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In what will be a benefit for real estate agents and brokers, the major online real estate listing aggregators have agreed upon a common XML based listing standard for listings. The format will be designed to be interoperable with the Real Estate Transaction Standards (RETS). Think of it, write it once, publish it many times. That is what in a nutshell technology offers going back to the original printing press.

Social networking has been immersed in this battle with the emergence of Facebook as a leader in the field. Google has led the way with OpenSocial to find a common way for people to create their social networking information once and then propagate the information out amongst other networks.

The online real estate community has decided to take it one step further with all of the major players joining forces to provide a common ground for online listings. I do not know, but my initial reaction is that this is the first salvo in the online war against the MLS’s. If 80 percent of home searches start online and the new standard can create a national online repository for the information, what will stop them from creating the fields that the MLS has for agents and not the public and offering this as a free alternative.

The battle 5 years from now will be about speed, quality, and openess instead of systems that lock you in. Zillow has led the way in this department and is forcing the real estate industrial complex to open their doors much faster than they had planned.

Interesting times…

In addition to Yahoo! Real Estate, Zillow and Trulia, several other leading online real estate sites have agreed to adopt the standard, including Homes.com, Homescape, Oodle, Point2 Technologies, RealEstate.com, Vast.com, and vFlyer.
“It’s to the advantage of everyone in the industry to adopt a common publishing format,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen, vice president, partner relations at Zillow.com. “We want to make it as easy as possible for our partners to get their listings in front of home buyers.”
The companies participating in the new standard will work in close collaboration with the Real Estate Standards Organization to ensure that the data specification interoperates with the Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS).  via PR

More on this from:

• TechCrunch
• Bloodhound A ton of information
• John Cook
• Real Central Virginia (Jim Duncan) Who wonders if Zillow will charge for access, my question is will they entice them to use it exclusively and get rid of the MLS?

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