RMLS™ is excited to give subscribers a first look at the fresh look coming this week to RMLSweb. Visitors will see a completely new look to the site starting August 14th: a home base that’s less text-heavy, more responsive to mobile devices, and prioritizes what users need most.
The new RMLSweb desktop page introduces a home menu where subscribers can easily access the most-used components of the site: Prospecting, Listing Load, CMA, Map Search, and Advanced Search, topped by the simple search bar which is already a key component of RMLSweb. Use the Home menu from anywhere in the site to access any of these six areas of RMLSweb.
We know that RMLS™ subscribers like easy access to other RMLSweb components, so the site navigation menus have absorbed some of the information previously featured on the desktop page. The Help menu, for example, has absorbed the user’s notepad, links, user preferences, and live chat buttons. No tools have been removed from the site.
Be aware that unveiling the new look to these site components is just the beginning—RMLS™ plans to roll out similar redesigns to other parts of the site to better meet the needs of today’s RMLS™ subscribers.
This new approach to RMLSweb is the result of input from RMLS™ subscribers, local associations, staff, and plenty of other stakeholders. RMLS™ partnered with a user experience design professional to make the new approach to RMLSweb the best it could possibly be for a wide-ranging user base.
Once the redesign is live, RMLS™ is happy to help subscribers find anything that may have moved elsewhere from the desktop page. Users have suggested a site redesign for years, and we hope that the result will be more user friendly and navigable for RMLS™ subscribers.
The changes we made had a notable impact. In the last three months, over 1,600 CSN listings have been added to RMLSweb! On average, listings have stayed in CSN status for six days before being changed to Active (ACT) status. Prior to the changes, the number of Authorization to Exclude from MLS Addendums submitted to RMLS™ was in the hundreds per month. Since the change, just 59 forms have been submitted.
These changes are still relatively new, and RMLS™ continues to get questions about how the new system works. Here are some of the most common questions we receive about the CSN changes, answered:
I am about to list a property in CSN status. What do I need to do in Listing Load to ensure that it is published as a CSN status?
Before publishing the listing in Listing Load, you should check two things. First, make sure the checkbox for “Publish as Coming Soon-No Showing (CSN):” is checked. Second, make sure you’ve filled in “Date Marketing to Begin.” This is the list date—a date greater than today, but not more than 21 days in the future. These two things will ensure that the listing is published as CSN in RMLSweb.
My seller wants their property published as a CSN for just ten days, not the full 21 days. Is this possible?
Yes it is! You and your seller can have a listing published on RMLSweb as CSN for as little as one day or as many as 21 days, but not more than 21 days.
I have a CSN listing that is supposed to be in CSN status for ten days. Today is the ninth day and the seller has decided that they need five more days to prepare the property. What should I do?
Edit the listing in Listing Load and change the “Date Marketing to Begin” field to reflect the new date. For example if you originally made August 1st the date marketing to begin and your seller needed five additional days, you would change it to August 6th. Save the changes and you are good to go. The listing will convert to Active (ACT) status on August 6th.
Caveat: if adding five days takes you over that 21 day limit, you’ll need to withdraw the listing until it is ready for market.
My CSN listing changed to Active (ACT) status by itself. I didn’t change it. How did this happen?
Once the date you’ve set as the “Date Marketing to Begin” hits, the system will automatically convert the listing status from CSN to ACT.
My sellers and I agreed to list their property as a CSN listing in RMLSweb for 18 days. Today’s the eleventh day and they’ve decided that they are ready to put the property on the market. Can I change the CSN status to ACT?
Yes you can. Anytime during the period when a property is in CSN status, the Seller’s Agent (that’s you!) can change the status to Active (ACT) or Withdrawn (WTH).
I want to install a sign with flyers on the property of my CSN listing. Are there requirements regarding the sign and flyer that I should know about?
Yes. The sign and/or flyers must contain the label “Coming Soon.” This will let folks know that that they can expect to see the property on the market soon.
Okay, I have published a listing as CSN in RMLSweband posted a sign at the property that says “Coming Soon.” Can I email or share details about this property with my clients?
No you may not. If one of your clients ask about this property, let them know the date when it will be active on the market—you can follow up with them at that time.
Can CSN listings be published on internet sites outside of RMLSweb, such as Realtor.com or Zillow?
No, they cannot. While a listing is in CSN status, it can only be published on RMLSweb.
My seller has opted to exclude their property from the MLS. I have a signed listing contract noting this decision. Is there anything else I need to do?
Since the seller has chosen to exclude their property from the MLS, Document #1260, Authorization to Exclude from MLS Addendum or an equivalent form will need to be filled out and signed by the seller(s), Seller’s Agent, and the Principal/Designated Broker. The form must then be submitted to RMLS™ within 72 hours. You can submit this directly within RMLSweb by going to Back Office -> Submit Excluded Listing. Click “+Add a PDF” and follow the instructions. Information on the form will not be made available to other subscribers—just you, your Participant/Designated Broker, and RMLS™.
My seller wants to exclude the property from RMLSweb for 30 days and then include it. Our listing contract is effective for three months though. Is it possible to do what they are requesting?
No, it is not. When a seller elects to exclude the property from RMLSweb, they do so for the life of that listing contract. In this case, all three months.
My sellers excluded their listing from RMLSweb and the listing contract expired. Now the sellers want to list the property. How soon can I publish it?
You will need to wait for 30 days after the listing contract has expired. Once those 30 days are up, you can publish the listing in RMLSweb. At the time that the seller excluded the property from the MLS they filled out, signed, and agreed to Authorization to Exclude from MLS Addendum, which states the “Broker’s Firm shall not enter this property into the MLS until 30 days past the Expiration Date” (Page 2).
I have a client who wants to sell a property but it needs major work. The work won’t be completed for 45 days. CSN is not an option, because they need more than 21 days. What can I do?
Fill out the listing contact and choose the first option: “AN ACTIVE LISTING (ACT).” Since no marketing will occur while work is being completed, set “Date Marketing to Begin” to the 45th day out. For example, if today is August 1, 2018, you would set “Date Marketing to Begin” for September 14, 2018. You have secured the listing contact and the sellers will have the time they need to prep the property for the market. Once the work is complete, then publish the listing on RMLSweb on September 14, 2018 and begin your marketing efforts.
RMLS™ will be simplifying its subscriber fee structure—which will mean an increase for individual subscribers—beginning in the fourth quarter of 2018. Subscribers will see the fee change reflected on their invoice for the fourth quarter, which should be available September 1st.
Subscribers who previously paid either $105 per quarter or $135 per quarter will now both pay $141 per quarter, simplifying the overall RMLS™ fee structure. Offices that previously paid a quarterly access fee will no longer pay that fee. Administrative users and personal assistants will still be charged $25 per quarter for each user.
RMLS™ subscribers will see a fee increase of either $6 per quarter or $36 per quarter. Office access fees will be eliminated. Administrative users and personal assistant fees will remain unchanged. SentriLock key fees will not change.
The RMLS™ Board of Directors approved these changes at their June 2018 meeting, the result of ongoing discussions about serving subscribers as robustly as possible and the future of the organization. The board, comprised of working REALTORS® from around the RMLS™ service area, oversees the direction of RMLS™ as an organization and deemed these changes necessary in consideration of future projects.
These future projects include:
Creation of a new mobile app, slated for release in Summer 2018.
Hiring additional staff including a new product manager, UI/UX designer, and additional programmers that will enable RMLS™ to release more projects, more quickly.
The “Report Issue” button will be updated to use a CoreLogic Listing Data Checker dashboard. Subscribers will be able to see what inquiries they have submitted and what has been reported on their own listings.
The RMLSweb login page, desktop page, and menu bar will be updated with a more modern look and feel. It will be more user- and mobile device-friendly. This is just the beginning of a fresh look that will eventually find its way to all areas of RMLSweb.
A SentriLock Bluetooth lockbox upgrade slated for Fall 2018. NXT lockboxes will be exchanged, for free, for a new Bluetooth lockbox.
RMLS™ looks forward to better serving RMLS™ subscribers through these improvements, some of which are in direct response to feedback received from subscribers over the course of several years.
Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.
Dear Technical Terry:
I was recently working to pull some comparables in RMLSweb and I noticed there were several properties that were coded as the wrong property type.
I specialize in listing condominiums, and the condo I was working on is completely detached from the other units on the property. What I encountered while looking for price comparables was pretty slim. I found several more properties that had been entered as Detached Single Family units, but which were clearly still condos.
Are REALTORS® identifying condos this way because they think they’ll find a wider market in those looking for a single family home? Do they just not realize that detached condos exist? Incorrect identification complicates my job, and I know it creates more work for the appraiser and the Data Accuracy staff at RMLS™. What gives?
Minnie Kondo
Dear AA:
Understood! I’m confident that the misidentification of properties in RMLSweb is not done intentionally, and we do our best to quickly resolve any data inaccuracies that appear in live listing data.
RMLSweb does have a document, Residential Property Types, that users may refer to in order to discern which property type to use on RMLSweb. That said, properties in the scenario you describe should be entered as Property Type=Condo and Condo Unit Location=Detached.
I reached out to the City of Portland for some assistance on the finer points of property type information, and they referred to their list of residential structure types that start on Page 27 of their planning and zoning definitions. These descriptions are generic, and while they were produced by the City of Portland they can be used as a reference. Naturally you should contact your local government for clarification for your city.
I provide these examples in the hope they will help our REALTOR® subscribers in identifying the property type correctly. If confusion persists, I’d highly recommend contacting our Data Accuracy staffvia email or by phoning (503) 236-7657 or (877) 256-2169. They are intimately familiar with RMLSweb and various parties using the data, so they’ll steer you in the right direction.
Technical Terry
Hey TT:
After a cool decade working in Hot-lanta, I moved to Portland last month and joined RMLS™. I’ve been hearing rumblings about the market has been cooling a little, and I want to find out more. I’ve really appreciated getting Market Action sent to me each month but is there somewhere where I can find historical data?
Sincerely Yours,
Penelope Peachtree
Hey PP:
Welcome to Oregon! I think you’ll find we’re pretty cool here too, although it certainly has been hot so far this July! At any rate, RMLS™ is somewhat unique in the amount of statistics it publishes—it’s a point of pride for the organization.
In addition to publishing 15 editions of Market Action each month, we also compile much of the published data in our statistical summaries documents, easily available on RMLSweb. Access the statistical summaries documents by hovering over the Statistics tab on the main navigation bar, then click on Statistical Summaries to pull up a list of links divided by sub-regions of the RMLS™ service area.
The statistical summaries documents aren’t the only place you can find statistics on RMLSweb, but it’s certainly enough to get you started. If you want to dive deeper into this topic, I highly recommend signing up for our statistics class. Contact RMLS™ Training at (503) 236-7657 or (877) 256-2169 to learn more or sign up for our next class!
Ever since ShowingTime went live on RMLSweb this spring, RMLS™ has been hearing some common confusions from subscribers. Perhaps you’ve received an email from ShowingTime and don’t understand why. Or maybe you want to opt out of ShowingTime but don’t know how to do so. We’re here to help, so here are some basics we hope will clear the confusion.
All RMLSweb users were opted in to the service when ShowingTime was released. Whether you use the service is completely up to you though—ShowingTime can be turned off for one listing or all your listings (see below for instructions)! RMLSweb listings that feature the ShowingTime icon offer online scheduling, but if you prefer a good old conversation, you can contact the REALTOR® that way instead.
Subscribers who have not opted out may not realize that ShowingTime is still live on their listings. This means that you’ve received an email from ShowingTime with a showing request and you’re not sure why, you’ll want to get familiar with the service so you can accept or reschedule the showing.
CHANGE THE SETTINGS
Everyone was opted in to the service by default, but ShowingTime can be turned off for one of your listings, or all of your listings, as Ask Technical Terry outlined back in May.
GO DEEPER WITH SHOWINGTIME
We think that ShowingTime makes the business of scheduling showings far more convenient for RMLS™ subscribers. ShowingTime has great features that can save time, and we hope that you’ll explore which features may be able to make your day simpler. ShowingTime even offers a paid service for agents who want to go deeper with the product—it includes brokerage branding and special tools to use with clients.
Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.
Dear TT:
We recently had a RMLS™ trainer out to our office to discuss the new CSN status. During the presentation they mentioned the importance of the Date Marketing to Begin field. I asked about this new field only to find out that it’s been in the listing contract for years! While the trainer did a wonderful job of explaining the new status I’m still a little fuzzy about that field. When would I use that, and why?
Confused in Carver
Dear CC:
Honestly, you’re not the only RMLS™ subscriber surprised by the Date Marketing to Begin field. And I’m happy to review:
There are primarily two scenarios where this field can play a role…
In the first scenario, you are meeting with sellers who agree to use you to list their home but they need some repairs (or just some time) before they’re ready for the property to go live on RMLSweb. You, on the other hand, really want to get your listing contract signed that day to ensure you’ve got the sellers under contract.
In this scenario you would have the sellers sign the listing agreement but choose a date in the future (Date Marketing to Begin) when the repairs (or whatever) will be done and the home will be ready to market. You would publish the listing on RMLSweb on that date.
Here’s an example of this scenario highlighted in the listing contract:
In the second scenario, you are meeting with sellers who agree to use you to list their home but the sellers want to create some buzz about the home prior to it being active on RMLSweb. You again want to get that listing contract signed the same day.
In this case, using the new Coming Soon-No Showing (CSN) status may work well. Choosing CSN will give the sellers up to 21 days of exposure in RMLSweb prior to their listing converting to active (ACT). In this scenario you would have the sellers sign the listing agreement but choose a date in the future (Date Marketing to Begin) within 21 days in the Coming Soon-No Showing section of the listing contract.
You would publish the listing as CSN, which is accessible only to RMLS™ subscribers until RMLSweb converts the listing to ACT on the date specified on Date Marketing to Begin.
Here’s an example of this second scenario highlighted in the listing contract:
Of course you also have the option of excluding the listing from RMLSweb for the life of the listing contract plus 30 days by choosing the “Excluded from MLS” option in the listing contract:
Still got questions? We also recently made a short video about Date Marketing to Begin.
Hopefully walking through Date Marketing to Begin was helpful! Don’t forget, we are always happy to provide additional assistance as you need it. Simply contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at (503) 872-8002 or (877) 256-2169 and we can answer your questions until it’s crystal clear!
TT
Hello Technical Terry!
Ever since an incident I had a few years ago I’ve been more conscious about my safety in the field, and that’s why I’m curious about the new agent safety features of SentriSmart™. Can you tell me more about them?
Cautious in Coburg
Hello Cautious!
I’m really glad to hear that you take your safety seriously. Surely you’re aware of the high-profile case of Beverly Carter, but even on the local level RMLS™ regularly receives reports from agents receiving harassing phone calls or contact from “potential clients” that just don’t check out.
One tool that SentriLock has given to its users is on the SentriSmart™ app. The agent safety feature allows REALTORS® to alert selected contacts in the case of an unexpected or potentially dangerous situation when showing a listing.
When the feature is enabled, the agent safety feature will launch when SentriSmart™ is used to open a lockbox. The feature will automatically alert designated contacts when you do not confirm that you are safe.
Download the latest version of SentriSmart™ then enable the agent safety feature by selecting the Settings tab. Scroll down to Agent Safety, select, then enter your PIN to configure your agent safety settings. Next to Safety Notification Contacts, touch the plus sign and select yes to allow the app to have access to your contacts. Choose at least one contact from the list as your emergency contact, then select Enable Automated Safety Check. (SentriLock has a series of videos demonstrating how to set the feature up on a variety of devices.)
Once you’ve opened a lockbox, SentriSmart™ will ask if you want to use the agent safety feature. If you press the start button, note that you will need to keep checking the app every 90-120 seconds to confirm you are still safe.
If you don’t periodically confirm your safety, your emergency contacts will receive a message from SentriSmart™ and you’ll start receiving a flurry of phone calls and/or text messages from those contacts. (I mention this as RMLS™ has heard reports from users who learned this lesson the hard way.)
The agent safety feature also integrates with the facial recognition/Touch ID features that are part of the new SentriSmart™ update. If you haven’t updated the app for a while, be sure and do so! And if you haven’t started using SentriSmart™, it’s available through both the Apple App Store and Google Play, and well worth checking out.
Before publishing the listing in Listing Load, you should check two things. First, make sure the checkbox for “Publish as Coming Soon-No Showing (CSN):” is checked. Second, make sure you’ve filled in “Date Marketing to Begin.” This is the list date—a date greater than today, but not more than 21 days in the future. These two things will ensure that the listing is published as CSN in RMLSweb.
