I’m so frustrated! While I realize that software that allows me to control showings of their listings should be beneficial, I have such a hard time with ShowingTime! It seems like it should be such a time saver, but I get confused as to how to set it up. It seems like you should be able to either turn it off for all listings or select specific listings to turn it off for.
I’ve also heard that there might be another tool coming online at some point down the road for showing control – is that true and what can you tell me about it?
-Challenged in Camas
Hi CC,
I hear you! You CAN control the use of ShowingTime for your listings, either individually or collectively (meaning all of them). This question is common at the Help Desk so please don’t feel like you’re alone in your challenges. We have a great guide (document #1783) available on RMLSweb that covers how to turn off ShowingTime in either scenario mentioned above.
If you find you still have questions after reviewing the doc, give our Help Desk a call at 503.872.8002 or toll free at 877.256.2169.
As far as future plans for showing software, you may have read this announcement a few months back:
MLS Aligned, a partnership of five forward-thinking Multiple Listing Services that includes RMLS, has announced the acquisition of Agent Inbox technology and intellectual property. MLS Aligned will build upon Agent Inbox in order to offer an integrated tool for messaging and scheduling showings to agents and brokers.
MLS Aligned believes that the Agent Inbox system “will bring tremendous benefits to consumers due to the platform’s speed and enhanced showing system capabilities.” MLS Aligned plans to integrate Agent Inbox capabilities into their respective MLS systems, including RMLSweb, to “provide for seamless agent-to-agent and agent-to-client communications.”
Kurt von Wasmuth, President and CEO of RMLS, said, “With Agent Inbox’s ability to seamlessly integrate into our existing MLS, the communication and showing features will provide an enticing enhancement to our current list of features.”
In closing I’d like to point out the very tangible benefits of belonging to RMLS that is in this group of five MLSs. The opportunity to share concepts, programming costs, and other economies of scale is a huge benefit, and one that RMLS is proud to participant with.
Thanks for writing in CC, hope this info is helpful!
In this crazy market we are experiencing I’ve had opportunity to use the Coming Soon-No Showing (CSN) concept in Listing Load. While I understand the concept, and agree it has value in the right circumstance, I found the workflow to be tough to understand when adding the listing.
In fact, I made a mistake the first time I tried to use CSN and the listing went Active right away! It took a bit of work and conversation with RMLS support staff to clean up the mess I made and get the listing re-added correctly.
Are there any support materials I should have referenced before attempting to add a CSN that might have prevented my mistake? The Help Desk person I spoke with said it happens quite frequently. Curious in Cottage Grove
Hi CC,
I hear you regarding adding a CSN listing. The mistake some subscribers make is not realizing the “Date Marketing to Begin” should be the date you want the listing to flip from CSN to Active, NOT the date you are publishing the CSN listing.
In light of the ongoing (though diminishing) challenges with getting the Date Marketing to Begin correct when adding a CSN listing, we created a brand new, short video that covers how to add a CSN listing and get the DMB value correct.
I sure hope this helps, CC. Going forward you can always call the Help Desk at 877.256.2169 or use the Chat feature in RMLSweb to discuss the process with RMLS staff while you’re adding the CSN listing.
Dear TT, I was chatting with a long-term Realtor in my office recently about farming (you know, how to wrangle up clients to list with you in an area you specialize in – not how to grow corn! They gave me the history of how they performed their farming strategies prior to Remine, and then told me how Remine has saved them a ton of marketing dollars.
I couldn’t quite grasp what they were telling me, and honestly, I didn’t want to take up any more of their time explaining the concept to me. Can you help? What is it about Remine that is so great when it comes to farming? Questioning in Quail Valley
Hi QQ, The veteran Realtor in your office shared a really valuable perspective with you. Remine allows you to farm in a way not possible before the days of “big data” and “artificial Intelligence” became commonplace. Remine has access to a TON of consumer data, including mortgage information, that is used to analyze the potential to sell based on known historical tendencies. This is based on many variables that you can custom select when running searches in Remine. The product doesn’t simply identify homeowners more likely to sell but can offer a turn-key solution in generating marketing materials and sending them on your behalf to homeowners that meet your criteria.
Examples of filters you can use to target your marketing/farming dollars include:
Property Value
Ownership Time
Equity
Mortgage rate %
Sell Score
Mortgage age
Absentee owner
Keep in mind that we offer Remine classes every month and the classes qualify for OR continuing education credit! We also offer one-on-one sessions where you can schedule personal training time with an RMLS Trainer. To register for this type of assistance, simply go to the Training Registration module in RMLSweb, navigate to the one-on-one option and pick the day and time that works for you. Time slots are in one-hour increments, and you can book as many time slots as you want. This gives you a chance to really explore with the help of a Trainer.
I am a fairly new subscriber to RMLS, and I’m interested in figuring out how to use all the additional tools RMLS offers us subscribers. It’s a pretty big difference compared to the last MLS I was a member of – they provided the base MLS system and that was it. Any additional tools were up to us Realtors to obtain and figure out how to use.
So, I’m excited about all the ‘extras’ RMLS has available, but there are almost too many additional tools to choose from. Can you help me better understand which toolset does what and which ones to pick for specific activities?
Curious in Cottage Grove
Hi CCG,
That’s a really great question. We put a lot of emphasis on providing tools for our subscribers to pick from and leverage to perform those daily tasks that can seem overwhelming – everyone is looking for ways to become more efficient and successful, right?
We do offer a class that covers all the various 3rd party products available to you called RMLS 3rd Party Tools, which is a great starting point. Recently we began offering another class – Comparing Your CMA Options – that takes a look at four viable options for creating market analysis reports for your clients. Nothing beats spending a little time exploring the options available to you though – you can view all the various 3rd party product options in RMLSweb.
After beginning with our RMLS 3rd Party Tools class to get a good overview of all the various products, I’d recommend identifying what your top goals are. Perhaps you want to streamline your farming process, or upgrade how you communicate with clients. Determine your top priorities, then give each tool which provides what you’re looking for a good test drive. Once you’ve identified some good tool matches, you can fast track your education and comfort with the tool by making use of our training options.
For example, if CMA creation is one of your challenges/objectives, I would sign up for our Comparing Your CMA Options webinar. This new CMA class compares RMLSweb, Homesnap, RPR and Remine, and the various approaches each uses to create a CMA. The class provides good detail about how to create the CMA report by searching for appropriate comparative properties, as well as the various output reports each product offers.
We offer stand-alone classes for many of our 3rd party products that goes into more detail about additional beneficial aspects of each product. You can also set up one-on-one sessions with our staff to answer specific questions about product use and integration for your business. To view our current schedule of available webinars, go to the Training Calendar on RMLSweb. You can also use Training/Support Resources to access all our support and training links, as well as video tutorials.
I hope this helps you identify a starting point in better understanding how to explore the variety of educational options we offer for the 3rd Party tools at your disposal.
I know it has been several months since the introduction of the Paragon MLS system and I recall there being a free trial period. Is that still available and why would I want to try Paragon?
Curious in Coos Bay
Hi CC,
It has been a few months since the roll out of the Paragon MLS System of Choice project. We continue to offer your first quarter of Paragon access for no cost — you simply need to send an email to frontdesk@rmls.com letting us know of your interest in trying the Paragon system. You will receive instructions on how to log in to the Paragon system as well as other details.
Now, your second question about why you would want to try Paragon has more answers. It depends on how you conduct your Real Estate business, how comprehensive of a technology toolset your brokerage provides you and what you like to do with MLS listing data.
Take, for example, the Paragon Collaboration Center and Paragon Connect – utilizing these two Paragon modules in conjunction with each other allows you to provide your customers a wonderful experience in viewing listings that match their specifications while allowing your customers to change search criteria on their own, favoriting properties they like and discarding properties they don’t like. All of this activity is done with transparency on your side, so you will know exactly what your clients are doing with the listings that you are providing them. And by utilizing Paragon Connect on your smart phone or tablet you will be able to see exactly what they are doing while you’re out in the field. Very powerful! Check out this short video about how the two modules work together.
https://youtu.be/SGbnDnK9QRk
If you are an appraiser, or simply like to export listing data to create your own data analysis using Excel, Paragon offers a simple, yet very effective way to create custom exports for your use. Also, if you are required as an appraiser to create the 1004MC market conditions report, Paragon has you covered there as well.
I’d be remiss in not mentioning the really powerful integration of the CRS Data’s MLS Tax Data suite that is included inside the Paragon system. The CRS system takes tax data reporting and searching capability to a new level!
So, as you can see, just detailing a couple of the Paragon system benefits will hopefully give you the encouragement to try the product. The RMLS Training Dept. and Help Desk Dept. are both available to support and train your Paragon experience for you, and the Paragon Help Center is as well-developed a support portal as I have seen in my 30 years in the industry.
Some of my REALTOR® friends and I were chatting recently about RMLS™ and how many cool tools we now have available for us. We tried to think about all the new “stuff” that has been provided to us just this year and while I’m sure we remembered a lot of the things could you give me a quick recap on the highlights for 2020? And also, THANK YOU to all the RMLS™ staff for keeping RMLS™ products and services up and running without skipping a beat during COVID. Much appreciated!!
Ecstatic in Estacada
Hi EE,
First of all, thank YOU for the kind words. The RMLS™ staff really does pride itself in not only providing/integrating those cool tools you reference above, but also recognizing that our core responsibility is to make sure RMLSweb is up and available for you 24/7.
Now, for a list of the deployment highlights from 2020.
Q1:
Added Immoviewer to the list of approved 3rd party products. Immoviewer automatically sends you a link to a simple video tour upon saving your new listing in the RMLSweb database.
Added the ability to customize the subject line in manually sent client reports from RMLSweb
Added a red button indicator Back Office on the Menu bar to alert you of your expiring listings
Added the SentriLock Access Report to the Statistics menu in RMLSweb
Implemented various COVID-19 accommodations to RMLSweb
Q2:
Released Phase 1 of the new RMLSweb reports including Client Full and Medium report styles
Added INRIX Drive Time mapping toolset as well as a new “freehand” drawing tool to Map Search
Continued with Phase 1 of the RMLSweb reports project by releasing new Open House and Broker Tour reports
Q3:
Added Paragon as the first “System of Choice” in the MLS industry
Added RatePlug to the approved 3rd party products
Added Price Change Amount filter in Prospecting to confine searches to a price change threshold
Q4:
Added button to Advanced Search to allow the creation of a Prospect Profile directly from the search
Added a new Agent Limited One Page report option
Keep in mind that I pulled these improvements/enhancements from a 20-page single line report of all the various items accomplished in 2020 – really quite impressive given the challenges of a global pandemic!
