Real Estate Data, Management and Tech Leaders to Meet in Chicago

MORRISVILLE, NC--(Marketwired - Mar 29, 2016) - Responsible for standardizing more than 1,000 different real estate data sources for property information across the U.S., the Real Estate Standards Organization, or RESO, is attracting some of the brightest and best minds in the real estate industry to its Spring Conference at the Hotel Monaco Chicago, April 19-21, 2016 to tackle crucial issues to help streamline technology in the real estate industry.

Some 200 leaders from the real estate brokerage, Multiple Listing Services (MLSs), real estate technology providers and more will convene face-to-face to help create and advance new standards for the U.S. real estate industry, as well as showcase new innovative technology solutions that address the industry's most pressing technology problems and challenges.

"We are on the dawn of a new generation of technology-driven solutions that will improve the home buying and selling experience for consumers with what is arguably the most complex transaction in most people's lives," says Jeremy Crawford, Executive Director of RESO. "Data standards may sound boring, but data standards are the missing link to making buying and selling property faster, more efficient, more intelligent and simply better for everyone involved."

Crawford noted that among the tough topics the RESO Spring Conference will take on includes hearing from leading brokerages about the challenges they face with the disparate business rules that every MLS has, the variations with IDX (shared property data) and lack of consistency in data display requirements for property listings. "Identifying the business pain points that real estate brokerages wrestle with is key for their MLS to provide the tech solutions they really need," Crawford says.

Top brokerage panelists leading this discussion include Rajeev Sajja, Vice President of Digital Innovation at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, REALTORS® with offices in Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey; Glenn S. Phillips, CEO of Lake Home Realty of Birmingham, Alabama; John Grelyak, Director, Digital Technology of Chicago-based Leading Real Estate Companies of the World®; Tom Weiss-Lehman, the Data Production Specialist from Seattle-based Redfin; and Shaun York, Executive Director of Technology for Homes.com.

Among the advance technology solutions that will be showcased at the RESO Spring Conference includes:

• Heather Petersen, Docusign and Executive Director for the xDTM Standard Association will discuss the xDTM Standard, "The Transaction Management Standard for an Open Digital World," and how raising the quality bar on digital transactions benefits the real estate industry.
• Homespotter will showcase editing MLS listings through the Homespotter Mobile app, which combines fingerprint-based security and the RESO RETS update standard.
• BoomTown will demonstrate its Internet Tracking, lead gen and predictive analytics technologies.
• MLSListings will demonstrate its Business Rule Engine, which allows users to leverage listing maintenance through multiple interfaces and ensure listing edits follow MLS business rules.
• Software Incubator will present Using PropMix.io platform to propel RESO maturity model: with Longitudinal Property Records™, insights as a service, and NLP.

A newly added highlight of the conference is a Certification Workshop-plus Tech Bar, a place where Crawford describes conference attendees can work directly with RESO certification staff on implementation and certification of the RESO Data Dictionary and the new RESO Web API, which is mandated by NAR for adoption by June 30, 2016.

"Tech Bar attendees can even run tests onsite, get immediate feedback and meet in person with many of the industry's leading MLS technology firms," Crawford says, which are scheduled to include FBS -- the creators of Flexmls, Black Knight, Rapattoni and SEI, Inc. (Navica MLS). He notes that technologists will also test the latest single sign on (SSO) methods across products with the new RESO Web API, and during the event, attendees can get a free special cocktail at the "Tech Bar," which is sponsored by Software Incubator and PropMix.io.

The RESO Spring Conference is expected to hit a record attendance this year for a Spring Conference with more than 200 top real estate industry executives expected to attend the April 19-21 event in Chicago. The mobile app for the RESO Spring Conference is available by downloading "Guidebook" in the App stores for Google and Apple, and searching for "RESO." Online registration information is at http://www.reso.org/spring-mtg.

About RESO
The mission of the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO) is to create and promote the adoption of standards that drive efficiency throughout the real estate industry. RESO incorporated in November 2011, as an independent, not-for-profit trade organization that was previously a section of the National Association of REALTORS®. The RESO has more than 500 active members, including NAR, multiple-listing services, real estate associations, brokerages and industry technology providers. For more information, visit www.reso.org.