by RMLS Communication Department | Sep 23, 2009 | RMLS News, RMLSweb
New Process for Reporting Copyright Infringement
Starting on October 1, you’ll notice that you have to accept new Terms of Service (TOS) for RMLSweb, RMLS.com and RMLSweb Mobile.
Note to RMLSweb Mobile users: you will need to login to RMLSweb first to accept the TOS, otherwise; you will not be able to use RMLSweb Mobile until the new TOS are accepted.
The changes to the TOS are in accordance with Title 17, United States Code, Section 512(c)(2) Digital Millenium Copyright Act. As part of the new TOS, if you feel a photo or other content acquired by another subscriber is in violation of copyright, you can now e-mail copyrightagent@rmls.com.
By e-mailing us we can start an investigation, but before we take any action, we need to receive a signed statement with specific information about the infringement by mail or as an attachment to your e-mail. For more details, you can preview a copy of the Claims of Copy Right Infringement instructions.
As a reminder, section 10.3 of the RMLS™ Rules & Regulations states:
“By the act of submitting any property listing content to RMLS™, the Participant represents that Participant has been authorized and also thereby does grant authority for the MLS to include the property listing content in its copyrighted MLS compilation and also in any statistical report on comparables. Listing content includes, but is not limited to, photographs, images, graphics, audio and video recordings, virtual tours, drawings, descriptions, remarks, narratives, pricing information, and other details or information related to listed property.”
by RMLS Communication Department | Sep 21, 2009 | Realtor Safety, Tips & Tricks
Tip: Use RSS Feeds or Google Alerts to monitor your listings on Craigslist
We’ve received reports of homes that were listed for sale on Craigslist being fraudulently re-posted as a low-rate rental listings. These types of scams may be aimed at getting prospective renters to wire or send first and last month’s rent. For example, a case was reported where a home listed at over $400,000 was fraudulently offered for just $700 a month.
Suggestion: If you’re concerned that listings you have posted on Craigslist may be at risk, you can setup an alert using RSS feeds – here’s how:
1. If you don’t use an RSS Reader currently, sign up for an RSS Reader, such as Google Reader or Bloglines (these are just a couple examples of free programs you can use).
2. Visit craigslist.org and find your region’s Craigslist page.
3. Click on the “Housing” section and type your property address or a unique phrase from your property description into the search field and click search.
4. At the bottom of the page, there is a button that reads “RSS” – click on this.
5. Copy the link of the page that opens and add it to your RSS Reader.
By doing this, you would be notified when you check your RSS Reader if someone has copied information from your listing & re-posted it on Craigslist in the housing section.
Another option would be to use Google Alerts:
1. Visit google.com/alerts.
2. In the search terms field, enter the property address or a unique phrase from your listing.
3. Select “Comprehensive” as the type of search.
4. Select how often you want to be notified if it returns search results.
5. Enter the e-mail address you want notification sent to.
Google Alerts searches the web, news articles, etc. and will return any results that match your search criteria.
If you see any fraudulent listings on Craigslist, report it to Craigslist.
Please also notify RMLS™ of any similar activity by e-mailing Kelly McKenna at Kelly.m (at) rmls (dot) com.
by RMLS Communication Department | Sep 21, 2009 | Lockbox, Market Trends, Statistics
Lockbox Activity Back Up
The deadline to be able to get the $8,000 first time home buyers credit is coming up. Perhaps this fact spurred the increase in lockbox activity this last week. When comparing the week of September 7-13 with the week prior, the number of times an RMLS™ subscriber opened a Supra lockbox increased 6.7% in Washington and 3.9% in Oregon.
Click the chart for a larger view (Washington, top; Oregon, bottom)
Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.
by RMLS Communication Department | Sep 17, 2009 | Realtor Safety
September 13-19 is Realtor Safety Week
It’s Realtor® Safety Week and the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) wants to remind its members that this is the perfect time to start focusing on best practices for ensuring your personal safety as well as your clients’ safety, home and office safety, and more.
To help you do so, NAR has revamped its Realtor® safety website: www.realtor.org/safety. It has a lot of great resources for you to use to help build safety awareness year-round, so make sure to check it out and bookmark it.
Safety Resources from RMLS™
We offer a Selling Safe brochure for you to give to your clients. If you’d like some of these brochures, you may request them free of charge (if you’re an RMLS™ subscriber) by e-mailing communications (at) rmls (dot) com.
We also want to know about any safety incidents that you encounter so we can get the word out to the 12,000+ subscribers of RMLS™ in Oregon & Southern Washington. To report such incidents, please e-mail Kelly.m (at) rmls (dot) com.
by RMLS Communication Department | Sep 16, 2009 | Clark County, Coos County, Curry County, Douglas County, Lane County, Market Trends, Oregon Real Estate, Portland, Statistics, Union County, Washington Real Estate
Same-month sales improve, but inventory rises in many areas
Pending sales in Clark County surpassed August 2008 & 2007 totals
Sales Activity
Sales activity (pending sales & closed sales) outpaced totals from last August in several areas. Clark County continues to post impressive numbers in this category, as pending sales were up 24.9% and closed sales increased 21.4%. Portland posted a 13% increase in pending sales and 4% in closed sales.
In Southern Oregon, Curry County saw a big jump in pending sales, a 75% increase over last August. Coos County, the Columbia Basin region and Baker County also saw pending and closed sales grow.
Housing Inventory
Inventory, on the other hand, rose in many areas this month. However, most of the increases were modest and inventory remains well below 2008 levels.
Portland saw inventory rise to 7.8 months, up from 7.3 in July, but was still 21% below where inventory was in August 2008. Clark County, similarly, was at 8 months in August, but that was 37% lower than August 2008, when inventory stood at 12.7 months.
Baker, Curry, Douglas & Lane counties and the Mid-Columbia region all saw inventory increase in August, but in all cases, it was still lower than 2008.
Days on Market
You may have noticed that this month we have comparable data for the “Total Market Time” (TMT) statistical category. This is the amount of time that it takes from when a property is listed to when an offer is accepted on that same property. If the property is re-listed within 31 days, TMT continues to accrue; however, it does not include the time that it was off the market.
We started tracking this stat in August 2008, so we finally had comparable data this month. As you may recall, we used to measure “Current Listing Market Time” instead, this measure was less accurate as it only tracked the amount of time that a listing was on the market, it did not track the property address (so if it was re-listed, it would reset).
Overall, it appears that it is taking more time to market properties, all of our market areas saw increases compared to last August, with the exception of the Columbia Basin region and Union County.
In Portland it took 135 days to sell a property, up 11.5% from last August when it took 121 days.
