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by RMLS Communication Department | Mar 1, 2018
At the annual RMLS™ leadership retreat last month, the RMLS™ Board of Directors reviewed a list of potential projects and prioritized those they believe will have the best benefit for RMLS™ subscribers. Following is a brief description of the three projects that will get the attention of our software development team this year along with a fourth that will be scheduled if possible. The forms changes approved in 2017, Showing Time and the new Coming Soon-No Showing status are also in the works.
Listing Load Enhancements
This project will add ability for authorized users to initiate editing of a listing from Agent Full/Data Only reports and to add/start a new listing from Tax Search, Tax Full, and CMA (subject property/features) page, providing a more streamlined workflow for the agent.
When adding a new listing, the agent will be able to upload PDF documents directly from the input screen, similar to Photo Manager. Agents will also be able to test video/virtual tour links to ensure that they work correctly before saving the listing.
Ever publish a listing and forget to save a copy of the listing contract? Well this project will eliminate that issue by allowing users to print a copy of the listing contract, even after the listing has been published.
RMLS™ will also look for ways to enhance the Tax ID auto-population function to include additional data found from other sources such as comparable listings, map layers, Realtors Property Resource (RPR®) and other data sources.
Search and Prospecting/Auto-Email Enhancements
This project will add the ability to create/save a prospect search from Advanced Search and other saved searches within RMLSweb. In addition, the ability to filter prospect matches based upon price changes falling within a certain range (mimicking the Hotsheet’s price change option) will be added to eliminate notifications of listings that have a daily price change.
We know it’s important to know when a profile is set to expire, so an alert to the subscriber will be sent via email. Advanced search will also see enhancements. Subscribers will be able to search by any public ID or broker code, and when searching by status, days back function, an “apply all” function will be available to make it easier to set the dates for all statuses.
Watch List
This project will add a notes field to each saved watch list item, making it easier to remember why it is being watched. In addition, when a listing is added to the watch list, the tax parcel record will also be included automatically so notifications can be sent if the property is relisted with a different MLS number.
CMA Enhancements
This project will enable the user to adjust the font and font size of the report and include the option to print the 32-Up Photo report. In addition, a notes field will be added to the adjustment section of the CMA for each comparable listing, allowing the user to detail why the adjustment was made. A column will be added to the Recommended Price page of the CMA which will reflect adjustments made.
![2018 Development Projects on Tap]()
by RMLS Communication Department | Mar 24, 2016
MLS Insight is a series about how things work at RMLS™.
At their annual leadership retreat, the RMLS™ Board of Directors reviewed a list of potential projects and prioritized those they believe will have the best benefit for RMLS™ subscribers. Following is a brief description of the three projects that will get the attention of our software development team this year along with a fourth that will be scheduled if possible. The forms changes approved in 2015 are also in the works.
Watch List: This project will create a new feature on RMLSweb enabling subscribers to add individual listings to a “shopping cart” and receive push notifications when the status or a price change occurs. Potential scope includes ability to tag tax parcel records for notification when a listing is published.
Mobile Innovation Project: This project will utilize information available in a mobile device – photos, GPS, etc. – to create a property profile for use in creating CMAs, running reverse prospecting searches, and starting an in-progress listing in RMLSweb.
Frequency of Auto-Emails: This project will re-engineer auto-emails to reliably run the entire process within an hour. As part of this project, subscribers should be able to refine the frequency at which auto-emails are sent to individual clients.
Facebook Integration: This project will allow subscribers to easily post their own listings to Facebook, and will also fix formatting problems for mobile devices when RMLS.com listings are shared to Facebook.
If you have questions on any RMLS™-related topic that you would like to have answered, I encourage you to post a comment.
![2018 Development Projects on Tap]()
by RMLS Communication Department | Mar 26, 2014
Above: The RMLS™ development team discussing upcoming deploys to RMLSweb.
This post is part of MLS Insight, a series about governance issues at RMLS™.
The RMLSweb system that provides our subscribers with the tools they need to serve sellers and buyers is an in-house system. That means that RMLS™ employs development and programming staff, and does not have a vendor that controls the features available to our subscribers. We have been developing and refining the RMLSweb system in-house since 2001.
Using a custom in-house system has both great benefits and some challenges. We are able to improve our system based on the input of our subscribers about their wants and needs for both data about listings and system features. Early on, we determined that we needed a way to prioritize competing enhancement requests, and I wanted to describe that general process for you.
We collect all comments and suggestions we receive from our subscribers. They are reviewed monthly, because sometimes the requested functionality already exists and therefore presents a training opportunity. When a suggestion is made about new data to collect on our forms, it is delivered to the RMLS™ Forms Committee for their discussion and recommendation.
If a suggestion is small enough, and would benefit a majority of subscribers we may work on it right away. Bugs that are found are also worked on immediately. Each fall, enhancements requiring a significant amount of work are grouped generally into project buckets—mostly according to what part of the system is involved. Sometimes, as in last year’s brower/tablet compatibility project, all parts of the system are involved. Subscriber interest is gauged with a brief description of the potential projects in the annual Subscriber Satisfaction Survey. (Subscribers are also asked to rate the projects completed since the last survey.)
At the end of the year the RMLS™ staff prepares a more detailed report about potential projects for development in the coming year. Usually six to ten projects are proposed. Each project summary includes a description of the business need or opportunity, lists specific examples that come from the enhancements requested by subscribers, and estimates the project duration and resources needed. The Technology Committee reviews the report and adds their comments and a grade to the rating obtained in the Subscriber Satisfaction Survey.
The final step of the process is prioritization by the RMLS™ Board of Directors. This occurs during their annual retreat in February, when there is plenty of time to discuss and deliberate about the options. The three top priorities that the board directed our development team to work on this year are:
• Search and report improvements to allow easier ways to manage saved searches, prospects, and search results. Examples include improving the MLS#/Address Search on the desktop sidebar with a better parser and more prominent location; saved search integration with contact manager; the ability to hide the map in Advanced Search; search results modernization with a “detail” view mode like the one in Listing Load; and enhancing the search results with a map view.
• SentriLock API integration to allow single sign-on to manage some of the functions of the lockbox system, including assigning a lockbox to a listing, retrieving information about who has accessed your lockboxes, as well as properties you have viewed.
• RMLSweb usability to improve the appearance, behavior, and performance of RMLSweb on tablets. This would take the browser compatibility project one step further with features like geolocation awareness in map search on mobile devices.
If you are curious to see a history of software we have released, check out RMLSweb Deployment History in Forms and Documents on RMLSweb. To check on what is coming up, go to RMLS™ Future Enhancements.
Next month we will cover the RMLS™ service area. If you have any questions you would like to have answered about RMLS™ governance or operation, I encourage you to post a comment to this blog.
