What’s Coming to RMLSweb: Details About the Annual Forms Change

What’s Coming to RMLSweb: Details About the Annual Forms Change

RMLS™ is gearing up for its annual forms change on RMLSweb. Later this spring subscribers will notice terminology changes, major revisions to the Oregon and Washington listing contracts, and other notable changes on RMLSweb.

Forms changes happen regularly on RMLSweb. Each change has been approved by the RMLS™ Forms Committee based on the feedback provided through hundreds of subscriber comments. Recommendations were then reviewed and approved by the RMLS™ Board of Directors.

Implementation of these changes is quite a task, largely on the part of the RMLSweb development team. An overnight outage will take place in late April/early May to allow for this extra work.

Once the forms change is live, here are a few of the biggest pieces you’ll see.

Terminology Change

Have you ever had a conversation about the selling agent where one person was referring to the seller’s agent and the other person was referring to the buyer’s agent? We certainly have. To help reduce confusion, we will be changing how we refer to listing agent/office, co-listing agent/office, and selling agent/office. They will now be referred as seller’s agent/office, co-seller’s agent/office, and buyer’s agent/office.  

Townhouse/Planned Community Requirement Change

For residential listings where property type is attached, townhouse, or planned community AND HOA is no, the Townhouse/Planned Community Supplement will still be available but the required fields will now be unrequired. 

Listing Contract Addendum Changes

The Listing Contract Addendum (Long) will be split into two new addenda: a Withdrawal Addendum and a Cancellation/Termination Addendum. The Listing Contract Addendum (Short) will be renamed to Listing Contract Addendum. The comparable data section will be removed and headers will be added to better separate the three types of changes: expiration date change, list price change, and miscellaneous change.

Status Change to POP/PEN – Field Changes

The buyer’s agent/office will only be identified when a listing changes to SLD/SNL status. When a listing changes to PEN/POP status, the unrequired buyer’s agent/office fields will no longer be available.

Oregon and Washington Listing Contact Changes

The Oregon and Washington Listing Contracts are undergoing major revisions this year. Sections have been rearranged into a more logical order to facilitate discussions between seller(s) and selling agents. Row numbers were added, the text size was increased, and more space was added to the signature section of each contract. In addition to these layout changes, many sections received language changes as noted in the summary document (see link below). Required Detectors is a section that has been added, and the “list price” portion of the Brokerage Fee section has been broken out into its own section as well. 

Changes to the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations

Language will be added to Section 3.21 of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations to state that the seller’s broker may provide a code to a specific user with the owner’s permission. 

3.21 RMLS™ Lockbox System. RMLS™ shall provide a lockbox system to active Subscribers legally eligible for RMLS™ access for the purpose of legitimate real estate business subject to their execution of a user agreement. This agreement shall provide that lockbox access devices may not be used under any circumstances by anyone other than the lockbox system user. The only exception is where the Listing Broker provides a code to a specific user with owner permission. The lockbox system shall be provided by a recognized lockbox vendor and it shall comply with current NAR® security requirements.

Office Email Required for Real Estate Offices in Washington

Real estate offices in Washington will be required to provide an office email. This email address will appear in the office roster search and will be viewable on agent reports.

 

Looking for More Detail?

Dig into this spring’s forms changes with the following:
View a complete summary of forms changes scheduled for this spring.
Preview revised input, and supplement listing forms. (Green highlights indicate new items, blue indicate items that have moved location, and yellow highlights indicate items which have been changed.)
Preview updated Oregon and Washington listing contracts.

What’s Coming to RMLSweb: Details About the Annual Forms Change

RMLSweb Annual Forms Change Coming This Spring (Updated October 27th)

RMLS™ is gearing up for its annual forms change on RMLSweb! Following an overnight outage [SEE UPDATES], later this spring subscribers will notice new supplements, co-lister access to in-progress listings, contract changes, the absence of map coordinates fields, and a variety of smaller changes.

Forms changes happen regularly on RMLSweb. Each change has been approved by the RMLS™ Forms Committee based on the feedback provided through hundreds of subscriber comments. Recommendations were then reviewed and approved by the RMLS™ Board of Directors.

Implementation of these changes is quite a task, largely on the part of the RMLSweb development team. An overnight outage will take place in late May or early June to allow for this extra work.

Once the forms change is live, here are a few of the biggest pieces you’ll see.

Three New Supplements

Floating homes will gain a supplement, as will townhouses/planned communities. If a listing is occupied by someone other than the homeowner, a non-owner occupant supplement will be available.

Removal of Map Coordinates

RMLS™ will remove all map coordinates fields (map column, map page, and map row) in this forms change. Map coordinates have not been required on RMLSweb listings since December 2013, and usage of these fields has dropped considerably since that time.

RMLS™ recognizes that some subscribers may still want to use map shapes in their work on the site, and many have saved searches that utilize these fields. RMLS™ trainers produced a brief (four minute) video that can help subscribers make the transition away from map coordinates easier.

Co-lister Access to In-progress Listings

Have you ever co-listed a property with another agent and been unable to work on the listing as a team until the listing was published on RMLSweb? A co-lister may be chosen when creating a listing in Listing Load, and that chosen co-lister will be able to edit or publish those listings along with the agent who initiated the work.

Listing Load Unabbreviated by Default  [SEE UPDATES]

RMLS™ does its best to use listing abbreviations that make sense, but SPRNKLR is much easier to decipher than PLB-ICE. Once this forms change project is live, Listing Load on RMLSweb will be unabbreviated by default, so you won’t need to have Document #1210, Listing Abbreviations, open in another browser tab to do your work. If you prefer the brevity of an abbreviated Listing Load (or like to challenge your knowledge of RMLSweb abbreviations), a button will be available allowing you to toggle between the two options.

Searchable DOM

Looking for homes that have been on the market for a while? Days on Market (DOM) will be searchable in Advanced Search for listings in active status.

State of Oregon Residency

Listings in Oregon will sport a new field to indicate whether or not the seller is a permanent resident of the state. This information is now required on OREF forms.

Contract Changes

Listing contracts will carry a space to list the license number of the REALTOR® and office, some small changes to language, and a few new selections in various fields. (See update below.)

 

Looking for More Detail?

Dig into this spring’s forms changes with the following:
View a complete summary of forms changes scheduled for this spring.
Preview revised input, and supplement listing forms. (Green highlights indicate new items, blue indicate items that have moved location, and yellow highlights indicate items which have been changed.)
Preview related changes to Oregon and Washington listing contracts.

 

UPDATE (May 3, 2017):

Contract changes will include some general housekeeping and the following:
• Listing contracts will include the license number of the REALTOR® and office in the signature section.
• Listing contracts will nclude the seller’s email in the signature section.
• The language regarding procuring cause in Section 3 will be removed, as the language was found to be redundant: “or (c) is the procuring cause of an agreement to sell the Property or lease the Property with an option to purchase.”

UPDATE (May 24, 2017):

The overnight outage to deploy the forms change project has been scheduled for Tuesday, June 6th at 10pm until Wednesday, June 7th at 6am.

During this time the maintenance mode version of RMLSweb will be available to search for listings and agent contact information. Data on the site will be read-only and users will not be able to save searches, create profiles, or enter listings.

UPDATE (June 6, 2017):

The enhancement to Listing Load, showing feature values in their unabbreviated form by default, will be released in late June.

UPDATE (October 27, 2017):

On October 31st, RMLS™ will release a few more edits to this year’s forms change, the result of subscriber feedback received after the initial release.

  • The Seller Perm. Oregon Resident Y/N field will change from being required to being unrequired. (Oregon only)
  • Pending HOA Litigation Y/N: The field will be changed from unrequired on the Condo Supplement to required. In addition, the field will change from Yes/No to Yes/No/Unknown.
What’s Coming to RMLSweb: Details About the Annual Forms Change

The RMLSweb Annual Forms Change is Coming on July 29th

OregonListingFormRMLS™ is ready to start rolling out the results of this year’s forms change project! On Wednesday, July 29th, subscribers will see a brand new Green/Energy Supplement form, additional options for Showing Instructions, and much more.

These regular changes are the result of hundreds of subscriber suggestions and the hard work of the RMLS™ Forms Committee and RMLSweb development team.

What’s Changing?

A few highlights:
• Green/Energy Supplement Form: The use of sustainable building technology continues to grow, and this year RMLS™ is moving a scattered number of green features into the Green/Energy Supplement form, available for any residential listing. On this form, agents can note details about a home’s green certification and its use of solar energy. Agents also have an opportunity to provide additional remarks about aspects of green building and energy features on a property.
• Text to Show: Prefer to be texted when a buyer’s agent wants to show a property? Showing Instructions will now include options to text the listing agent, tenant, or owner. Not everyone prefers texting though, and another new option will exist to email the listing agent.
• Multiple Tax IDs in One Listing: Subscribers listing large parcels of land that stretch across multiple tax lots now have the option of including up to three total Tax IDs per listing. (If you’ve got more than three Tax IDs, you’ll still need to note those in the legal description or private remarks field.)
• Dual Living: RMLS™ currently lists a separate on-site dwelling unit in multiple places, including Accessibility Features and Additional Structures Supplement. A new field in Advanced Search, Dual Living Y/N, will identify residential listings where any of these dual living setups have been indicated.

Looking for more detail? View a complete summary of forms changes scheduled for July 29, 2015 or preview the contract, input, and supplement listing forms. Fields highlighted in green are new, orange fields have been modified, and blue highlights mean the field has moved.

A Longer Outage Needed for Forms Change

Improvements take time. July’s RMLSweb maintenance outage will take longer than usual to allow for this extra work. Plan now, as RMLSweb will be in maintenance mode (search only) from 10pm Tuesday, July 28th until 6am Wednesday, July 29th.

And Coming Soon…

Expect even more this fall. Other improvements to be released later this year as part of the forms change project include a brand new photo uploader and a new listing status, Pending Lease Option (POP).

RMLSweb continually improves when subscribers talk back to us about the system. We hope subscribers appreciate this work and will continue to share comments and questions! If you have questions about these new features, contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at (503) 872-8002 or (877) 256-2169.

 

 

Spotlight on Supplements: Additional Structures and Farm & Ranches

Spotlight on Supplements: Additional Structures and Farm & Ranches

Learn more about these two new Supplement forms!

Five new Supplement forms became available for subscribers on August 3rd. These new forms allow subscribers to share even more details about their listings. Read about the Additional Structures Supplement form and the Farm and Ranches Supplement form below!

Additional Structures Supplement:

The new Additional Structures Supplement allows listing agents to describe buildings or structures on the property other than the main building itself. For example, do you have a client who is selling a home with a chicken coop? Or, perhaps your client’s home has a particularly lovely gazebo. You can use this form to describe these additional structures that add to the listing’s attraction.

You can describe up to six additional structures using this form. Other types of structures you can describe are garages, barns and second residences! You can also specify whether or not a Conditional Use Permit is required for the second residence.

The form allows you to enter in information about the additional building’s dimensions, approximate square footage, numbers of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the year it was built.

Remember to use the Supplement Public Remarks field to provide even more details about the additional structure(s)!

Click here to view the Additional Structures Supplement.

Farm and Ranches Supplement:

The Farm and Ranches Supplement form contains fields that already existed for the former Farm (FRM) category. But, with the new Supplement form for Farm and Ranches listings, you have even more options for describing the property.

New options available are:

  • Certified Organic Yes/No field
  • New value option for CRANBOG (Cranberry Bog) in Currently Usable field
  • Extended the Approx. # of Acres field to offer options for nursery, orchard or vineyard

This Supplement form has a Public Remarks field as well for you to further describe the property.

Click here to view the Farm and Ranches Supplement.

Want to know more about Supplement forms? View the Utilizing Supplement Forms tutorial, it’s a visual learning experience!

To see the other Supplement forms and to see other changes that were released with the Forms Change, view the Listing Forms Change Summary document.

Questions? Contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169.

Year Built Description Now Required for Residential Listings

Year Built Description Now Required for Residential Listings

Brush up on Year Built Description terms!

This year’s Forms Change went into effect on August 3rd, 2011. One of the important changes this year is that the Year Built Description field is now required for Residential listings only. The addition of this requirement will help us report on new home sales versus existing home sales statistics.

With the different options available to select for the Year Built Description field, we thought a refresher on what the different terms mean may be beneficial to subscribers. Here is a list of the available terms and their meaning:

APPROX: Approximately – Year Built indicates the approximate year in which the home was built.

FIXER: Fixer – Needs Repair.

NEW: New – Construction completed, but home has never been occupied.

PROPOSD: Proposed – Not yet under construction.

REGHIST: Home is on the Register of Historic Homes.

REMOD: Remodeled – Some or all of the home has been remodeled.

RESALE: Resale – Existing home for sale.

RESTORD: Restored – Homes restored to original condition.

UNDERCON: Under Construction – Ground broken and construction actually under way.

UNKNOWN: Unknown due to loss of county records.

Want more information about the Forms Change? Read the Listing Forms Change Summary document. Or, watch our new tutorial, Utilizing Supplement Forms.

With the new changes to the Listing Input Forms on RMLSweb, it may be a good idea for subscribers to attend an RMLS Updates class taught by our Training Department. Offices can also contact our Training Department to schedule a visit to get personalized instruction on the new changes. Contact RMLS Training at 503-236-7657 or access the RMLS Training calendar on RMLSweb under the Toolkit option.

Questions? Contact  the RMLS™ Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169.