Did you know that 2016 marks the 25th anniversary of RMLS™?
RMLS™ staff members have been visiting association meetings this year to deliver thank yous and anniversary-themed goodies, as our partners around the region have been absolutely vital to the success of RMLS™ since 1991.
RMLS™ will close out this silver anniversary with a month of giveaways. We’ll be giving away 25 prizes in December, one for each year RMLS™ has been serving REALTORS® in the Pacific northwest.
Each week in December, we’ll spotlight a couple of RMLS™ departments who will choose a couple of lucky subscribers to receive a $50 gift card from Amazon, Home Depot, or Best Buy. If you’ve had an interaction with the RMLS™ Help Desk, Account Services, Training, Data Accuracy, Distribution Services, or the Front Desk in 2016, you’ll be automatically entered for these giveaways.
We have more to give away! Tell us how RMLS™ has impacted your real estate career in an email to communications@rmls.com—and you’ll be entered to win a cookie basket to share with your office or an iPad Air 2!
GIFT CARD WINNERS!
Data Accuracy:
Cy Vandermeer, Blue Pacific Realty (Brookings)
Cindy Whipple, Berkshire Hathaway Home Services NW Real Estate (Eugene)
Beth Earnest, Earnest and Associates Real Estate (Portland)
Distribution Services:
Andy Harris, Home Team Realty (Portland)
Ray Penny, NextHome All State Real Estate (Coos Bay)
Hunter Finch, Bandon Property (Bandon)
Front Desk:
Sherri Brown, Century 21 The Neil Company (Roseburg)
Steve Betts, Coldwell Banker Seal (Vancouver)
Nadia Mulyar, Premiere Property Group (Vancouver)
Training:
Emily Siskin, Premiere Property Group (Clackamas)
Cristina Tran, Better Homes and Gardens (Portland)
Sondra McFeters, Portland Digs (Portland)
Help Desk:
Sally Haskin, Ross Pacific Realty (Vancouver)
Zoe Brady, Equinox Real Estate (Eugene)
Richard Compton, Keller Williams Realty Professionals (Portland)
Check back with this post throughout December for a list of winners.
For the week of November 14-20, 2016, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity decreased in both states again this week.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of RMLS™. Throughout the year, RMLS™ Executive Assistant Angel Johnstone will be writing about people who have been vital to the 25 year history of RMLS™. This month, she explores technology with Greg Moore, RMLS™ Vice President of Technical Systems.
As the 25th anniversary of RMLS™ slides through the home stretch, let’s have a look at 25 years of technological development of RMLS™.
In the early days at RMLS™, all listings were published in large books like the ones shown above. These books were published bimonthly and mailed out to subscriber brokerages.
When the internet was considered “the wave of the future,” RMLS™ evolved in step, at first offering digitized data through a network of terminals called Stellar. These terminals were installed in offices and maintained by RMLS™ staff. RMLSweb was launched in 2001, and the company soon purchased code from a company called HomeSeekers in 2002. Since that time, all RMLSweb development has been executed in-house, with subscribers interacting with this system every day when they log in to RMLSweb.
Greg Moore, RMLS™ Vice President of Technical Systems, has been the lead for coding development at RMLS™ since the original HomeSeekers code was purchased. He originally connected with RMLS™ as a vendor selling MLS software and was later offered a contract position to develop software in-house.
In chatting with Greg, I asked how his team stays ahead of the curve to keep RMLS™ relevant in the swiftly changing tech world. He replied, “I’m like a geek at heart—I read a lot of technology publications but I also have a wonderful set of peers in the industry across the country doing very similar work. About 20-30 of us meet regularly and I have an excellent team of developers at RMLS™ who help us stay current as well.”
Greg noted some of the highlights his team has incorporated over the years, such as the function of drawing on a screen, integrating an overall rich body of information, producing mashups, and creating link sharing. He explained, “it’s important that we evolve with technology and we hope to do so gracefully. We are primarily focused on supporting the brokers and understanding our role in that function.”
Just like transitioning listing books to the internet, lockbox products have had to evolve with the latest technology to stay relevant. This evolution started from a simple lockbox with a key and/or combination to lockboxes that function with Palm Pilots (remember those?) and today’s lockboxes with app connectivity. We’ll even see Bluetooth operated lockboxes in the near future! Throughout these changes RMLS™ has endeavored to keep its subscribership at the forefront of lockbox technology.
Change has the ability to ruffle feathers, as most changes offer challenges, but under the direction of the RMLS™ Board of Directors, RMLS™ strives to offer its subscribers exceptional service with efficient, savvy tools. As Greg put it, “we need to be nimble and unafraid of change.”
RMLS™ has evolved endlessly over the last 25 years—from Dave Koch helping establish the organization to expanding across Oregon and Southwest Washington; from listing books to a comprehensive listing website; from simple to intricate lockboxes. RMLS™ has not only grown in size, but in measure and quality of service it offers subscribers. We’ve learned a lot over the last quarter century and look forward to the next, equally enthusiastic about what lies ahead as we are about our accomplishments and the lessons we’ve encountered along the way.
Thank you for your subscribership—you are, after all, the reason RMLS™ exists!
This year marks the 25th anniversary of RMLS™. Throughout the year, RMLS™ Executive Assistant Angel Johnstone will be writing about people who have been vital to the 25 year history of RMLS™. This month, she explores technology with Greg Moore, RMLS™ Vice President of Technical Systems.
As the 25th anniversary of RMLS™ slides through the home stretch, let’s have a look at 25 years of technological development of RMLS™.
In the early days at RMLS™, all listings were published in large books like the ones shown above. These books were published bimonthly and mailed out to subscriber brokerages.
When the internet was considered “the wave of the future,” RMLS™ evolved in step, at first offering digitized data through a network of terminals called Stellar. These terminals were installed in offices and maintained by RMLS™ staff. RMLSweb was launched in 2001, and the company soon purchased code from a company called HomeSeekers in 2002. Since that time, all RMLSweb development has been executed in-house, with subscribers interacting with this system every day when they log in to RMLSweb.
Greg Moore, RMLS™ Vice President of Technical Systems, has been the lead for coding development at RMLS™ since the original HomeSeekers code was purchased. He originally connected with RMLS™ as a vendor selling MLS software and was later offered a contract position to develop software in-house.
In chatting with Greg, I asked how his team stays ahead of the curve to keep RMLS™ relevant in the swiftly changing tech world. He replied, “I’m like a geek at heart—I read a lot of technology publications but I also have a wonderful set of peers in the industry across the country doing very similar work. About 20-30 of us meet regularly and I have an excellent team of developers at RMLS™ who help us stay current as well.”
Greg noted some of the highlights his team has incorporated over the years, such as the function of drawing on a screen, integrating an overall rich body of information, producing mashups, and creating link sharing. He explained, “it’s important that we evolve with technology and we hope to do so gracefully. We are primarily focused on supporting the brokers and understanding our role in that function.”
Just like transitioning listing books to the internet, lockbox products have had to evolve with the latest technology to stay relevant. This evolution started from a simple lockbox with a key and/or combination to lockboxes that function with Palm Pilots (remember those?) and today’s lockboxes with app connectivity. We’ll even see Bluetooth operated lockboxes in the near future! Throughout these changes RMLS™ has endeavored to keep its subscribership at the forefront of lockbox technology.
Change has the ability to ruffle feathers, as most changes offer challenges, but under the direction of the RMLS™ Board of Directors, RMLS™ strives to offer its subscribers exceptional service with efficient, savvy tools. As Greg put it, “we need to be nimble and unafraid of change.”
RMLS™ has evolved endlessly over the last 25 years—from Dave Koch helping establish the organization to expanding across Oregon and Southwest Washington; from listing books to a comprehensive listing website; from simple to intricate lockboxes. RMLS™ has not only grown in size, but in measure and quality of service it offers subscribers. We’ve learned a lot over the last quarter century and look forward to the next, equally enthusiastic about what lies ahead as we are about our accomplishments and the lessons we’ve encountered along the way.
Thank you for your subscribership—you are, after all, the reason RMLS™ exists!
For the week of November 7-13, 2016, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity decreased in both states this week.
The RMLS™ server room ca. 1996.
