The RMLS™ Data Accuracy team has noticed an upswing in reports about personal promotion on RMLSweb—particularly on video tours—the past several weeks.
What the Rules Say
Here’s what the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations say about personal promotion on RMLSweb: 3.24 Personal Promotion and Contact Information in Public Remarks and on Photos Prohibited Listings submitted to RMLS™ may be used to provide information pertinent to the listed properly only and may not be used to provide broker, seller, or lessor contact information, or to advertise a subscriber’s services to the public by way of direct or indirect advertising or “branding” of the listing data (through linking or otherwise), including photograph(s). This rule does not prohibit the accidental inclusion of yard signs in photographs. “Virtual tours” and “video tours” may not include “branding” or personal advertising in the body of the tour. RMLS™ may remove personal promotion from public remarks or photo(s) with personal promotion.
In other words, only a description of the property is permitted in public remarks, and only imagery of the property is permitted in photos or videos.
Examples of Personal Promotion in a Listing:
Examples of Acceptable Listing:
According to the RMLS™ Board of Directors “personal promotion” on your RMLSweb listing includes (but is not limited to) the name of the listing broker/agent, any contact phone numbers, website links (if that website provides any information other than a description of the property), and 1-800 numbers with recorded messages that “capture” information from the caller. Virtual and video tours must be unbranded and contain only images of the property.
We don’t want to remove your hard work from RMLSweb, but our job ensures listing data quality on RMLSweb and beyond, as well as fairness to all our subscribers. Contact the RMLS™ Data Accuracy Department at (503) 236-7657 if you want to discuss your listings with us.
The RMLS™ Data Accuracy team has noticed an upswing in reports about personal promotion on RMLSweb—particularly on video tours—the past several weeks.
What the Rules Say
Here’s what the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations say about personal promotion on RMLSweb: 3.24 Personal Promotion and Contact Information in Public Remarks and on Photos Prohibited Listings submitted to RMLS™ may be used to provide information pertinent to the listed properly only and may not be used to provide broker, seller, or lessor contact information, or to advertise a subscriber’s services to the public by way of direct or indirect advertising or “branding” of the listing data (through linking or otherwise), including photograph(s). This rule does not prohibit the accidental inclusion of yard signs in photographs. “Virtual tours” and “video tours” may not include “branding” or personal advertising in the body of the tour. RMLS™ may remove personal promotion from public remarks or photo(s) with personal promotion.
In other words, only a description of the property is permitted in public remarks, and only imagery of the property is permitted in photos or videos.
Examples of Personal Promotion in a Listing:
Examples of Acceptable Listing:
According to the RMLS™ Board of Directors “personal promotion” on your RMLSweb listing includes (but is not limited to) the name of the listing broker/agent, any contact phone numbers, website links (if that website provides any information other than a description of the property), and 1-800 numbers with recorded messages that “capture” information from the caller. Virtual and video tours must be unbranded and contain only images of the property.
We don’t want to remove your hard work from RMLSweb, but our job ensures listing data quality on RMLSweb and beyond, as well as fairness to all our subscribers. Contact the RMLS™ Data Accuracy Department at (503) 236-7657 if you want to discuss your listings with us.
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.
Technical Terry:
I’m sure you’ve heard the stories about RMLS™ subscribers having to resort to using products from other brokerages to deliver new listings or changed listings to their clients in a timelier fashion. This seems contrary to the mission of RMLS™, is it not? Why do we not have tools available either within RMLSweb or within one of your approved third-party vendor integrations?
Frustrated in Fairview
Dear FF:
I understand your frustration and concern. I do have some good news for you in this area. Remine recently added some new functionality to an already great product that should solve the issue you mention above regarding delivery of new / changed listings to your customers in a timelier way. Here are some details on that new set of functionalities:
Saved Search
Stay up to date on property updates through the Saved Search
feature! When you save a search, you’ll receive email notifications when new
properties meet your search criteria, or when property characteristics change,
like MLS status or listing price. You can also automatically update your client
on the newest properties that meet your Save Search criteria.
The product feature formerly known as Track is now
called “Carts.”
Carts enable agents to share specific properties or
groups of properties with their clients and receive quick and easy feedback.
Previously, RMLS™ subscribers could maintain up to
100 properties with the Track feature, that number increases to 500 properties
in Carts.
Consumer Portal Improvement
As
a RMLS™ subscriber, you can create your own public-facing portal as a free lead
capture system. To participate, you simply need to activate your Remine account
and invite your contacts. The more invitations you send, the more visible you
are to future clients.
You
can invite unlimited contacts to your portal, to keep them tied to your
business and the MLS.
Additional Enhancements from the recent Remine update:
New User Interface: A
cleaner, more modern and intuitive user interface is now available, on both the
desktop and mobile applications.
CMA 360: An improved CMA experience.
Remine offers the only CMA in the industry that searches MLS and off-market
comps.
Property Details Page:
Format and layout have been improved
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.
Technical Terry:
Aaaaargh!!!! Does every subscriber have the same issues I do when uploading or reordering photos in the Listing Load Photo Manager? I’ll reorder photos, save my work, then discover that not only was my new order not saved but sometimes the photos disappear! Am I the only one having this issue? What can I do?
POed in Portland
POP:
Not all RMLS™ subscribers are having the issue but you’re not the only one who is. And I’m glad to tell you, today is a new day! Our development team has created a tool you can use if you’re having that issue again.
Behold—the new Refresh button on the RMLSweb Photo Loader!
Here’s how it works: if you’re using the Photo Manager and believe your listing photos have disappeared, reordering hasn’t happened, or are experiencing some other issue, click the Refresh button above the image preview (see above). This will refresh the work done inside the Photo Manager (like refreshing a web browser) and the issue should be resolved.
If you find that this new tool is not resolving the issue, there could be something else at play. One behavior the RMLS™ Help Desk has noticed while working with subscribers is that if someone is uploading a batch of photos and closes the Photo Manager window before processing is 100% complete, using the new Refresh button is not going to magically restore the whole batch.
The majority of Photo Manager issues have been fixed by using the Refresh button though, and that should have a profound impact on you and other subscribers who have been experiencing this issue. If you use it and the issue persists though, contact the RMLS™ Help Desk and they’ll do their best to assist!
Technical Terry
Dear ATT:
I remember hearing a while back that the RMLS™ office in Portland is going to move. When is that move happening? Where will you be?
Roman Realtor
Dear RR:
What a timely question! The Portland office will be moving in just a couple of weeks, but other parts of RMLS™ will see some impacts as well.
First things first: as we reported back in August, the new office location will be in Southwest Portland at 16101 SW 72nd Avenue. The office in Northeast Portland will close its doors at 12:00 PM (noon) on Friday, November 1st. On Monday, November 4th, the office will remain closed, but we plan to be open and available for RMLS™ subscribers on Tuesday, November 5th! We also plan to invite subscribers in for an open house a few weeks after we’ve settled in.
While the office in Portland is in transition, the RMLS™ Help Desk and Front Desk will still be available for questions by phone and via email, as we utilize staff across the region to assist subscribers through those methods.
Once the Portland office has moved, the RMLS™ office in Clark County will close at 12:00 PM (noon) on Friday, November 8th in order to do some office maintenance involving furniture. We’ll still have staff on email and phones ready to assist, and otherwise Clark County REALTORS® are advised to plan to do any office business that morning.
We’ll have up-to-date information posted on the RMLSweb desktop as needed, so don’t forget to check there for the latest!
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-oh-MY is the market abuzz about the upcoming Coming Soon-No Showing status and the changes to Authorization to Exclude! I think I’ve also heard rumor of a forms change rollout and a new showing scheduler being added to RMLSweb. I’m really concerned that much of what I’m hearing is just rumor. Can you guide me to where I can get more info on these important changes?
Concerned Clarice in Clackamas
Hi CCC-
Why, yes I can! Your perspective that the market is “abuzz” about the upcoming changes is spot on.
RMLS™ communicates information in a variety of ways. We understand that some subscribers rely on the RMLSweb desktop page for information, others rely on the RMLS™ Weekly Report, sent on Monday mornings, and others still really like subscribing to our blog on RMLScentral for information.
For example: on the day I’m writing this, the RMLSweb desktop page has links to an array of useful information about the projects you mention:
We send out the RMLS™ Weekly Report at 6 AM every Monday morning. In it you will find much of the same information shown on the RMLSweb desktop. The email address we use to send RWR is the address you provide to us in the User Preferences section of RMLSweb, shown here:
(If you’re not receiving the email, it could be that your email account filters the email to your junk or spam folder. Check there!)
Last, but certainly not least, is the RMLScentral blog. You can find articles on the blog that cover the same topics and others, with the added benefit of visible subscriber feedback and questions. Access the blog from the RMLSweb desktop page by clicking on the appropriate link in the Links section, seen here:
I sure hope this information helps, Clarice. We realize that your days are very busy, and as such we try to provide information in a variety of channels/formats, hoping one or more will work well for you.
TT
Hey, Technical Terry!
Clarice is my team member and while she may have plenty of time in the office to subscribe to the RMLS™ blog and read news as soon as it’s released, I am in my car all the time. Showings, trips to the RMLS™ office, picking up closing gifts—it seems the hours I spend in traffic every day take me away from RMLS™ communications. Any suggestions there, smartypants?
Cody Clark, Clarice’s Coworker in Clackamas
Hey…CCCCC!
First things first: don’t read this (or anything else from RMLS™) while driving!
That said, I do indeed have the very thing for you: Real Talk with RMLS™, our podcast! We unveiled our first episode just about a year ago, and our audience has been growing steadily ever since. Episodes are offered regularly, and listeners can expect that big projects like the ones Clarice was interested in will be covered in an episode very soon.
Real Talk with RMLS™ is available on iTunes and Google Play. We hope you will pass some of your time sitting in traffic by learning about RMLS™ projects this way!
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’m a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. I was also a REALTOR® back in Atlanta and our MLS often gave us good, common sense tips about being a REALTOR®. Does RMLS™ do anything like that? As I’ve been reading some local chatter online, it seems like there is a real need for something like this!
I hope you will find the new document helpful in your day-to-day activities as a REALTOR® in our market. While reading through the document you may find that some of the items are common sense or we’ve listed things you think every REALTOR® should already know. What I know from watching our industry for many years is that things that are logical to you or me may not be to others.
RMLS™ has always believed that education is the best way to create a predictable and ethical working environment for our subscribers, and we’re hopeful that the new document will assist in doing that.
Technical Terry
Dear TT:
One of my coworkers claims that RMLS™ is going to be converting to a SentriLock lockbox that uses Bluetooth. When I asked him when it would happen, he didn’t know. Can you tell me about this? And why would we be swapping out our SentriLock lockboxes already—didn’t we just get these?
Imin U. Gene
Dear IUG:
The reason your coworker cannot give you a date is this: there isn’t one to give! The RMLS™ Board of Directors has discussed the possibility of doing a conversion to SentriLock’s Bluetooth lockboxes but nothing firm has been decided yet. Your view that we “just” transitioned to SentriLock NXT lockboxes is only partly true—it has been 4.5 years since we did our most recent conversion!
In fact, here are a few fun facts about SentriLock at RMLS™:
Lockboxes currently in distribution at RMLS™: 56,450
RMLS™ lockboxes per active/pending listing: 3.64 per listing
Lockboxes per active RMLS™ subscriber: 4.04 per subscriber
That being said, the new SentriLock Bluetooth lockboxes really do offer a lot compared with the NXT lockbox. Two of the biggest benefits are that the lockbox can be opened via the SentriSmart™ app on your smartphone even when you’re out of cell range, as it uses Bluetooth instead of cellular; and many of the lockbox programming functions can be performed using SentriSmart™ instead of your SentriCard®. (If you haven’t started using SentriSmart™ yet, get it on the Apple App Store or Google Play!)
If you have a lockbox that has suffered battery failure, you can simply plug in a “battery jumper pack” into the side of the Bluetooth lockbox to provide the power for it to open. If you’ve ever needed to use the Power Paddle to get an NXT lockbox open after its batteries have died, you’ll realize what a benefit this is!
If this project moves forward, we’ll surely inform RMLS™ subscribers through the RMLSweb desktop page, the RMLS™ Weekly Report, and our blog on RMLScentral. Keep your eyes toward us!
