VISTAinfo, Inc, a leading business-to-business, e-commerce and information services company for the real estate industry is announcing the creation of an online, National Multiple Listing Service Infrastructure (NMI). The NMI will be the industry's first national MLS infrastructure built on the next generation of real estate technology - the open data exchange platform sanctioned by the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and developed in conjunction with VISTAinfo.

NMI incorporates the XML and RETS open standards - technologies that enable real estate professionals to download and manipulate data faster than ever before, accumulate the most comprehensive set of online tools and increase their bottom line through a variety of non-dues revenue producing opportunities.

Through NMI, VISTAinfo says it is enabling open and secure communications among all real estate professionals - agent, franchise or broker systems - that also utilize the NAR standards.

In addition, VISTAinfo promises a seamless, cost-free transition to updated versions of RE/Xplorer - VISTAinfo's online platform for NMI - to its existing customer base of more than 350,000 agents and it will assist new customers in upgrading their systems to take full advantage of the NMI and the enhanced set of business tools.

What does this development mean for Realtors? Blanche Evans, publisher of Agent News, asks Tom Gay, CEO of VistaInfo, Inc. for the answers to the questions every Realtor wants to ask.

B.E.: Your announcement has come on the heels of the N.A.R./Homestore announcement that the RETS standards are in operation and will be part of the transaction management platform also under development by the two organizations. What's going on?

T.G.: RETS is a technology standard. We, along with others, were the architects of the standard. It came from Vista's technology group.

B.E.: Homestore bought Wyldfyre which supplies many of your front-end solutions for your MLS systems. Where does this deal leave you?

T.G.: We're close with Wyldfyre, and our relationship goes back a few years.

B.E.: Did Homestore make an offer for VistaInfo?

T.G.: I can't speculate on why they didn't buy us, but my guess is it is not in their interest to run an MLS company.

B.E.: Then why are they interested in the RETS standard?

T.G.: The obstacles that exist are the huge variation between one board of Realtors to another. RETS goes a long way towards allowing the free flow of information to facilitate a sale. It is akin to the technology companies to building a standard to publish music online. When the RETS standard is adopted nationally, then you'll see the efficiencies that can be gained. Also recognize that in order for transaction automation software companies to work, it has to receive data and interpret it, and the implementation of RETS will empower that technology.

B.E.: Where does VistaInfo fit in?

T.G.: We see ourselves as an information company in the center of the transaction. Not to overstate what we have done with the NAR, but we along with Wyldfyre led the initiative to collaborate with the NAR on a standard. It was delivered, modified, improved and now it is adopted. Our relationship to the NAR is that we are a technology support organization for the development of RETS. We anticipate that we will continue to work with the NAR in improving RETS and helping accomplish the efficiencies that technology can bring to the real estate industry.

B.E.: Who is paying?

T.G.: We are still in the MLS business, the MLS will evolve but not go away. Our clients are the hundreds of thousands of brokers and agents and the MLSs who serve them. RETS doesn't make VIstainfo go away, instead it gives us a technology leadership position.

B.E.: Are you saying you have the inside track?

T.G.: There are lots of sensitivities and constituencies in the industry whom we want to talk with and show them how we can work with them. Our goal is not to get out and toot our horn but show them how we are here to help you. We have been telling our MLS clients and showing them how it will benefit them, and the response is extremely positive.

B.E.: What are you telling your MLS clients?

T.G.: RETS is a database standard that enables an MLS database to be compatible with a database in other cities, such as Dallas, even though the data are different.

B.E.: But aren't unique descriptions really just a contrivance for the Realtor association or MLS to control the data? Are ocean views really that different from California to North Carolina?

T.G.: An ocean view property is a definition, but the data in the markets are all distinctive and unique to their own conditions. It seems logical, but they are uniquely different. An ocean view is the same, but an ocean view of the Intercoastal is different than an ocean view of the Atlantic. Every market has their own local preferences, and that is what has to be remembered. RETS enables that and translates that into other applications and other markets. Its a universal connection language.

B.E.: So MLS systems enabled with RETS standards will have an incredible market advantage?

T.G.: We allow our current clients to significantly lower their costs of doing business. One benefit to MLS clients is the ability to leverage our technology investments and not have to operate their own independent infrastructures.

Today we have a number of MLSs who are connected to VistaInfo and its central host systems and they are operating on a lower cost basis as a result. All of our services are going back to enhance our relationships to MLS clients.

B.E.: So you can tell them to forget the hardware, forget the software...

T.G.: Forget worrying about becoming obsolete due to new technologies! We do all that. The efficiencies will be in the state of the art technology because someone will access the servers via Internet. The differences are the very real challenge that we have faced and solved and that is the ability to deal with thousands of concurrent users, those using the system at the same time. The VistaInfo systems have proven their scalability in the number of markets and users at the same time. We have distinguished ourselves.

B.E.: Will these technologies make the MLS systems obsolete?

T.G.: Let me make clear, we are aiming our strategy at helping MLS clientele and friends of transaction software providers as well as the NAR. We are an intermediary allowing the Internet economy.

B.E.: The irony is that these enabling technologies that you have developed are being used by companies which are shutting you out of the market. In Dallas, VistaInfo serves NTREIS, the Greater Dallas and Fort Worth area boards, yet your subsidiary Cyberhomes isn't allowed to publish the very listings you manage for them. You are also prevented from passing other savings on to the members through marketing opportunities using Cyberhomes, which raises an interesting question. Are you planning to leverage your MLS system platform to reverse the Gold Alliance in the areas Vista serves with its MLS systems?

T.G.: You asked a tough question, and I can only give you a waffle answer. We don't see the strategy for national MLS initiatives to be necessarily linked with Cyberhomes listing strategy, although we will use our technology tools to expand the availability where we can. Cyberhomes is an even more powerful tool for allowing us access to listings. It brings cash benefits back to MLS and lowers their costs.

Currently, there is no existing MLS that can keep pace with every facet of the home buying/selling transaction because of the rapid rate of technological change in the real estate industry. NMI will leverage the collective strengths of individual MLSs while mitigating weaknesses to provide a superior service to every Realtor. This, in turn, will contribute to an enhanced agent/customer relationship through expanded customer service.