The Challenge: Finding an effective way to establish identity online and make real estate transactions easier and safer over the Internet.

The CRT Solution: Facilitating real estate sales and closings by creating “trusted” digital identities for real estate practitioners and customers.  

The anonymous nature of the Internet has always been a problem for businesses. You can determine the originating e-mail address of a message you receive, but the physical identity of the person at the other end of the Web has always been a guessing game. This lack of a physical presence creates some unique challenges as the real estate transaction migrates to the Web. In the physical world, a merchant accepts your credit card at the checkout counter because the card establishes an identity that can be trusted for the purchase. 

In the online world, e-commerce operates on a similar model. You set up a digital identity by establishing a trusted relationship with a credit card issuer and then use your credit card to make online purchases.

That’s fine for buying a book on Amazon. But for more complex transactions such as real estate, businesses need more comprehensive, standardized digital identities. These digital identities are used to establish a sales associate’s, organization’s, or system’s identity for online purposes. Digital identities can be used to ensure confidentiality, provide ways to confirm identities across different organizations, and offer a single sign-on for use in the multitude of applications required in real estate. It would also be useful if the identity was set up only once. After this digital identity is set, it could eventually contain many of the attributes of identity that physical transactions have. Real estate organizations and professionals, as well as consumers, would benefit from using a trusted digital identity during an electronically enabled home buying process. 

There are already standards in place that allow all areas of real estate to participate in establishing digital identities. For example, the X.509 standard is a widely used open standard for defining the use of digital identities. It’s already used on many e-commerce sites and is available in several widely used browsers. Many current real estate entities, such as associations, MLSs, and brokerages, could also play important roles in establishing and managing digital identities. Adopting an open standards-based approach provides interoperability and lets the market decide on approaches, tools, and applications.

A system of digital identity in the real estate industry allows practitioners to:

• enhance their market presence, role, and impact
• create a stronger connection to consumers
• reduce risk and ensure trust throughout the transaction.

Establishing digital identities in the real estate arena would unleash innovation and creativity in multiple directions and become a win-win for REALTORS® and the industry.

Learn More. For an overview of the uses and benefits of digital identity, go to http://www.digitalidworld.com/ or http://www.projectliberty.org/ 

The National Association of REALTORS®, the world’s largest trade association, is looking for a Chief Technology Officer/Senior Vice President. This individual would serve as NAR’s chief technical adviser and technology spokesperson within the association and on behalf of the real estate industry. The CTO will represent the association in business and IT arenas as its technology innovator and champion.

Responsibilities:

• Build and execute the technology strategic and annual plan. Develop a 3 to 5 year technology “road map” and drive its implementation on time and under budget.
• Provide overarching technological direction to the association; determine IT initiatives, strategies, operating plans, and long-term systems needs in collaboration with the CEO; and review all technological operations from a strategic perspective and ensure they are aligned with association’s tactical goals.
• Develop a technology vision for the real estate industry and REALTORS®; convey the vision interactively with the membership.
• Identify new Internet-based services for members and evaluate current services and programs for improvement.
• As a member of the senior management team, participate in planning the association’s growth and coordinating the strategic plan with the development of technological systems and capabilities.

Requirements:

Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree preferred. At least 10 years experience in information technology field at a senior level. Comprehensive and current knowledge of the information systems technology field, including knowledge of state of the art hardware and software. Superior written and verbal communication skills, as well as superior presentation skills, both technical and nontechnical. Adept at making presentations in such venues as technology conferences and trade shows. The CTO will be skilled at forging relationships with top technology leaders.

We offer a rewarding and challenging work environment along with a competitive salary and excellent benefits package.

Please submit your resume, along with a cover letter stating salary requirements to: Douglas P. Hinderer, senior vice president/Human Resources at dhindere@realtors.org 

The Challenge: An affordable, easy way to monitor MLS listing policies.

The CRT Solution: PolicyPage, now in general release from CRT, gives you an automated way to enforce listing display requirements.

PolicyPage, an Internet compliance software application that scans Web sites for compliance with MLS listing display policies, is now generally available through NAR’s Center for REALTOR Technology. You can access your free copy of PolicyPage v1.0 at: http://www.crt.realtors.org/projects/policyPage/index.html.

PolicyPage was developed by CRT after we discovered the significant amount of staff resources MLSs used to manually review member Web sites. PolicyPage simplifies and speeds the review process by scanning for required terminology and graphics on participants’ Web sites. The software provides objective standards for evaluating Web sites, but also can be tailored to local needs. In addition, PolicyPage includes selected NAR model Internet display rules.

In addition, PolicyPage checks automatically for disclosure statements, copyright statements, and correct displays of logos on member sites. Future releases, which will be staged throughout 2006, will offer checks for appropriate listing usage and searches for rogue or pirated uses of data.

PolicyPage also automatically alerts members after a site review. The e-mail includes a notice of compliance or failure and details about causes of failure. PolicyPage reduces the burden of making sure members’ sites comply with official policy and makes life simpler for members by notifying them of necessary site changes quickly.
 
“We see a number of uses for PolicyPage, both at an MLS and at a brokerage,” states Mark M. Flavin, lead system support representative at the Bay East Association of REALTORS  in Pleasanton, Calif., and one of the project contributors and beta testers.  “We use PolicyPage to ensure members that those who do not follow the rules will not benefit at the expense of those that do.”

Features of  the  v1.0 release include the capability to review Web sites in batch mode when the user is not online, the ability to review graphics, and a simplified installation. PolicyPage can be used in a wide variety of deployments.

Learn More: For further details about PolicyPage, go to: http://www.realtor.org/crtweb.nsf/pages/CRTPolicyPage?OpenDocument.
In addition a PolicyPage session will be held at the upcoming Association Executive Institute in Reno.

Why and How to Update Your Software

Few computer problems can slow down your productivity and endanger your data more than using outdated software. Fortunately, keeping current is easier than ever thanks to automatic updates built into many widely used software such as Windows, antivirus and antispam programs, and Internet browsers.

Updating your software regularly is critical if you want to protect your programs from malicious hackers and viruses. It’s a race between those who create the updates and those who look to exploit holes in your software. The good guys can’t help you if you don’t help yourself.

Another value of regular updates is to eliminate bugs in your software. Today’s applications are incredibly complex, so errors often creep in during their creation. These bugs can cause performance degradation, compatibility issues between different applications, or inconsistent program behavior. That’s why it’s important to install patches available for your programs.

The third reason to apply updates is improved functionality. In the rush to get new products to market, applications are often released to consumers before all the bells and whistles have been added. Updates can give you features not available in a program’s original release.

Updating made easy
In the past, updating applications was a laborious and technical undertaking. Now, with a few mouse clicks, it’s done.

To illustrate, let’s use Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system as an example. Like many software programs, XP can be set up to update automatically as frequently as you’d like. Generally you should select a daily update option, especially if you are using Windows antivirus features.

To turn on automatic updates in XP, click the Start button on your task bar and navigate to the Security Center. Here’s the path: 
Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Security Center.

Next, go to the bottom of the page under “Manage security settings for:” and click on “Automatic Updates.”

In the window, you’ll see four options. Click the Automatic button, select “Every day” from the dropdown box, and set the time you want the update to occur. The time should be set to a time you know the machine will be on and you’ll be connected to the Internet. Click the Apply button, and you’re done. It’s that simple.

CRT has just completed its 2006 MLS Technology Survey. For more information go to:
http://www.realtor.org/crtweb.nsf/pages/CRTsurvey?OpenDocument 

CRT will be participating and presenting at the Association Executives Institutue in Reno. The CRT sessions include:

Information Security – What AEs Need to Know
Friday, March 31, 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m.

Now real estate professionals can receive a free copy of the CRT Report from the Center for REALTOR Technology. If you’d like your IT staff or outside consultant to receive this quarterly update on technology, have them subscribe to the CRT newsletter or have them check out the CRT blog.

Let CRT help you find the best solution to your toughest tech challenge. If there are technology issues or products you’d like the CRT to investigate or just a question you’d like answered, please e-mail info@crt.realtors.org

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