Real Estate Sales
| Item | Description |
|---|---|
| Current Status | Not Open |
| Potential Implementing Agencies | Real Estate Industry Partners (vendors, consultants, technology partners) |
| Potential Founding/Sponsoring Organizations | Federal |
Analysis -- Future Potential and Adoption
Real estate sales are largely carried out between private individuals or organizations, but due to taxation, deed registration and other activities, real estate transactions are of great importance to local governments. The data is generally available, though not always in a digital format, and there are no open standards for publishing the data.
However, because much of the transaction is carried out in the private sector and involves a broad array of companies and services (brokers, title insurance, appraisers, mortgages, etc.), the Real Estate Standards Organization was established to develop and maintain the Real Estate Transaction Standard (RETS). The documentation is public, but the standard is complex, and it is primarily used to support system interoperability between corporate data systems. As such, it is not a good fit for use in publishing open data.
The US General Services Administration (GSA) has established a Federal Real Property Council (FRPC) that has developed a Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP). A startup based in Boston, Opportunity Space, is reportedly developing a local property data standard based on the federal one, but it has not yet been published.
Additional Resources
- Real Estate Standards Organization - http://www.reso.org/
- RETS Specification - http://www.reso.org/assets/RETS/Specifications/rets_1_8.pdf
- RETS Data Dictionary - http://www.reso.org/data-dictionary-1-3
- RETS Developer Resources -http://www.reso.org/developer-resources
- Federal Real Property Council - http://www.gsa.gov/portal/content/104918