I am a fairly new subscriber to RMLS, and I’m interested in figuring out how to use all the additional tools RMLS offers us subscribers. It’s a pretty big difference compared to the last MLS I was a member of – they provided the base MLS system and that was it. Any additional tools were up to us Realtors to obtain and figure out how to use.
So, I’m excited about all the ‘extras’ RMLS has available, but there are almost too many additional tools to choose from. Can you help me better understand which toolset does what and which ones to pick for specific activities?
Curious in Cottage Grove
Hi CCG,
That’s a really great question. We put a lot of emphasis on providing tools for our subscribers to pick from and leverage to perform those daily tasks that can seem overwhelming – everyone is looking for ways to become more efficient and successful, right?
We do offer a class that covers all the various 3rd party products available to you called RMLS 3rd Party Tools, which is a great starting point. Recently we began offering another class – Comparing Your CMA Options – that takes a look at four viable options for creating market analysis reports for your clients. Nothing beats spending a little time exploring the options available to you though – you can view all the various 3rd party product options in RMLSweb.
After beginning with our RMLS 3rd Party Tools class to get a good overview of all the various products, I’d recommend identifying what your top goals are. Perhaps you want to streamline your farming process, or upgrade how you communicate with clients. Determine your top priorities, then give each tool which provides what you’re looking for a good test drive. Once you’ve identified some good tool matches, you can fast track your education and comfort with the tool by making use of our training options.
For example, if CMA creation is one of your challenges/objectives, I would sign up for our Comparing Your CMA Options webinar. This new CMA class compares RMLSweb, Homesnap, RPR and Remine, and the various approaches each uses to create a CMA. The class provides good detail about how to create the CMA report by searching for appropriate comparative properties, as well as the various output reports each product offers.
We offer stand-alone classes for many of our 3rd party products that goes into more detail about additional beneficial aspects of each product. You can also set up one-on-one sessions with our staff to answer specific questions about product use and integration for your business. To view our current schedule of available webinars, go to the Training Calendar on RMLSweb. You can also use Training/Support Resources to access all our support and training links, as well as video tutorials.
I hope this helps you identify a starting point in better understanding how to explore the variety of educational options we offer for the 3rd Party tools at your disposal.
Here we go again! RMLS celebrates another year working hard for thousands of subscribers across Oregon and Southwest Washington by presenting an annual collection of numbers. These numbers show just how much RMLS has supported real estate activity over the course of 2020. We hope you enjoyed journeying along with us.
RMLSweb Number of times subscribers logged in to RMLSweb: 1,920,055 Photos uploaded to listings: 1,939,599 Number of new prospect profiles created: 75,157 All residential properties listed for sale: 71,940 All residential properties sold: 61,350 Median sold price of homes listed: $397,000 Total dollar volume of homes sold: $27,089,173,000 Reports viewed: 11,929,621
RMLS Subscribers RMLS subscribers as of December 2020: 14,894 New RMLS subscribers (compared to December 2019): +370 Increase in subscribers, above: +2.5% Subscribers who attended training: 9,326 via 892 individual classes Number of calls to the RMLS Help Desk: 19,846 calls
Number of Bug Reports: 8,821 Number of Help Desk chats: 5642 Number of incidents reported using the “Report Issue” button: 5387 CE hours distributed by RMLS™ at no cost to subscribers: 664
RMLS regularly compiles plenty of other numbers as well! In addition to publishing Market Action each month, we have statistical summaries available on RMLSweb with information dating back several years.
We love numbers here at RMLS, and hope you find this data as fun and interesting as we do.
I know it has been several months since the introduction of the Paragon MLS system and I recall there being a free trial period. Is that still available and why would I want to try Paragon?
Curious in Coos Bay
Hi CC,
It has been a few months since the roll out of the Paragon MLS System of Choice project. We continue to offer your first quarter of Paragon access for no cost — you simply need to send an email to frontdesk@rmls.com letting us know of your interest in trying the Paragon system. You will receive instructions on how to log in to the Paragon system as well as other details.
Now, your second question about why you would want to try Paragon has more answers. It depends on how you conduct your Real Estate business, how comprehensive of a technology toolset your brokerage provides you and what you like to do with MLS listing data.
Take, for example, the Paragon Collaboration Center and Paragon Connect – utilizing these two Paragon modules in conjunction with each other allows you to provide your customers a wonderful experience in viewing listings that match their specifications while allowing your customers to change search criteria on their own, favoriting properties they like and discarding properties they don’t like. All of this activity is done with transparency on your side, so you will know exactly what your clients are doing with the listings that you are providing them. And by utilizing Paragon Connect on your smart phone or tablet you will be able to see exactly what they are doing while you’re out in the field. Very powerful! Check out this short video about how the two modules work together.
https://youtu.be/SGbnDnK9QRk
If you are an appraiser, or simply like to export listing data to create your own data analysis using Excel, Paragon offers a simple, yet very effective way to create custom exports for your use. Also, if you are required as an appraiser to create the 1004MC market conditions report, Paragon has you covered there as well.
I’d be remiss in not mentioning the really powerful integration of the CRS Data’s MLS Tax Data suite that is included inside the Paragon system. The CRS system takes tax data reporting and searching capability to a new level!
So, as you can see, just detailing a couple of the Paragon system benefits will hopefully give you the encouragement to try the product. The RMLS Training Dept. and Help Desk Dept. are both available to support and train your Paragon experience for you, and the Paragon Help Center is as well-developed a support portal as I have seen in my 30 years in the industry.
Some of my REALTOR® friends and I were chatting recently about RMLS™ and how many cool tools we now have available for us. We tried to think about all the new “stuff” that has been provided to us just this year and while I’m sure we remembered a lot of the things could you give me a quick recap on the highlights for 2020? And also, THANK YOU to all the RMLS™ staff for keeping RMLS™ products and services up and running without skipping a beat during COVID. Much appreciated!!
Ecstatic in Estacada
Hi EE,
First of all, thank YOU for the kind words. The RMLS™ staff really does pride itself in not only providing/integrating those cool tools you reference above, but also recognizing that our core responsibility is to make sure RMLSweb is up and available for you 24/7.
Now, for a list of the deployment highlights from 2020.
Q1:
Added Immoviewer to the list of approved 3rd party products. Immoviewer automatically sends you a link to a simple video tour upon saving your new listing in the RMLSweb database.
Added the ability to customize the subject line in manually sent client reports from RMLSweb
Added a red button indicator Back Office on the Menu bar to alert you of your expiring listings
Added the SentriLock Access Report to the Statistics menu in RMLSweb
Implemented various COVID-19 accommodations to RMLSweb
Q2:
Released Phase 1 of the new RMLSweb reports including Client Full and Medium report styles
Added INRIX Drive Time mapping toolset as well as a new “freehand” drawing tool to Map Search
Continued with Phase 1 of the RMLSweb reports project by releasing new Open House and Broker Tour reports
Q3:
Added Paragon as the first “System of Choice” in the MLS industry
Added RatePlug to the approved 3rd party products
Added Price Change Amount filter in Prospecting to confine searches to a price change threshold
Q4:
Added button to Advanced Search to allow the creation of a Prospect Profile directly from the search
Added a new Agent Limited One Page report option
Keep in mind that I pulled these improvements/enhancements from a 20-page single line report of all the various items accomplished in 2020 – really quite impressive given the challenges of a global pandemic!
High quality service is always a goal for RMLS™. In order to improve we have to look at areas where satisfaction isn’t meeting our goal. Judging by the survey feedback, the primary area of subscriber concern is our communication with our subscribers. Whether it’s suggesting that we add new functionality, (ex: providing links to county records), requesting changes to existing features (ex: adding new report types to the Combined Reports option), or simply wishing to know how priorities are determined, it’s clear that some subscribers are feeling unheard or in the dark about the decision making process at RMLS™.
RMLS™ recognizes that any technical or procedural change that we implement can have an immediate and important impact on your day-to-day business. We take that responsibility seriously and look to apply our resources to best serve your collective needs. In this case there’s an opportunity to improve our responsiveness and transparency.
In examining the survey results, we’ve identified three main types of communications that can be improved:
Feedback to subscriber requests for new features or changes to existing functionalities
Quality preparation for upcoming deployments and releases
Transparency of the decision making process
Decisions are guided by subscriber feedback. Each year, our team compiles subscriber input, identifying any trends and commonalities. That list is presented to the RMLS™ Board of Directors which determines development priorities for the year. Though new priorities can occasionally be added throughout the year, we typically follow this development process. Any updates not worked on during the year are again voted on and then reprioritized the following year.
We’re in the process of drafting our business plans for 2021, which will include how best to address these communication issues. We will be looking for ways to improve how we notify subscribers of upcoming changes and additions, as we better anticipate and prepare for potential questions and confusions. We’ll continue to refine our feedback responses and focus groups, add new notification options for you to stay abreast of developments, and increase the transparency of the decision making process.
Our ability to continue to improve and evolve is in no small part thanks to our subscribers who take the time to participate with our surveys and information gathering. Technical suggestions and requests can always be submitted to our Product Manager, Beth Raimer, at beth.r@rmls.com. Communications feedback is always welcome and can be sent to communications@rmls.com. We look forward to showing you the next steps in our service evolution in 2021.
