As we examine the results of this year’s Subscriber Satisfaction Survey, it becomes clear that COVID-19 has had a tangible, if not surprising, effect not just on home viewing, buying, and selling, but also on how our industry learns and interacts.
In 2019, most RMLS™ training took place at either one of our facilities (40.1%) or one of your offices (30.5%). The number of classes offered were limited this year due to the pandemic, and those figures fell to 13.8% and 18.1% respectively. With in-person options less available due to safety concerns, our subscriber community successfully adapted by adopting online alternatives.
The use of online webinars jumped an impressive 16.4%, with nearly one-third of subscribers who sought training opting for this format. The use of online tutorials also rose 8%. The data from the survey doesn’t show similar increases for all methods of distanced communications – email use stayed at 14%, while the use of the phone to speak to our Help Desk and Training Staff actually decreased by 3%, suggesting that our subscribers recognized a need to utilize online tools across their business practices.
With additional communication formats increasingly available online, such as our live chat option within RMLSweb and Paragon or our ‘Real Talk’ podcast, it will be interesting to see if these trends are a temporary reaction to the current pandemic, or the beginning of a broader shift to online channels for our community training and communications. If you have any questions, or wish to learn more about any form of training or help available to you, please give us a call at 877-256-2169 or email helpdesk@rmls.com.
RatePlug puts accurate monthly home payment estimates from your trusted lenders directly within the property reports you send your clients through your RMLSTM system. Their Virtual Flyer Program makes it simple to share your listings with buyers in seconds via email or text. Get your buyers thinking about affordability and asking questions about their financing earlier, while avoiding closing snafus later!
Click Here – to view a 1-minute overview of how RatePlug helps you, your buyers, and your lenders.
No cost for RMLSTM members to enroll.*
Displays ONLY your trusted lending sources.
Interactive, real-time mortgage information.
Link directly to your lender’s Pre-approval process.
Notifies you of special financing options (FHA, VA, USDA, etc.).
Virtual Flyer can be emailed, texted or posted on social media.
Click here to learn more or to opt-in to this tool that is free as part of your core RMLSTM subscription!
Perhaps you’ve been using RMLSweb for years, having grown comfortable with your routine access to the RMLS™ database. Alternatively, perhaps there is functionality you’ve been hoping to integrate into your practice, and you’re open to new options. Maybe you’ve even given Paragon, the newest System of Choice for RMLS™ subscribers, a test drive but haven’t fully figured out how to leverage what this system can do for your business.
No matter which category you fall into, there are compelling reasons to fully explore how Paragon could be useful to you and your clients. First and foremost is the ability to create a customizable platform that best suits your preferred ways of working. You can then offer similar flexibility to your clients as both buyers and sellers. Once you’ve established preferences, you can utilize a robust set of communication options and analytical reports to create a smooth buying or selling experience.
RMLS™ collaborated with leading real estate software provider Black Knight to provide subscribers with the Paragon option so that anyone that wanted to leverage a different toolkit could now do so.
Communication Is the Difference Maker
When considering Paragon use, the most basic question to ask is “What does Paragon offer me?” While Paragon MLS offers the ability to search for listings using a visual map, create CMA reports, and view public property records via CRS Data, some of the key offerings are in how Paragon handles communication between you and your clients.
When you log on to Paragon, you’ll see the Collaboration Center on your dashboard, which allows you to monitor client behavior in real time, including seeing when they’ve viewed properties, which ones they’re interested in, and which ones they’ve rejected. When clients access the Collaboration Center, they’re engaged and in control of a user-friendly system that facilitates real time searching – there’s no need to use a public portal. Clients benefit from the simplicity and focus of this ‘one stop shop’ to search, save, and track their property interest.
Both sides are able to manage their home buying or selling research efficiently and effectively. You and your clients are able to utilize a wealth of tools directly from within the Collaboration Center. For example, you’ll be able to compare properties, view recent sales, and use Automated Valuation Models (AVM) to calculate property values.
You can seamlessly switch between desktop and mobile when using Collaboration Center.
Leverage the Analytics
The accumulation and subsequent use of data are crucial components of most modern businesses. Paragon offers cutting-edge, integrated analytic capabilities for the real estate industry. With the ability to track factors such as Propensity to List, Loan to Value, or Estimated Equity, you can deliver a highly targeted, nuanced property analysis to a client. You’re then able to generate reports, such as Market Condition reports, as customizable spreadsheets.
Paragon takes advantage of integrated CRS Data in a variety of ways. You’ll be able to do the following using Paragon:
View all public property records
Perform easy tax record searches through the MLS Tax Suite
Generate 1004MC reports for appraisers
Review sales and mortgage histories
Download area demographics, comparison reports, and property analyses
Access interactive GIS and plat maps
The level of detail and customization you can provide clients goes a long way towards delivering the listing options they want to see, speeding up the search process, and ultimately ensuring their overall satisfaction.
Build Your Client-Friendly Brand and Practice
The use of Paragon-specific functionality may help improve the content and communication of your business, but it also can help you sharpen your brand and marketing. The ability to differentiate yourself and your services is critical. Clients enter into the process with their own priorities and preferences – they want to know that you are able to accommodate their search parameters and communication platforms. You may very well provide terrific service that answers their buying or selling needs, but if they aren’t initially aware of your service capabilities, you may never get the chance to show them.
That’s why it’s important to promote what you’re capable of providing. Whether it’s highlighting the search and communications options on your website or educating prospective clients on the variety of layers that can incorporated into property searches, your business benefits from communicating your system’s capabilities.
Marketing the power of your MLS system can help draw clients on the front end, and the quality of service and variety of communication options during the process help draw clients on the back end, as happy clients are more prone to give satisfied reviews online and through word-of-mouth references.
Getting Started with Paragon
If you’re interested in seeing if Paragon is the right fit for improving your business, you can try it out risk-free to start. With Paragon service being billed quarterly, the remainder of the first quarter you sign up in will be free to you! After that introductory quarter, you’ll be invoiced 30 days prior to the quarter ending. As of 2021, Paragon will cost $60/quarter, on top of regular RMLS™ service fees. To sign up, first inform RMLS™ of your choice by contacting our Front Desk at frontdesk@rmls.com.
Once you’re up and running, Black Knight’s Paragon system has training videos available to detail the functions and customization available, and webinar classes are offered regularly. RMLS™ trainers also offer training each month to guide you through the options and features available in Paragon – you can sign up for the classes after logging in to RMLSweb or Paragon.
During the pandemic I’ve really had a chance to take a closer look at some of the wonderful products the RMLS™ Board of Directors has approved for our use. My goodness, there are some good tools available but the one I’m most interested in is Remine. I watched the demonstration when the product first hit the market but was a bit discouraged by how expensive the Pro version was – at almost $200 per month I’d really have to stay busy to rationalize paying for it. I was talking with a fellow REALTOR® last week and they said they’d heard the Remine Pro version was now included in the tools we have to use for no additional cost – is that true? If so – THANK YOU!!
–Farming for leads in Fairview
Hi FF,
It IS true!! The RMLS™ Board of Directors recently agreed to provide the Remine Pro product to you for no cost, meaning the $200 per month some subscribers were paying to get the amazing benefit of Remine Pro is now available to all RMLS™ subscribers. Included in the Pro version is the ability to save up to 10,000 carts of property listings (think of a cart as a collection of specific property addresses) and the elimination of the $3.00 per contact fee. Remine Pro also has every conceivable property filter available to really fine tune your farming activities. Generating mailing labels to farm specific areas based on tangible knowledge about the propensity to sell or buy is a huge deal – no longer do you have to “shotgun market” with your valuable marketing dollars. Now you can send marketing materials to property addresses that might actually be ready to buy or sell!
I’m only touching on a small portion of what Remine Pro can do for you – I would strongly suggest either attending one of the RMLS™-led Remine webinars or checking out the Remine teaching webinars by going to the Support Center when logged in to Remine.
Happy Farming!
–TT
Dear TT,
I swear to you, I’m a very calm person, but if my buyers get one more prospecting email where the listing agent has altered the price by $5 both they and I are gonna scream!! Why do my fellow REALTORS® do this?? It’s sooooooooo frustrating for my buyers! Please tell me there’s a rule about this?
–Hopeful in Happy Valley
Hi HH,
Oh. My. Gosh. I hear you loud and clear! I’m not sure where that form of “marketing” came from but honestly it really IS irritating. Your timing could not be any better however, as just last week our amazing developers released new functionality to the Prospecting module of RMLSweb. This new feature allows you to define the amount of price change the system will use to determine triggering email notification to your clients. When you are looking at your clients Prospecting search, notice in the Frequently Used list of fields a new Price Change option is available. You can define the $ amount of change and the days back. This would allow you to restrict RMLSweb from sending new matches to your client unless the change was more than $1,000 as an example. So now you do have full control over this area of RMLSweb, something both you and your clients will likely enjoy!
