Board data feed approval
The BrokerFold Team — Product + Engineering
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Board data feed approval is the paperwork that legally connects your board’s listing database to your website, and it confuses more agents than any technical part of launching a site — mostly because nobody tells them who actually does what. Here is the process as we run it at BrokerFold, from the vendor’s side of the table, where we initiate these agreements as a registered PropTx vendor. The short version: you sign little, your broker of record signs the important thing, and your vendor should be doing the driving.
The four parties, and what each one does
Every board feed agreement involves the same cast. You, the member, request the feed for your site. Your website vendor must already be an authorized data vendor with the board — this is a standing technical relationship the vendor maintains, not something arranged per agent — and it initiates and authorizes the agreement. Your broker of record approves it, because board data licences run through the brokerage, not the individual salesperson. The board (through its data platform — PropTx for TRREB) processes the executed agreement and registers your website’s URL against the feed. If a vendor cannot describe this chain crisply, it is a strong sign they resell someone else’s feed rather than holding their own relationship.
The steps, in the order they actually happen
- Pick the lanes. IDX covers public active listings; VOW adds registration-gated sold and off-market data. They are separate agreements signed through one workflow — the differences are mapped on TRREB data feeds.
- Vendor initiates. We file the data agreement through the board’s online portal, naming the brokerage, the member, and the site.
- The website URL is named. The agreement covers specific, registered URLs — on TRREB paperwork this rides the agreement’s Schedule B, which is why your final domain should exist before filing. Your BrokerFold dashboard surfaces the exact URL to use.
- Broker of record approves. One signature, and the single biggest variable in the whole timeline.
- The board executes and registers. Once processed, the feed is authorized for your registered URL and data begins to flow.
No server setup, no API keys, no feed maintenance appears anywhere in your column. That machinery is the vendor’s standing job.
The critical path is a person, not a system
In our experience operating this process, board-side processing is rarely the bottleneck. The elapsed time lives almost entirely in the human approval step: a broker of record who knows the request is coming signs the same day, and one who first hears about it from a portal notification may sit on it for a week. The realistic timelines — about a day at the fast end, one to two weeks typically — are broken down on how long TRREB IDX approval takes. The one action that reliably compresses the process: tell your broker before the paperwork is filed. For brokers themselves, the approval workflow from their side of the desk is covered on broker of record IDX and VOW approvals.
What can stall an approval
The recurring snags are mundane. A URL that changes after filing — the agreement names specific addresses, so a late domain switch means amended paperwork. A brokerage mid-transition on its broker of record. An agent filing IDX now and deciding on VOW a month later, buying a second full trip through the same signature queue. And, worst, a vendor who is not actually authorized with the board and must complete its own vendor onboarding before your agreement can even be filed — a question worth asking bluntly before you commit.
What happens after the yes
Execution day is undramatic in the best way. Your URL is registered, the feed authorizes, and the pipeline starts filling your site — on BrokerFold, listings publish as each one arrives complete, with details, coordinates and processed photos, so a TRREB IDX website comes up whole rather than half-loaded. From that point the agreement mostly asks you to keep operating within display rules, which a purpose-built platform enforces as software. The paperwork you were dreading turns out to be a few signatures in the right order — provided someone who has done it before is driving.
Frequently asked questions
Do I apply to the board myself for an IDX feed?
Not alone. The application is a three-party agreement: your website vendor initiates and authorizes it, your broker of record approves it, and the board processes it. A good vendor drives the paperwork and tells you exactly when your one action is needed.
Can my website launch before board approval comes through?
The site itself can be built, branded and previewed in full. Live board data starts flowing only once the agreement is executed and your URL is registered — which is why starting the paperwork on day one, in parallel with design work, is the right order.
Do IDX and VOW need separate approvals?
Yes, they are separate agreements — but they travel through the same workflow with the same signers, so filing both at once adds almost no time. If sold data is anywhere on your roadmap, sign both in one sitting.
Keep reading
- How long does TRREB IDX approval take? Realistic TRREB IDX timelines: about a day at the fast end, one to two weeks typically — and why almost all the variance is one signature queue.
- Broker of record IDX and VOW approvals Why every IDX and VOW agreement routes to the broker of record, what to check before signing, and how to keep approvals off the critical path.
- TRREB IDX website A TRREB IDX website with the board's live feed: 15-minute sync via RESO Web API, photos on our own CDN, and listings that publish only when complete.
- TRREB data feeds TRREB distributes listing data through three lanes — IDX, VOW and DLA — over the AMPRE RESO Web API. A vendor's first-hand map of what each carries.