More details have emerged about the National Association of Realtor’s “Gateway” project, now renamed for the third time as the “Realtors Property Resource.” The project, which we initially speculated might pose direct competition to Realtor.com – which operates the NAR’s official consumer-facing site – is now being billed as “the largest database in the country of tax and assessment information,” with data on virtually every property in the U.S. “including residential and commercial properties and vacant land.”

The Realtor’s Property Resource may also include information about for-sale-by-owner properties, something that has long been anathema to NAR, as well as insurance claim and loss history data.

Will the project eventually morph into a national MLS? No, said Dale Ross, chairman of the project’s advisory board, but then added, “I believe there probably will be a national MLS (but) this is not going to be (it). This is not the intent.”

As a database, the project doesn’t have the same business model as Realtor.com. Rather, the advisory board is looking at ways to monetize the system by potentially reselling data to the MLS’s or by charging MLS’s for access.

The project’s advisory board – which has 22 members – met for the first time in Chicago. Recommendations for a proof of concept will be given during the NAR’s next big meet-up in May 2009.

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