Keeping a local database current..

MLSs ask me all the time how their 3rd party vendors can keep a local database current when they only have access to Active listings. In terms of IDX - how does the 3rd party delete listings which have become Off-Market if they can only query On-Market? Here's my answer...

Let's say Active, IDX listings in your MLS are Status = A.

Have the vendor query ML# - they'll only get listings to which you have given them access, in this example:

WHERE Status = A

We call this a "Reference File". Run that Reference File against the local database. Delete listings in the local database

WHERE My_Database_ML# <> Reference_File_ML#

Finally, run a RETS query for all listings:

WHERE Update_Date > My_Last_Run_Date

The first step will provide a list of all Active ML#s. When that is run against the local database any listing in the local database which is no longer On-Market will be deleted. Doing a SELECT * from the RETS server WHERE Update_Date > My_Last_Run_Date will provide updates for the local database for listings which are still on the market and have been modified since yesterday - or whenever the process was last run.

If anyone has anything better please post.

#NAR09 - San Diego

I'm still recovering from a crazy cold and from PCSD (Post Convention Stress Disorder) but wanted to get out a few thoughts following NAR09 - San Diego.

RPR: Let's just get this out of the way first - I'm tired of hearing about the RPR. Obviously there are still a million things to be flushed out and we all have a ton of questions. Whatever question you have, someone else asked it last week - or the week before. Will the RPR change the landscape? Probably. Is this the death of the MLS? I don't think so but I do think the MLS business is in great need of a huge evolution. I've been in this business for about 15 years and it hasn't changed much. We went from mainframe systems to fat clients to the innerwebs but that hasn't really changed anything. The whole world around us has changed but we haven't. I say it's time for some change. The RPR may be the change we need and, if we don't step up, may push us out of the way. Either way - it's time for some innovation.

RETS: I missed the Saturday RETS panel facilitated by Mike Wurzer because I was sick but I heard it was a pretty heated event. I heard people were upset that nothing has happened with RETS in 2 years. That's been a topic coming from all different directions for some time now. Here's what I think - the RETS spec has not moved for 2 years, that's true. There isn't a whole lot of "published" RETS advancement. That does not mean we haven't done anything. RESO was formed just 2 years ago. We hired an Executive Director, wrote Bylaws and an IP Policy. We contracted NAR to project manage the development of a Compliance Tool. We worked out our recommendations for the usage of that Compliance Tool. We created some support procedures (thanks CRT for being 1st line support!). We're putting in place a Document Management system to facilitate quick publication of changes to the spec. In my opinion what we have done is put some tools in place which will make forward motion much more efficient in the future. We've built a foundation. The Cove Group put a fire under us to refocus on Standard Names, Data Standards and/or Schema. We're close to publishing Core RETS with Extensions. We have a great start to a Roadmap. We have detailed Goals and Objectives for the future. We're *this close* to wrapping up a ton of little projects. The place we're still not doing so well? Communication. Thanks to the Outreach & Education Workgroup, and specifically Troy Davisson, I think we've got a great plan for revising RETS.org and taking great strides in fixing that issue. I heard from someone that RETS hasn't moved because the vendors aren't doing anything. That's a big load of BS. The vendors have busted their butts in getting the Compliance Tool designed and tested. I've heard it's because NAR has done nothing - that too is a big load of BS. NAR paid for a very expensive and comprehensive Compliance Tool and NAR (CRT) staff has worked to see it published. Again, while it seems nothing has happened I'd say a ton has happened. Don't believe me? Call in on Compliance or Roadmap or Education.


My Favorite New Tool: I was fortunate enough to get a demo of CloudCMA. Disclaimer: I think Dan Woolley and Greg Robertson are brilliant! I loved the clean look of CloudCMA. It follows what the fellas have done with Dwellicious. I won't get in to a salesy discussion - sign up on the site and get info from the source but, I'm telling you, it's cool. Another thing I learned during the demo - suites at the Hard Rock have the shower kind of right in the middle of the room. Pretty interesting.

My Favorite Meeting: Pace Davis (just ask Kurt von Wasmuth...we always use both first and last name for Pace Davis) and I met with Lin and Bob from Hawaii Information Service. We met in Lin's suite during the Florida game. We talked about tons of topics and watched the game. Lin gave us a ton of Hawaiian candy. Our meeting was laid back, comfortable and fun. Lin is very opinionated and articulate in voicing her opinions - those are wonderfully refreshing attributes!

My Favorite Session: Hands-down was The Future of the MLS facilitated by Mike Wurzer. The panelists were all great, the content was timely. Obviously the presentations were revised to include the RPR. Ron Stephan, Matt Cohen, Jim Duncan and Bob Bemis hit across the board on their opinions. I have to say - Bob Bemis was fantastic! His Magic 8 Ball was funny. Oh...and right before the session Bob gave me a check for the money I won in his famous football pool. And for you sports fans out there - my method is very scientific. I choose based on which animal would win in a fight, then what city I'd prefer to visit. If neither of those work I pick my favorite color. I'm up $200 this year, last year it was closer to $600.

My Favorite Dinner: Sunday night I had dinner with some of the Clareity Security folks (Nicole Boxx, Eric Hoglund and Paul Hethmon) and my dear friend Marty Reed from LPS. We started with drinks in the bar at the Marriott then had dinner at Roy's. Thanks Kevin Hughes for suggesting we make reservations! Our conversations ranged from super-duper personal to work to inappropriate. We told secrets about ourselves and pumped each other up. We all laughed so hard our stomachs hurt. I feel very blessed not only to have these folks as my friends but to have been able to spend so much time together!

My Favorite Night Out: After dinner at Roy's Nicole, Paul and I headed out to hook up with some LPS folks to celebrate a birthday. Nicole and Paul didn't last very long but, in true KC style, I did. I don't kiss and tell so I'll keep my comments to this: Johann is marvelous and thanks, Underboy, for defending my honor! The rest of you - thanks for including me! I had a great time, even if I was a bit Greene at the airport!

My Favorite Party: Had to be Tarasoft! Those boys sure know how to do it! I found it amazingly classy that they invited everyone, even their competitors. The venue was amazing, conversations were fabulous and the crowd was varied. I think having a cocktail hour rather than a late-night party is the way to go. And do it in style. Thanks Ray and Jeremy for thinking so highly of me, it means a lot!!!! And Kurt - I can't even think about you without laughing. You are a funny, funny man! I promise to find that video and send it to you.

My Favorite Bridge Activity: On Sunday Pace Davis and I had lunch with some of our RETS IQ customers. We were sad not all could make it but had a great time with our intimate group including Freddy Sarabia, Bill Cole, Adrese Roundtree and Jason Sanchez. I'll get some pics posted on Facebook and Picasa as soon as I have time.

Last but not least...My Favorite Kiss: Was from Wes Wiggins. Wes is tall and he always gives the best snuggly hello kisses in the business!!!

As I write this a lot of the fog is starting to clear. As Rob Overman tweeted - this was a strange one! I think my main take-aways are: I'm tired of the RPR for now and I am damn lucky to know the people I do. Thanks Suzanne Harris and Steve Byrd for offering to take care of me when I was sick! Sorry Pace Davis for giving you my germs.

Remembering New Orleans

I was curious about the number of anticipated attendees for the annual NAR convention this week in San Diego. I heard unofficially from someone at NAR that it was around 18k. The highest attendee count so far is New Orleans with 25k, although at the time we were hearing 30k. I think 25k to 18k is not a bad drop at all, considering how hard the economy has been.

The NAR conference in New Orleans was right after Katrina. I remember being scared to go, scared of what I'd see. I've lived through a couple smaller hurricanes so I knew that real life was far worse than what you see on the news. Obviously we were not exposed to the hardest hit areas (my mom's best friend Renee' lives in Eastland, MI and she lost everything) but we did see some of it.

If you know me at all you know I talk to everyone. I love meeting new people, hearing their stories. I talked to anyone and everyone who would talk to me during that trip. What I remember the most is how thankful and gracious everyone was to us. From the maids in the hotels to the cab drivers to the other drunken fools out at night. The National Association of Realtors Annual Convention was the first major event in New Orleans after Katrina. They needed us, they needed us to have faith in their ability to rebuild.

So as I'm preparing to pack up and head to San Diego I'm remembering New Orleans. I don't really care if the number was 30k or if it was 25k. We did something good for the city when the city needed us.

As I was in the airport heading home two ladies in front of me were leaving on a business trip. They asked me why I was there. When I told them they both smiled and said, "thank you for coming to our city." No, thank you for setting the example for us and for welcoming us. Just another reason I love what I do.

Fair Housing, Discrimination

I got into a Twitter conversation this morning with Brian Larson and Marc Davison. It started with a comment about the term "Family Oriented" and kind of got crazy. Ardell DellaLoggia and I sent a few tweets back and forth as well. I sent the following email to Brian (edited slightly) as a means for more dialog since Twitter can be so limiting.



Crazy topic!!!

When I worked at MRIS 10 years ago we changed "Handyman Special" (meaning a house that needs work) to "Fixer-Up" because "handyman" could be seen as discriminating against women and handicapped. I grew up in DC so being politically correct is native to me! Moving to South Florida was a *huge* eye opener.

At RMLS met many times with a Fair Housing attorney for Palm Beach county. She used to attend the RMLS tradeshows, have a booth and also do a session on Fair Housing. What Pam said was basically the fed, state and local gov'ts do not publish a "forbidden" list but they do have the list of protected classes. Some terms are obviously derogatory and are easy to restrict but others are more "code" and it's hard to create a list of words people can't use. RMLS used to publish a list of forbidden words but it got a bit too complicated to check using programming.

The list RMLS had included forbidding the use of any nationality. That didn't work because it's okay to say "Mexican tile" but it is not okay to say "no Mexicans". We were throwing too many false positives. Also, once you define words someone can not use they find others to replace them. I think the practice now is pretty much the context of the statement/remarks. And the stories I hear are more from actual people telling a story than remarks put into the MLS. Discrimination and steering are still out there, they just find sneakier ways of doing it.

Specific to the "family oriented" thing - we had to send a warning to someone once because of that comment. The agent got all worked up because she was referring to a park within the community but I had to explain those comments were seen by the old-schoolers to mean husband, wife and children.

It's great to see the disconnect here, though! If so many of us have to learn the hidden meaning behind some of this stuff it means it isn't something we're used to. Hopefully it'll all be gone at some point and we can say "family oriented" and mean any kind of family, even the unrelated kind. Or we can say "heavenly" and have it interpreted as peaceful, not Christian.

2010 RESO Elections

I heard tonight that the RETS community has voted to re-elected me for the Board of Directors of RESO. I want to thank everyone who supported me! I'm confident the next two years will be very successful.

I'm excited to see the new folks joining the Board. I know them all very well and think very highly of each of them. I think they have a great deal to bring to the table.

I'm very sad to see some of the original Board members leaving after this year. Jaison Freed, Paul Hethmon, Dan Mills and Chip McAvoy. It's been an amazing learning experience working with you fellas! I hate to see you go but...I know how to get in touch with you so don't think for one minute that I won't be continuing to pester you. You're strong leaders and people I admire.

I think part of the reason I was asked to serve another term is I've always been reachable, open and honest. I hope to always be that way. Let's try to make 2010 and 2011 the best years yet!!!

Thanks again for the support!

RESO Board of Directors Elections - I wanna do this some more

First, I would like to thank the people who nominated me for another term on the RESO Board of Directors. I believe I have done a decent job of representing you, I’m honored some of you agree.

I’ve been involved in the MLS business for more than 13 years. I started on the Help Desk at one of largest MLSs in the country and worked my way up on the programming side of the business. I entered Executive Management at a second MLS 8 years ago. I have personal working experience in just about every aspect of the MLS business, from working with agents and brokers to managing MLS system conversions to developing software. In early 2008 I left my MLS job to work for Bridge Interactive Group, a software provider dealing almost exclusively in RETS products. My job at Bridge allows me to focus 100% of my time and efforts in working with RETS, enabling a passion to segway into a wonderful career opportunity. Adding a vendor perspective has helped me see even more of the business of real estate data management and technology.

I have had a very strong tie to RETS since its inception although I didn’t begin attending meetings until 2002. I was a key factor in forming what had been known as the RETS Business Workgroup during the 2004 Spring RETS Meeting. I’ve been an active participant in several workgroups, including Certification, Compliance, Marketing and holding the position of Chairperson of the RESO Education Workgroup. I helped form and continue to Chair the RESO Education and Outreach group. I’ve put many hours into coordinating efforts and presenting RETS programs at national conferences including the NAR Midyear and Annual meetings and Clareity’s MLS Workshop. I have facilitated the Business Track at RETS meetings for several years. I’ve also been one of the most active and communicative members of the RESO Board of Directors during my initial term. I’ve always made myself available to the community, taking whatever action I could to help improve the processes and the standard itself. Most recently I have been actively working on a strategic plan for RESO and a roadmap for RETS.

I believe very strongly in the power of our volunteer-powered organization. RESO is fortunate to have some of the strongest, smartest minds in the technology sector of real estate. We are not lacking in ability to make RETS a powerful, fully realized standard. RESO needs strong leadership, open communication channels, direction and stability. These last two years have taught me a great deal about the business of running this kind of business. I’m proud to be involved so heavily with the people in the community and I love seeing the vision we all have. We occasionally hit stumbling blocks but we are a truly gifted group with passion for our business. I would like to continue working toward the goal we all have, a true Standard which can benefit all players in the real estate industry.

Plus...vote for me and I'll buy you a Twinkie at the next RETS meeting. ;-)

Bring your answers to Chicago!!!!

I chair the RESO Outreach and Education Workgroup and have since it formed 9 months ago. Before that I chaired the Education Workgroup. I've been part of Marketing for years. I've participated in Compliance, Certification, Schema and other Workgroups over the years. I'm on the RESO Board of Directors and part of the Business Committee. I was part of a Board subcommittee on designing a plan for outsourcing work. I'm part of a subcommittee which wrote a recommendation to the NAR Policy Department regarding the RETS policy. Just this week a new committee was formed, the RETS Roadmap Committee - it's made up of the Board of Directors and Workgroup Chairs.

When I started attending RETS meeting 6 or 7 years ago I did so because I couldn't get data out of my MLS system. My friend (and former boss) Gregg Petch said I should start going to meetings and try to learn some things, maybe drive the standard a bit. There were only a few other MLS folks who were like me there. My MLS used a vendor system and were, therefore, bound by the tools our vendor provided. Off hand I think the only other person at those meetings who was like me was David Harris from FMLS. We'd sit in the RETS Marketing meetings with Kevin McQueen and talk about RETS adoption, data standardization, where RETS should go, what boat we were missing.

At the Austin meeting 3 or 4 years ago Mark Lesswing got in front of the group and made a pretty inspiring speech. I don't remember exactly what Mark said but it was something along the lines of "do something or get out of the way..." but in a much more PC manner. A few of us decided we'd like to have a voice and provide input into RETS and so the Business Committee was formed. Since then the RETS group wrote a Governance Document, formed RESO, created (still on the table though) Bylaws, elected a Board of Directors, developed a Compliance tool, worked with the MLS community on the NAR RETS policy and many other things. Is there still a ton of work to do? I say yes. Has the ship sunk? I don't think so.

Why am I writing this post? Over the last few months and this week in particular I've heard a lot of talking (and sometimes shouting) about the problems with RETS and RESO. I hear people who've been around, on a volunteer basis, way before I have who are saying they're finished after this next meeting. I see finger pointing and blame throwing. Many of the concerns are legitimate. I spent a good deal of time last night and this morning thinking if there is a way I can bring the Rainbows and Butterflies of my world into RETS and try to identify key issues and be part of the solution.

On the Education and Outreach call today we discussed the upcoming meeting. Matt Lavallee was a Guest Attendee, Matt is sitting on a panel on Wednesday afternoon in Chicago. After some brainstorming with the rest of the Workgroup (Mary Francis Adams, Freddy Sarabia, David Harris, Troy Davisson and Colby Ackerfield) we came up with something I think can help get RETS moving again...and in the right direction.

On Wednesday, 9/23 at 1:00 we're hosting a Problem Solving Session. Details will be posted once they're all worked out but here's the deal...we'd like everyone in the RETS Community to have a forum in which they can voice their concerns - whether those concerns are small or RETS changing. We want to document those concerns. We want to ask the group to prioritize the concerns. Then we want to stop. Stop. And refocus on finding potential solutions. Not solving world hunger or creating world peace - just offer up some ideas for fixing the problems and getting things where the community thinks they should be.

I'm pretty optimistic about this but then, my world has rainbows and butterflies. I believe people will attend the session with the energy to brainstorm and offer ideas. I can't speak for the rest of the Workgroup but I think they feel the same way. In the end, we all want the same thing. We want MLS listing content to be able to move from one system to another easily. That's it. Moving real estate data easily.

If you have concerns you'd like voiced and you won't be in Chicago you can email me at kristencar at gmail dot com. I promise to keep comments anonymous. Might I suggest you bring at least 2 potential solutions for every problem you identify. And if you're in Chicago please come to our session. Come in with a positive attitude, roll up your sleeves and be ready to get moving. Let's focus on the future of RETS and what we can do to make moving MLS listing content easier.