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Multi-listing Services, RESO Standards, and How We Ingest Data

What is a Multi Listing Service (MLS)?​

MLSes are a critical component in the real estate industry, acting as a comprehensive database of property listings available for sale or rent. It's a system primarily used by real estate brokers and agents to share information about properties with other brokers who may represent potential buyers or tenants.

There are numerous independently operated MLSs across regions and even within a single country, each serving a specific geographic area or market. These MLSs may have their own rules, data standards, and membership requirements, contributing to the diversity and uniqueness of each MLS.

The Role of RESO Standards​

For many years, the lack of a unified standard in data formats among Multiple Listing Services (MLS) posed a substantial hurdle for real estate agents, developers, and technology providers, impeding efficient aggregation, interpretation, and utilization of information across different platforms. Enter The Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) has established a set of standards to streamline and standardize the way data is distributed by MLS API services. These standards, known as RESO standards, include data formats, definitions, and protocols designed to ensure consistency and interoperability among different real estate systems and tools.

LiveBy’s Data Standardization​

LiveBy ingests data from more than 300 MLSs in the United States and Canada, each having varying levels of compliance with RESO standards. To address this, LiveBy collaborates with data standardization partners to normalize and map non-compliant data to the corresponding RESO fields as effectively as possible.

MLS Pulse: Our Proactive Monitoring Tool​

In response to these challenges, we have developed MLS Pulse, an innovative internal monitoring tool designed to maintain the integrity and reliability of our MLS data. MLS Pulse serves several crucial functions:

  1. Change Detection: It continuously monitors the data we receive for any changes or anomalies, ensuring that our information reflects the latest market conditions.
  2. Field Integrity Check: MLS Pulse vigilantly watches for missing fields or discrepancies in data, a common issue when dealing with multiple MLSes with varying levels of compliance to RESO standards.
  3. Compliance Alerts: The tool sends out warnings if our data is found to be out of sync or not in compliance with the expected standards. This ensures that we adhere to the highest levels of data accuracy and reliability.

MLS Pulse is an essential component of our data management strategy, ensuring that the real estate information we provide to our clients is current, complete, and compliant with industry standards. By leveraging this tool, we can confidently offer high-quality, dependable data services to our users and customers.