NAR and RESO Demonstrate Commitment to Establishing Commercial Real Estate Standards

Washington, August 04, 2010

The Real Estate Standards Organization has formed a new commercial real estate workgroup designed to publish data standards for the commercial real estate market. The new workgroup, during a meeting at the National Association of Realtors®’ headquarters in Chicago, Ill., examined existing standards efforts and the current commercial sector business landscape.

RESO oversees the NAR-supported Real Estate Transaction Standard, which defines an approach for exchanging listings with multiple listing services.

“As the leading advocate for private property rights, NAR applauds RESO for establishing this new, groundbreaking commercial real estate workgroup,” said NAR President Vicki Cox Golder, owner of Vicki L. Cox & Associates in Tucson, Ariz. “NAR values data standards and is proud to be a part of RESO’s commercial real estate workgroup. Developing standards which enable data to be transferred consistently and efficiently is essential to driving new technology and business models, as well as lowering costs for the industry. NAR is confident the commercial real estate workgroup will deliver new standards that will ultimately enhance the commercial real estate industry.”

The RESO commercial workgroup is comprised of key industry leaders including commercial real estate professionals, Commercial Information Exchange providers, appraisers and software developers. The purpose of the new workgroup is to create methods to collect and communicate commercial property information consistently. Results of the commercial workgroup’s efforts will be a small set of fields that commonly identify commercial property and that are universally accepted by stakeholders.

“RESO has developed and enhanced a proven and open process for data standards since 2000,” said Travis Wright, executive director of RESO. “RETS has enabled the residential real estate industry to securely, economically and efficiently exchange property data and listings information between Realtors®, brokers, MLS associations and technology vendors involved in realty transactions. Data integrity is the currency of residential and commercial transactions, and we are now committed to developing data standards to support the success of commercial real estate professionals, including brokers, lenders, investors and other parties to those transactions.”

For information about the Real Estate Standards Organization, go to www.reso.org.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is America’s largest trade association, representing 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

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