MLSN Abstract for ARES Conference

Today I submitted my abstract for the American Real Estate Society (ARES) conference in April next year:

Title: MLSN: A Request and Response Internet Protocol for Real Estate Property Listings

Abstract:

Sellers list their properties with real estate professionals who enter property information into private databases called Multiple Listing Services (MLS). These MLS's attempt to store and index data listings with serialized numbers that only members of the local real estate association have access to query, insert, and update. In the United States alone, there are over 900 MLS's which unfortunately create redundant, localized MLS numbers causing confusion over specific properties and their respective listing information on the Internet. These duplicated MLS numbers can be anywhere from five to ten digits long or more relaying no meaningful or geographical information to real estate professionals, sellers, and buyers alike.

This paper proposes and discusses a new internet protocol called Multiple Listing Service Network (MLSN) Protocol for registering, assigning, and distributing property listings on the Internet. Similar to the WHOIS protocol, MLSN is an application publicly available on the Internet, however instead of port 43, MLSN is accessible from reserved port 32801. The numbering scheme is comprised of two parts separated by an '@' symbol: (1) a triple-dotted notation of three decimal integers ranging from 1 to 65,535 and (2) a double-dotted notation number composed of a postal code and country code standardized by ISO 3166-1. Taking in consideration for expired listings, MLSN offers a reusable feature which allows assigning a new, double-dotted notation number to a preexisting triple-dotted number thereby creating a new MLSN property listing number. Together with a standard protocol and unique numbering schema, MLSN provides a uniform resource locator (URL) to users for conducting a more efficient and convenient real estate property searching on the Internet.

Keywords: internet, multiple listing service, protocol, internationalization

--Corey

Building the World Wide MLS(tm)

Falling under the real estate science's discipline umbrella is the World Wide MLS(tm). What exactly is the World Wide MLS(tm) you ask? The World Wide Multiple Listing System (WWMLS) is a global registry listings application layered, nice and neatly, on top of the Internet.

Using reserved ports 32801 and 32811, WWMLS will allow public access to registry listings to users and accredited OpenMLS(R) registrars. Somewhat like the WHOIS protocol, the Multiple Listing Service Network Protocol binds to port 32801 using tcp and udp. Users or registrars request a listing's information by sending a message to an MLSN server which returns listing information or a "no match" response.

The other half of WWMLS involves the Real Estate Transport Protocol (RETP). RETP distributes listings from registrar to registry to registrars. The messaging protocol uses reserved port 32811 and tcp only. In a later blog post, I will expound more on RETP, its workings and significance to the World Wide MLS(tm).

--Corey