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by RMLS Communication Department | Oct 20, 2017 | RMLSweb, Statistics
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,
My clients just asked me for some market statistics. The statistics module on RMLSweb and Market Action are crazy good, but I just need some simple, easy to understand stats. Any ideas?
Simple Statistics in Stayton
Dear SS,
Of course I have some ideas! There are two really easy places to see and/or print some stats that your clients may find compelling.
One: when you run a search and scroll down to the “Detail View” tab in your search results. At the bottom of each section is a nice synopsis of the properties contained within the section, with the sections separated by listing status. Here’s what that section looks like:
Quick and easy—but not easy to print.
If you want to print a simple, yet statistically effective report for your clients choose the “Summary Only” report from your list of report options. Here’s what that simple yet effective report looks like:
The report gives you and your clients great info on some of the basic stats we talk about all the time. Solds, if they are part of your search, even have sale price to list price ratio.
If neither of these options are good for your needs, have a look at the Statistics menu on the main navigation bar. It gives you many options to compile statistics you and your client may find useful, including the statistical summaries documents which compile years worth of Market Action data for each published area within the RMLS™ region.
Technical Terry
Technical Terry!
Do you keep up on the news? It seems REALTORS® are being accosted when performing showings! There seems to be more and more of it happening. I heard that SentriSmart™, the SentriLock app, has a feature for agent safety. What the heck is that, and how does it work?
Terrified in Troutdale
TT!
In fact I do keep up on the news stories about REALTOR® safety issues around the country. While there are many best practices to use to help your safety as a REALTOR®, SentriSmart™ does provide a resource that may provide you confidence in showing vacant homes or homes to new clients.
To access and set up the agent safety feature in SentriSmart™, follow these steps:
- Log in to SentriSmart™ on either your iPhone or Android.
- Go to the Settings option in the app.
- Tap on Agent Safety and enter your PIN.
- From the Agent Safety page, add your emergency contacts by clicking on the blue + sign. The app will access the contacts stored on your phone and allow you to pick one or more contacts to be included in the list of people the app will contact.
- Enable “Automated Safety Check.” Once enabled, SentriSmart™ will send you an alert approximately 90 seconds after you have opened the lockbox key container. If you do not acknowledge the first alert, a second alert will be sent after approximately 60 seconds. If you do not acknowledge the second alert, an email and text message will be sent to the contact(s) you’ve added to your contacts list in the app. If you have several contacts in that list, the app will alert all of them simultaneously about the potential safety concern.
- Tap on Accept to agree to the Release Agreement, then enter your PIN for verification.
Here are samples of the texts you and your list of contacts will receive if you don’t respond to the two notifications.
Hope that this SentriSmart™ feature can help you feel less terrified, Terrified in Troutdale! It’s great that you’re thinking ahead to prepare for safety issues before they occur.
Technical Terry
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by RMLS Communication Department | Oct 6, 2017 | RMLS News, RMLSweb
Over the last few years the RMLS™ Board of Directors and staff have received numerous questions, concerns, and comments regarding property that is being marketed as “coming soon.” In light of so many inquiries the RMLS™ Board of Directors formed a task force earlier this year to evaluate the concerns and identify potential solutions. The result is a new status called CSN – Coming Soon-No Showing. This new status indicates that there is a valid listing agreement between the seller(s) and the listing agent/firm, but that the listing is not ready to be shown. This listing is in the MLS, but not on market. This status tells other subscribers when the property will become available for showings.
Highlights of the new Coming Soon-No Showing (CSN) status:
- CSN listings are considered an off-market status, like Withdrawn (WTH).
- CSN listings are only viewable within RMLSweb.com.
- CSN listings are not included on RMLS.com, Realtor.com, IDX, or syndicated feeds.
- CSN listings are not included in open house or broker tours.
- A property may be in CSN status for up to 21 days. After 21 days is reached the system will automatically change the status to Active (ACT) unless the listing agent changes it sooner.
- CSN listings cannot be shown—by anyone. If a showing is to occur, the rules will state that the status of the listing must first be changed to Active (ACT) to allow everyone an opportunity to show the property.
- Days on Market (DOM)/Cumulative Days on Market (CDOM) counts do not accrue while in CSN status
- The first photograph will contain a “Coming Soon-No Showing” watermark. When the listing is no longer in CSN status, the system will automatically remove the watermark from the first photograph.
- CSN listings can be searched and viewed within RMLSweb.
- CSN listings will be excluded from client prospecting auto-email notifications.
- CSN listings are excluded from statistical reports.
- Agent reports within RMLSweb will only display “No Showings Permitted” in the showing notification section.
Here are a few examples of how you could benefit from the Coming Soon-No Showing listing status:
- It allows time to prepare a listing so that it is fully marketable the moment it goes active. With this new status, you can prepare all marketing around the date the listing will move to Active status. Listings under the new status are submitted to the MLS and have an MLS number.
- This new status allows agents to market their listings in the MLS to other subscribers while finishing touches (such as new paint, flooring, etc.) are being completed.
- A listing will not needlessly accrue Days on Market/Cumulative Days on Market. DOM/CDOM accrual does not begin until it moves to Active status.
- It provides subscribers with the date of when the listing is expected to be active. By providing this date, the most interested buyers can get prepared to see the property when the listing switches to Active status.
- It helps keep other subscribers informed of upcoming inventory. By including CSN listings in RMLSweb, subscribers will not be caught off guard by “coming soon” yard signs when driving through a community with a buyer.
We will be adding the new status in early 2018. Changes to the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations, listings contracts, and the Authorization to Exclude from MLS Addendum will be required as well as programming changes for RMLSweb. Watch the RMLSweb desktop for more information as we get closer to implementing this new status.
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by RMLS Communication Department | Sep 15, 2017 | RMLSweb
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:
I finally got around to looking at the Listing View Counts report that I’ve been sending to my clients for some time now. (By the way, thank you for the automatic delivery process!) I am amazed they have not asked me what the heck the various “views” even mean! Surely they’ll ask one of these days and I want to be prepared. How can I explain to them what each of the categories mean?
Count Conundrum in Corvallis
Dear CCC:
You’re not alone—the RMLS™ Help Desk gets this question regularly. We have a couple of documents that do a great job of breaking down the Listing View Counts report for you. How to Use Listing View Counts, Document #1762, and How Listing View Counts are Calculated, Document #1763, are designed to help RMLS™ subscribers understand the report.
In a nutshell, the categories are as follows.
• RMLSweb Detail View: This is the category that covers views from within RMLSweb by REALTOR® subscribers. There are 13 unique reports available within RMLSweb (See Document #1763 above for the full list) that tally in this category. This category also counts any views by REALTOR® subscribers on the RMLSweb mobile site.
• RMLSweb Emailed View: This categories tallies a count any time the “View Report” link is clicked in an email you’ve sent from RMLSweb to a client/consumer.
• RMLS.com Details: This category tallies a count any time the “Detail Report” is clicked on the public-facing RMLS.com website.
• Unique Subscriber Count: This category reflects the number of unique REALTOR® subscribers that have viewed the listing on RMLSweb. If one REALTOR® views the same report ten times, they’ll only be counted as one unique subscriber, but if 100 REALTORS® view the report one time each, the unique subscriber count would be 100.
Don’t forget to take a closer look at those documents linked above. If you still need more detail, the RMLS™ Help Desk can walk you through any of your remaining questions.
Technical Terry in Tigard
Dear Technical Terry,
I understand the RMLS™ rules about not modifying various aspects of our listings once we’ve added them to RMLSweb—but why can’t we modify any information after the listing is sold? There are times when we may need to modify sales agent, etc., and contacting RMLS™ each time seems pretty inefficient. Can you help?
Frustrated Felicia in Fairview
Dear FFF,
I hear you, loud and clear! While there are certain aspects of your listing that cannot be modified after its published on RMLSweb without RMLS™ assistance, the area you mention can be edited after closing. When you are in the Listing Load screen with the listing in question in list format, just click the “CMP” button:
This pop-up screen will appear, allowing you to modify and save any of the data categories you see:
Knowing about the CMP button does allow you to make some changes, which we hope you’ll find convenient. That said, RMLS™ staff are always more than happy to assist with any other changes that need to be made after a listing has sold!
TT
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by RMLS Communication Department | Aug 17, 2017 | RMLSweb, SentriLock, Tips & Tricks
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.
Dearest Technical Terry,
Oh em geeee! I’m atwitter thinking about the upcoming eclipse and how our SentriSmart™ app and SentriLock lockboxes won’t work during that time. I have clients that are convinced that their perfect home can only be discovered during the time of totality! What am I going to do?
Clueless in Coquille
Dearest Clueless,
Not to worry! Not only is Coquille not in the path of totality for this eclipse, but the eclipse will have ZERO bearing on your use of the SentriLock system. SentriLock’s technology should not be impacted in any way by the solar eclipse.
Traffic, on the other hand? I’m thinking you may just want to pick another day to cruise around looking for your clients’ perfect home. But what do I know? Isn’t the customer always right?
Technical Terry
Dear TT,
I was just discussing days on market with my clients the other day and had a hard time explaining the difference between DOM and CDOM is. Can you help?
Dum DOM in Damascus
DDD,
Of course I can help! Days on market, or DOM, is a standard industry term used to describe the number of days between list date and the off-market date. When you have a listing that simply goes from a single list date to a single off-market date (let’s say in 50 days for an example) the calculation is quite simple. In this example, DOM and CDOM would both be 50 days.
It’s when you have a property that you list for sale, then cancel it, then relist it with a new MLS number that the calculations get a bit trickier.
Picture this: you list a home and after 30 days you haven’t received any offers and the seller wants to do some repairs. You cancel the original listing and then relist once the repairs are done. The second listing gets a new MLS number. When the gap between your cancellation of the first listing and the relisting date is fewer than 31 days, any off-market gap will not be counted in the CDOM calculation.
So if the first listing had 30 days of market time, the time when the listing was off-market for repairs was seven days then the new listing sold/closed in 21 days, the CDOM would be 51 days. This scenario is called linear relisting.
A final scenario is when you have a listing for sale and cancel it to get a new MLS number with NO gap between the cancellation of the first and second listings. In this case, CDOM would reflect the number of days the property was on the market from the original list date of the first listing through the off-market date of the second listing. This is called an overlapping relisting.
Does that help? RMLS™ also offers Document #1742, How CDOM is Calculated, if you want to read further.
TT
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by RMLS Communication Department | Aug 11, 2017 | RMLSweb
Do you have a difficult time remembering what certain abbreviations mean when you’re in the thick of entering listing information on RMLSweb? Of course Document 1210, Listing Abbreviations, is always available for reference, but it’s far easier to focus on the task at hand instead of always cross-referencing with another tab on your web browser.
RMLS™ is pleased to announce that an unabbreviated Listing Load will soon be released on RMLSweb. Once the change is made, all users will see the change when using Listing Load, as all users will have the unabbreviated version as the default.
Subscribers who want to keep the original abbreviated version of Listing Load can easily do so by changing their default in User Preferences.
Access User Preferences by hovering over the user’s name in the navigation bar on RMLSweb and selecting the User Preferences option. Next, click on the Desktop/Sidebar Options tab. Uncheck the box labeled “Unabbreviated Listing Load.” (Don’t forget to save your changes…)
Once the default has been changed in User Preferences, subscribers using Listing Load will find listing abbreviations restored until any point when they change their preferences again.
RMLS™ hopes to release this unabbreviated version of Listing Load the morning of Thursday, August 17th. Subscribers requiring assistance with this or any other feature of RMLSweb can always contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at (503) 872-8002 or (877) 256-2169 for assistance.
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by RMLS Communication Department | Jul 14, 2017 | RMLSweb
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,
I sent one of my new REALTORS® down to RMLS™ in Eugene to join up. They came back and said there’s a new mandatory orientation class that takes four hours to complete! She said there were quizzes and everything! What is up with that? Don’t you realize we REALTORS® are super busy? Why would RMLS™ make us take that much time out of our busy day to attend a stupid orientation class?
Curious in Cottage Grove
Dear CCG,
Great question! RMLS™ complies with the National Association of REALTORS® model rules for MLS operations. Included in those model rules is a carveout of up to eight mandatory training hours for orientation training. That language has been in the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations since its inception. Given the ever-evolving complexity of the real estate world—and frankly, keeping a close eye on the social behavior of our industry—prompted RMLS™ to take a more aggressive role with orientation. The new orientation format is four hours of training content, including some quizzes intended to really galvanize an agent to understand that content. While it may seem like a lot of time for orientation training, I’m confident our new subscribers will realize the benefit many times over.
Technical Terry
Hey TT-
What in the world did you guys do to the RMLSweb mapping system? I logged in one morning and it had totally changed with absolutely NO warning. And now one of the best pieces of the old system is missing, the birds eye view. Why did you mess with it?
Manic Over Mapping
Hey MOM-
The earlier version of maps on RMLSweb was based on a version of Bing map layers and controls that Microsoft announced they would be retiring by the end of June 2017. Microsoft made this announcement in March 2017! That compressed time frame created a challenge for anyone using that version of Bing in their system.
The RMLS™ development team was already knee deep in the forms change project when the announcement was made. They scrambled to come up with a functional replacement in a very short period of time, and that’s what you’re seeing today on RMLSweb.
As for the birds eye view, there is some functionality from the old version of Bing that has yet to be released for the new version. That doesn’t mean it won’t return, it simply means our developers need some additional time to rebuild it for the maps on RMLSweb.
We did try to provide RMLS™ subscribers as much advance notice as we possibly could. We had an overview video available through an article on the RMLSweb desktop a week prior to the switch, as well as an overview on our blog that was featured in the RMLS™ Weekly Report before the switch. We’re sorry to hear these didn’t reach your eyes in time, but we’re confident that the new tools provided by Microsoft will result in a better mapping experience in the near future.
TT
