The Rules Roundup provides a monthly accounting of RMLS rules violations and courtesy notifications. Our Data Accuracy team manages all reports of property listing errors, tracking 27 specific issues outlined in the RMLS Rules and Regulations, and is responsible for addressing subscriber questions and concerns regarding listing accuracy.
HIGHLIGHTS
Although area numbers were originally adapted to segment out the location of listings in the newspaper, they have come to serve many purposes regarding accuracy and data analytics. Here are a few examples why choosing the correct area is important.
- Incorrect Schools One of the most common responses we get after sending a Missing School violation notice is that the correct school was not available. The reason that the correct school is not available is frequently because the wrong area number has been selected. The area number is what triggers the selections for the drop-down items. If you select the wrong area for your listing, then the schools for the area you selected will show up and not the actual schools that go with your listing.
- Statistical Skewing Having listings in the incorrect areas will throw off statistics for that area. Listings in different areas will have different price points and trends. For example, a listing that is on the outskirts of a city will likely have a lower price point than listings located in the city proper. So, selecting the wrong area and grouping that lower priced listing with those will cause it to be an outlier and distort the stats.
- Search Results You want the correct people to be able to find your listing. Having it in the wrong area will cause you to miss out on search results for the correct area. The goal is to reach people who actually want to live where the house is located.
FORMAL VIOLATIONS
The RMLS Rules and Regulations Committee reviews all formal complaints which allege a violation of the RMLS Rules and Regulations. The committee has the power to impose sanctions.
The committee did not review a case in August 2023.
INFORMAL VIOLATIONS
The majority of violations are simple errors – forgotten or misplaced data, or a misunderstanding of the rules. Our goal is to reduce all types of violations through education and awareness campaigns.
We’ve been thinking about violations in three categories:
- Ready to Sell: Only a small amount of violations (less than 15) occur each month.
- Fixer Upper: These violations totals (between 15 and 50) need a little TLC.
- Complete Renovation: These violations (50+) need some immediate attention.
In the new chart below, we’ve included the Fixer Upper and Complete Renovation violations in ascending order. You can see that Personal Promotion, Missing Owner Name, Missing School, and Missing Tax ID are four of the top five violation occurrences. Though Tax IDs are not always available at the time of listing, we can collectively reduce the other violations by double checking owner names and schools and making sure to avoid personal promotion violations.
Data Accuracy Department Statistics
- Listings Reviewed: 25,371 (+868)
- Notices Sent: 2,430 (+228)
- Violation Notices Received: 372 (+13)
- Courtesy Notices Sent: 1,493 (+61)
- Phone Calls Received: 430 (+75)
How to Report Violations
Subscribers have multiple options to report violations, including a Report Issue button on every RMLSweb listing. Subscribers can email our Data Accuracy team at dataaccuracy@rmls.com or call them at 503.395.1916. When there are increases in specific violation types, we sometimes place notifications on RMLSweb.