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.
Don’t understand why map coordinates were originally deleted as a requirement. I know the mapping function became popular but some of us liked the coordinates. They became irrelevant only when they no longer were a requirement.
Since all trios and county tax records include them, what is so hard about keeping them in? It’s a great way to search for comps quickly without having to decide where to draw the boundaries on a map.
I agree totally!
Map coordinates should remain as part of the listing. When all else fails to find a listing, map coordinates usually locates it.
I used to use the coordinate search and the bullseye. Those allowed you to stay close to the target. I think they should leave coordinates and make the RMLS smarter. It should automatically pull the map coordinates and the zoning from the tax page. There’s still a lot of garbage in – garbage out with zoning and there used to be with coordinates. Can’t rely on humans as well as data.
I know that the RMLS listens to these posts. I bugged them for years about putting in the link to the Realtor information so we didn’t have to go up into roster to get it. They made the change and it’s been great.
BTW – The new map still leaves a lot to be desired. It’s like a greased pig the way it resizes and moves around randomly.
No all County Tax Records include map coordinates.
There is no way to locate a property by them unless you have a Thomas Guide. Also if you do not have a thomas Guide, they are completely meaningless, and nearly impossible to find when you need to enter them to a listing.
RMLS should leave the map coordinates in there and pull the information automatically when we enter the tax number to start a listing. When did they last print a Thomas Guide for Portland? I used to buy it at Costco and leave it in the car.
Will the change to the listing contracts adding broker and office numbers automatically fill the subscribers affiliated numbers into the contract or will they need to be typed in each time ?
For the next round, I’d really like the RMLS and ZipForms to work together to have a Broker Connect button that would be like the MLS Connect button. We use the MLS Connect to pull in data about the house and the listing broker. We should be able to pull data on the Buyer’s Broker when we do a counter offer or otherwise respond to an offer.
I have calls from potential buyers thinking “RV-PARK” means the listing is IN an RV Park. Is there an opportunity to have it read “RV-PRKNG?”
Thank you.
Hello Marti, I will submit your request to the Forms Committee at their next meeting.
We really need to be able to select “City” when doing a radius search. If my subject property is in east Vancouver, when I do a radius search I get a lot of results from Camas.
Also, I’d like an “age” field, not just a year built. We appraisers have to input age ranges and median ages in our appraisal reports and the way the system is now we have to manually do calculations and download an export file to get a median age from our search results. Thank you! :-)
I agree about the value of map coordinates. Unfortunately, the Thomas Guide for Portland has not been printed in several years. The company, Rand McNally (?) said one can find everything in the TG on line…NOT!
Anyway, I have always found map coordinates to be useful in lumping together the properties I am going to show.
Why is RMLS weakening broker’s right to compensation by removing “procuring cause” language? This makes no sense to me.
Hello John, In reviewing the listing contract, the procuring cause language was found to be redundant as other portions of the listing contract includes language which triggers the broker’s right to a commission. I will submit your concern to the RMLS™ Forms Committee when they meet next.
I will give you an example where procuring cause language is needed, and is not redundant.
Broker introduces buyer to property during listing period, but buyer says they are not “ready” to buy – so Paragraph 3. (a) does not apply.
Listing expires and property is not relisted with new company.
Approximately 10 days after listing expiration date and “extension” period end, buyer and seller meet and sign sale agreement and soon after, close transaction for full price less 6%. (the commission) Paragraph 3. (b) does not apply.
In this example, broker will rely on Paragraph 3. (c) and demonstrate they were the procuring cause of the eventual sale. The NAR has an extensive “White Paper” on this important topic if any RMLS members care to learn more.
This is a real life example where my company was cheated out of a commission of $33,000. The file is headed for arbitration soon. I have to ask 1 more time, who decided it was time to weaken our member broker’s right to compensation?
I would like to be on the forms committee and take part in the next round of updates so issues that are important to appraisers are heard and addressed. Thank you. -Steven Gray , Porch Light Appraisal (360) 474-4147, info@porchlightappraisal.com
Hello Steven, I will let the Chairman of the Forms Committee know that you are interested in participating!
I would like to see in the search portion of the RMLS remove the requirement to input a price (the field should remain, just not be required). When I am searching, I don’t know the price always and often times miss listings for CMA’s and what not due to the pricing requirement, not knowing that a comparable listing meeting all other requirements input sold for more or for less and was not included in the results based on price alone.
This has been an ongoing frustration for me!