The National Association of Realtors® and its wholly owned subsidiary, Realtors Property Resource®, have signed a technology agreement with UPSTREAM™, a revolutionary industry-owned and controlled data management company, to develop UPSTREAM™’s cross-industry, state-of-the-art platform for real estate data entry, collection and distribution for real estate brokers.
UPSTREAM™ will create a single entry point for brokers of all sizes to manage property data — including its distribution to multiple listing services, publishers and vendors —saving time, effort and expense and ensuring more accurate, consistent data.
The goal of UPSTREAM™ is to create a resource for brokerage firms of all sizes and models to provide a better consumer experience for today’s home buyers and sellers and enable brokers to more easily manage where and how their listing information is displayed as well as the terms for the licensing and use of that property data.
These benefits – efficiency, control, risk management and customer experience – all represent a major step forward in the real estate data space.
“As leaders in organized real estate, NAR and RPR® have looked forward to the opportunity to work with the brokerage industry for many years on an initiative that truly can be thought of as ‘game changing,’” said NAR President Chris Polychron, executive broker with 1st Choice Realty in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
“This initiative will be done in full collaboration with the real estate brokerage and franchise community to deliver a high-value benefit to companies of all sizes nationwide, ultimately benefitting NAR’s one million-plus members.”
“UPSTREAM™ is not a multiple listing service, or a service that interfaces with the public in any way,” said Robert Moline, chairman of the UpstreamRE, LLC Board of Managers. “The platform is designed as a true neutral technology, giving no advantage to those companies involved with the initial vision, but rather, extending its value proposition to agents in all brokerage firms, franchises and networks. Partnering with NAR for the financial backing and RPR for its impressive technology and data capabilities is a win-win for UPSTREAM™ and the industry.”
Formed by a broad-based coalition of brokerages, brokerage networks, and national franchisors representing real estate companies of all sizes and business models, the UPSTREAM™ platform will be designed to follow industry standards, ensuring the quality of and accessibility of data across the industry.
It will also manage the distribution of information through a rules-based engine to support the specific requirements of all participating brokers. The RPR platform will be the framework for the development and implementation of the UPSTREAM™ platform.
— Reyne Stapelmann is a broker associate with Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, California Properties and the 2015 president of the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors. Contact her at reynestapelmann@cox.net or 805.705.4353. The opinions expressed are her own.