What You’re Using Now?
If you’re not already on a RETS feed, you are probably getting your MLS updates through an IDX frame. IDX stands for Internet Data Exchange, and it is the traditional way of transmitting information from an MLS to an individual real estate website.
Why Does the Difference Matter?
The main difference is in the way data gets transferred. When it sends information out through an IDX, your MLS sends it as a finished product. A RETS feed, on the other hand, sends out raw data. You need additional software to adapt the data to your website.
This has advantages, however, because it means you can use the data the way you want. It also helps increase your SEO rankings because the data is linked to your website rather than to the MLS.
Bottom Line: What Can a RETS Feed Do for You?
Improve Your Website Experience for Visitors and Potential Clients
Without RETS integration, real estate agents must rely on showing listings from the MLS on their websites. Their listings don’t show up on Google or other search engines. Visitors to the agent’s website encounter a list of properties that look the same there as they do on every other agent’s website.
With a RETS feed, agents can customize the way listings look on their websites. They can select only the properties they want to highlight, and keep tabs on whether the property is still available or if a contract has been offered.
They can also increase their ability to be indexed on leading search engines.
Benefits of a RETS Feed
As a real estate agent or broker, the main advantages of a RETS feed over an IDX frame are:
- Freedom to select and show only the properties you want.
- Under most MLS RETS contracts, you are the only person that can use your specific RETS feed, and only you can display property listings from it.
- By hosting the listings directly on your website, you can make your website searchable by search engines.
- Better data management control.
- Faster refresh speeds mean your listings are as accurate and up-to-date as they can be.
- Ability to pull listings from all local MLS at once. Direct connection to MLS servers makes this fast and easy.
Get Real-Time Data
One of the best features of a RETS feed is the ability to see updates to a property’s status in real-time. The sale or purchase of a property involves many different people including brokers, realtors, buyers’ agents, mortgage lenders and others who need ongoing, updated information. A RETS feed allows all interested parties to get updated information quickly and easily.
Improve Security
Security is always improved when you can hold data in one place rather than sending it out along dozens of other channels. With a RETS feed, security occurs on three levels. The feed requires authentication of a user, authentication of each session and program authentication.
Enable Realtors to Get the Information They Need
RETS gives your brokers and agents more options by allowing them to see many different MLS offerings at once. The ability to see the total available market of properties gives them the information they need to filter, compare and highlight certain properties for their own websites.
Better Selection for Buyers
A RETS feed allows realtors to select properties for their clients based on their clients’ specifications, skipping over any that don’t meet the specified criteria. That’s a time saver for everyone.
Better Exposure for Sellers
A RETS feed allows sellers’ agents to get their listings in front of more prospects and to do it in a more attractive, customer-friendly way.
The speed of RETS feeds compared to MLS listings also helps realtors. RETS is a productivity-enhancing option for every real estate office that uses it.
Get Ahead of Your Competition with RETS Integration
Are you ready to get started with a RETS feed and get ahead of your competition? At Chetu, we make it quick and easy to jump right in. All it takes is a click on our link or a phone call. Get started today with a fast, safe, secure RETS feed that will boost your real estate business.