TREC
Gateway Presidential Advisory Group
February 25, 2008
Statement of Inevitability
- All real estate information currently exists.
 Â- Real estate information is not currently analyzed, categorized, or readily available in an easy to use trusted format.
 Â- Consumer-focused real estate websites are gathering more and more information.
- REALTORS® will come increasingly to rely on those websites.
 Â- Without convenient, immediate access to information to analyze/interpret for their clients and customers, REALTORS® will no longer be at the center of real estate transactions.
Vision
The Real Estate Channel (“TREC�)* will enable the real estate community to continually expand the breadth, depth, immediacy, and power of trusted real estate information available to REALTORS®.
* “The Real Estate Channel� and the acronym “TREC� are working titles subject to change.
Defining principles and characteristics
- TREC provides access to a national database of real property information.
 Â- TREC gives real estate professionals the best access to real property information needed to serve their clients and customers.
 Â- The scope of information is unprecedented. It will include in-depth, trusted information on every parcel of real property including public record information, details of prior transactions, MLS-provided information, zoning information, transfer tax information, and other relevant information.
 Â- TREC is based on the collaborative efforts of REALTORS® and the real estate community, including MLSs.
 Â- TREC drives development and implementation of data standards and definitions.
 Â- TREC’s collective purchasing power affords economies of scale to purchase information needed to populate its database.
 Â- TREC expands the scope and content of information available to real estate professionals.
 Â- TREC is organic so it can evolve, based on real estate community input, as industry needs change.
 Â- TREC is a collaborative tool that increases the breadth ,depth, immediacy and power of real estate information available to REALTORS®.
- TREC gives real estate professionals the best access to real property information needed to serve their clients and customers.
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- Real estate information is not currently analyzed, categorized, or readily available in an easy to use trusted format.
Services provided to real estate industry professionals
- Current and historical data about all real property is immediately and easily available directly from TREC or through participants’ MLS.
- Properties available for purchase, lease or exchange will be “flagged� according to status (with the owner’s or principal’s consent). Properties listed with brokers are distinguished from unlisted properties on the market (“FSBOs�).
 Â- TREC’s database includes information about all real property in the U.S.
 Â- Ultimately TREC will provide information about real property worldwide.
 Â- TREC facilitates multi-lingual access to real property information.
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- TREC’s database includes information about all real property in the U.S.
- Information available to participants and subscribers is:
 Â- comprehensive
 Â- timely
 Â- relevant
 Â- accurate
 Â- objective
 Â- secure
 Â- formatted so it can be annotated, supplemented or corrected by other participants or subscribers whose contributions will be acknowledged and electronically “fingerprintedâ€?
 Â- “officialâ€? information (i.e., data available from recognized authoritative sources); includes “factual contentâ€? (i.e., data and comments provided by listing brokers); and may also include enhancements and corrections offered by other participants and subscribers
 Â- participants and subscribers can provide direct, immediate feedback to listing brokers
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- timely
- Service providers can offer participants access, value-added tools, and other enhancements to real property information, at prices determined by the service provider. Participants access TREC’s information through their MLS or directly through TREC.
Participation and access
- Participants are REALTORS® and MLS participants and subscribers.
- Vendors authorized by participants to develop/deliver enhanced data products to those participants have access, subject to appropriate license agreements.
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- TREC will be run by an NAR-owned subsidiary with an advisory board comprised of real estate broker-principals and other key members of the real estate community (e.g. representatives of MLSs and associations of REALTORS®).
- TREC does not pay dividends. It does not subsidize or underwrite unrelated activities or operations, including associations of REALTORS® at any level.
- TREC exists for the benefit of the community of real estate professionals.
- There is a standardized data structure which can incorporate local customization and content.
- TREC employs limited, streamlined, consistent business rules applied on a universal basis.
Implications for Brokers- TREC will be built by leveraging the resources and structures of existing MLSs and associations of REALTORS®.
Implications for Existing MLSs
- TREC is not an MLS. TREC is established on the premise that MLSs are the primary provider of property data, though TREC may have other sources of data as well.
- Existing MLSs are encouraged, but not required to, participate in TREC. Those MLSs that participate agree that the information they provide will be available to all REALTORS® and MLS participants and subscribers.
- Participating MLSs can offer value-added tools and other enhancements nationwide.
Â- Participating MLSs are RETS compliant.
- Existing MLSs are encouraged, but not required to, participate in TREC. Those MLSs that participate agree that the information they provide will be available to all REALTORS® and MLS participants and subscribers.
- TREC is the single comprehensive, trusted source of property information enabling REALTORS® and MLS participants to remain central to real estate transactions.
- MLS participants have the choice of getting their IDX feeds directly from the MLS(s) they participate in or directly through TREC.
Questions and Answers about The Real Estate Channel (“TREC�)
February 25, 2008(click on the question number to see the answer)
Q. 1 My MLS meets my needs. I don’t need information about property outside my market area. Why should I support TREC? Q. 1 My MLS meets my needs. I don’t need information about property outside my market area. Why should I support TREC?A. Comprehensive real estate information currently exists but that information is not always analyzed, categorized, or readily available in an easy-to-use, trusted format focused on the needs of REALTORS®. Consumer-focused real estate websites are gathering more and more information and REALTORS® will come increasingly to rely on those websites. Without convenient, immediate access to information to analyze/interpret for their clients and customers, REALTORS® will no longer be at the center of real estate transactions. TREC will also enable REALTORS® and MLS participants to access essential information about properties in their market area which may be “just outside� the area served by their MLS, and TREC information will be richer and deeper than what is available in MLS compilations.Q. 2 Why should I pay for or support a platform that advertises FSBOs and builders’ new construction?
A. TREC is not an advertising vehicle nor is it an MLS. Private sellers and builders will not have any right - or ability - to input information about property they wish to sell. Legitimate web-crawling technology will gather information from websites that permit access to ensure that information available to REALTORS® and to MLS participants and subscribers is complete and useful as possible. Q. 3 How will TREC help me make money?A. Time is money. TREC will ensure that REALTORS® and MLS participants have immediate access to the information they need to serve clients and customers in a “member-focused� format. Much of the information that TREC will deliver will not be otherwise available conveniently or economically.Q. 4 How does TREC differ from Realtor.com?
A. TREC is not advertising and will not be publicly accessible; TREC will be revenue neutral and will not sell ads to its users.
A. Costs will be no more than what is necessary to develop and operate TREC. It will not be a revenue source for local associations, state associations or the National Association.
Q. 6 What about cooperation and compensation?
A. Accessing TREC will not involve offers of cooperation or compensation. Cooperation is a Code of Ethics issue. All REALTORS® cooperate with other licensees except in those rare instances where cooperation is not in a client’s best interests. Cooperative compensation is an MLS issue. TREC is neither an MLS or an association of REALTORS®.
Q. 7 What will be the relationship between TREC and existing local or regional MLSs?
A. MLSs will be the foundation of TREC. MLSs will be encouraged, but not required to license their content for inclusion in TREC.
Q. 8 How will TREC impact current MLS vendors?
A. Data standardization may create a more competitive market for MLS.
Q. 9 Will TREC ever by-pass the local MLS and take listings directly from a broker, thereby eliminating the MLS?
A. No.
A. No.
Q. 11 Will non-members have access to TREC?
A. TREC’s focus is on providing information and service to REALTORS®. Some MLSs have chosen - or have been required - to make participatory rights available to non-member brokers. In those cases, TREC will be available to non-member brokers.
Q. 12 Will the public have access to property data through TREC?
A. No.
Q. 13 Can a property owner opt-out of having their property included in the TREC database?
A. No. TREC is not an MLS and is not an advertising vehicle. Information from the TREC database will not be publicly available on the Internet as are listings on MLS “public sites� or the Internet sites of third-party aggregators (e.g. realtor.com).
Q. 14 Will users of TREC be bound by the Code of Ethics?
A. Every REALTOR® is subject to the Code of Ethics. Access to TREC does nothing to change that.
Q. 15 Must users of TREC arbitrate disputes? How will the rules be enforced?
A. TREC is not an MLS and use of TREC does not create contractual relationships between users like participation in MLS does. If TREC users decide to participate in cooperative transactions between themselves, and establish contractual relationships between themselves, the obligations of REALTOR® membership and/or the MLS rules of the MLS they participate in, will whether there is a duty to arbitrate,
Q. 16 What control will individual MLSs have over the rules if they participate in TREC?
A. MLSs will retain complete control over their own rules and regulations, including the authority and responsibility of enforcing those rules.
Q. 17 How will disputes between REALTORS® in different states be resolved?
A. Disputes between REALTORS® in different states will be resolved the same way they are now, following the policies and procedures established in the Code of Ethics and Arbitration Manual.
Q. 18 Who is the “real estate community� that will be involved in TREC? Are they Zillow, Trulia, Google et al.?
A. No. The “real estate community� is MLSs and local and state associations of REALTORS.
Q. 19 Who will own the information in TREC?
A. Most of the information in TREC will be licensed from third parties. Using TREC will not require REALTORS, MLS participants or subscribers, or MLSs to relinquish any of their intellectual property rights.
Q. 20 How will the integrity of data in TREC be ensured?
A. TREC will rely on – and its success will depend on – quality data being provided by MLSs and other information sources. Stringent technology safeguards will be implemented to foreclose the possibility of unauthorized access.
Q. 21 Who will provide training?
A. TREC will include self-guided tutorial and help functionalities.
Q. 22 Who will decide how neighborhoods or areas will be defined or how properties are grouped?
A. MLSs and other information sources/providers will continue to make those determinations.
Q. 23 How will duplication of property listings be avoided on TREC?
A. Every parcel of real property will be included on TREC – irrespective of whether it is currently available for sale or lease. Those available for sale or lease will be identified (“flagged�) accordingly.
A. TREC represents an opportunity for NAR to better serve its members and to facilitate a more efficient real estate marketplace. TREC will keep REALTORS® at the center of real estate transactions. TREC is revenue neutral and costs will be no more than what is necessary to develop and operate TREC. It will not be a revenue source for local associations, state associations or the National Association.
Q.25 When will I get the details necessary to fully assess the impact of TREC on my business, my MLS and my association?
A. Hopefully these questions and answers, coupled with the TREC proposal, will help you make a meaningful impact assessment.
Q.26 What “purchasing power� will TREC leverage?
A. TREC will enjoy the power to license and/or purchase information at reduced prices because of economies of scale – and make available – information currently being purchased separately by individual MLSs.
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- TREC does not pay dividends. It does not subsidize or underwrite unrelated activities or operations, including associations of REALTORS® at any level.
- Properties available for purchase, lease or exchange will be “flagged� according to status (with the owner’s or principal’s consent). Properties listed with brokers are distinguished from unlisted properties on the market (“FSBOs�).
[...] For those of you looking for a bit more information on The Real Estate Channel (formerly The Gateway), an Interim Report has been posted. The RE.net will surely start to buzz about it. [...]
Pingback by The Straight Dpoe: TREC at Center for REALTOR® Technology Web Log — March 31, 2008 @ 4:11 pm
I’m still not sure why we need data outside our areas. We as Realtors network with agents at our meetings, through our association, etc. If I don’t have a license in Timbuktu, I can’t sell there, but I do refer to other agents in areas I’m not licensed. Why do I need to know about properties in some area I’m not licensed in? Our local MLS has an excellent database of information about all of the properties on the tax roll…..what possible benefit could a national database provide me? If the public will not have access and this will not be a lead generation tool, how can this combat the public’s use of third-party sites like Zillow?
I can see that something like this might benefit smaller MLS organizations who do not have the funds to develop their own database of information…..in many cases, they are joining with other area MLS’ to overcome this limitation. Again, what possible benefit to ME!!!!!!!
All the verbiage and all the questions and answers can’t overcome the bottom line: just having all the information in one place is not incentive enough to pay for someone’s “bright idea”. Unless you are going to use the information to bring the public back from web sites like Zillow and become an agent-centered “lead generation” site, I don’t see the justification for the expense and the start-up costs for something like this. Why should my MLS (and my association dollars) support something I don’t see any benefit outside what I’m already getting from my association?
You just haven’t convinced me that this “new” thing is needed or justified.
Ann Maree Matthews
Vice President / Broker
CRS - GRI - ABR - CPPS
Crye-Leike, Realtors
(Over 35 years in the real estate industry)
Comment by Ann Maree Matthews — April 2, 2008 @ 9:54 am
[...] The Gateway/TREC/TBD discussions are heating up again, sort of. Re-visiting the topic seems timely with the latest iteration of the NAR PAG report recently “released” and the trimester RETS meetings in Philadelphia next week. [...]
Pingback by FBS Blog » Blog Archive » Defining Moments: NAR Gateway/TREC and the Open Web — April 2, 2008 @ 3:24 pm
TREC will facilitate and enhance NAR as a mega-broker of real estate data. In the end, NAR will drive out competition at the local MLS level. The complex methodology of handling large nationwide data bits will certainly become “the” major goal of NAR.
As REALTOR’S demands are to be met, the complicated and frustating infrastructure of TREC, its policies and prejudices will leave the profession angered and disillusioned. The largest Associations will be heard first, while the small Associations will battle for recognition and satisfaction of their needs. They will be heard last.
The complications typical of “government” run operations will define TREC and NAR. As the ghosts of “RIN” walk the hallways of NAR, the goals of TREC will out spend the former “RIN” project ten fold.
The idea of “localized” real estate practices will vanish. A far reaching and knowledgeless mass of real estate practitioners, both hungry and greedy, will work on transactions with little or no “local” knowledge; other than “price”, “location”, “raw data” and “remarks”. The legal world will lick its chops over the idea of incompetence, and REALTOR’S will be hard press to stay out of trouble.
TREC’s goal of offering REALTORS better services will eventually haunt the profession in ways yet to be experienced.
Comment by M. Werner — April 2, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
[...] An interim report of NAR’s Gateway Presidential Advisory Group, released in late March at the blog site of David R. Phillips, CEO for the 1,200-member Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors in Virginia, states that The Real Estate Channel, or TREC, “will enable the real estate community to continually expand the breadth, depth, immediacy and power of trusted real estate information available to Realtors.” [...]
Pingback by NAR’s ‘Gateway’ project gets new name « Brainerd Real Estate Blog — April 21, 2008 @ 11:06 am
[...] The acronym stands for The Real Estate Channel, and there’s an Interim Report out about it that was prepared by the Presidential Advisory Group that is putting the project together. Before you pass it by as another one of the thousands of real estate information sites, think about some of the possibilities. [...]
Pingback by NAR is investigating the TREC system for providing a real estate database to REALTORS | BRER Real Estate Marketing Blog — April 22, 2008 @ 7:25 am
Ann Marie Matthews and M. Werner have got it right. And, from my point of view, if NAR leadership thinks they can put together a better information database than can be developed by Google or Yahoo!, they are kidding themselves. Trec will not be the primary source for real estate data. Economic reality will set in and the rush to salvage will result in advertising and another half-fast national MLS attempt.
All real estate is local and there is no better expert to serve the consumer than the local REALTOR®. Keeping MLS data for the exclusive benefit of hardworking local REALTOR® MLS Participants should be the objective of NAR. We do not need a national real estate information database.
Dave Montgomery
Real Estate Broker
Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania
(Over 30 years in the business)
Comment by Dave Montgomery — May 20, 2008 @ 9:23 pm