by RMLS Communication Department | Apr 25, 2014
Update (May 28, 2014): RMLS™ recently prepared a FAQ document about the office exclusive changes.
As announced earlier this spring, RMLS™ is bringing changes to our office exclusive form and policies. These changes now have final approval by the RMLS™ Board of Directors and will take effect May 5, 2014.
After carefully considering additional input from subscribers, RMLS™ changed the original revisions in the following ways:
• Removed the requirement to submit a copy of the listing contract when submitting a signed office exclusive form.
• The RMLS™ Rules and Regulations have been revised to reflect that new construction is handled differently.
Retained is the language that prohibits beginning any marketing before “date marketing to begin.” This topic generated much of the discussion among subscribers, but RMLS™ President Kurt von Wasmuth recently explained some important details in how the rule will be administered:
The basic point of the changes to this (Section 3.2) is to prohibit marketing of a listed property unless the listing broker either submits the listing to RMLS™ or submits an office exclusive form for that listing within the time limits specified. The rule describes marketing activity as including—among other things—placing a sign on the property, social media or internet exposure, or direct marketing of the property to brokers or consumers. This rule does not prevent a listing broker from engaging in general, non-specific discussions about a property that will soon come on the market. Examples of these general discussions would be a broker’s announcement about property in a neighborhood “coming soon” during a company sales meeting, with X bedrooms, Y baths, and a certain kind of yard in a certain price range.
Falling under the rule would be specific marketing efforts regarding a particular property, such as identifying an address, a listing price, and the like. These constitute direct marketing, and in that case the listing either needs to be entered into RMLS™ within 72 hours of signing or the signed office exclusive form needs to be sent to RMLS™. This approach was designed to allow reasonable “pre-marketing” activities that the brokerage community generally regards as common, fair, and helpful to sellers, while preserving the basic premise of any MLS that all participants share their listings on a timely basis, unless a seller has made an informed choice to withhold a property from the MLS.
View a redlined version of the RMLS™ rules impacted by these finalized changes.
View the new Office Exclusive/Authorization to Exclude Addendum.
View redlined versions of the Oregon and Washington listing contracts.
by RMLS Communication Department | Apr 24, 2014
RMLS™ is adding a detail view tab to several searches on RMLSweb as part of the regular monthly outage scheduled for Wednesday, April 30th. Detail view provides a list of properties on the left and a window showing selected reports on the right. (In the sample below, the Agent Full report is shown.) Users can select tabs to navigate through the various available reports.
Listing Load got the detail view treatment last summer, and this spring we’ll be expanding the feature to the following areas:
• Map Search
• Quick Search
• Advanced Search
• Street(s)/Address Search
• MLS Number Search
• Actual Expireds Search
• Radius Search
The RMLS™ development staff expanded the use of detail view on RMLSweb as it offered an answer to some common problems. Users will be able to switch between reports without reloading the whole page. Not only is this process faster than waiting for each to reload when browsing listings, but the user won’t lose their place in a long search results list after reading details in each listing.
RMLSweb will remember which view the user used last. This means that if you find yourself using detail view more than list view, you won’t need to toggle to your preferred setting each time you run a search!
Detail view makes browsing easier for users, but doesn’t have the same capabilities as list view. To print search results, you will need to use the list view tab. Also, detail view doesn’t support printing reports directly—if you want to print a report from detail view, you’ll still need to navigate to the report using the report menu (upper right hand of the screen) and then use the print button. And if you have custom columns set up, you’ll only be able to use them in list view.
This is the first rollout in this year’s search improvement project—one of the main projects RMLS™ will be implementing this year. (More on the RMLS™ development process here.)
We hope you find detail view to be helpful as you’re browsing properties for clients. Keep watch on RMLS™ this year, as we have more improvements in the works!
by RMLS Communication Department | Apr 21, 2014
This Week’s Lockbox Activity
For the week of April 7-13, 2014, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity fell in both Oregon and Washington this week.
For a larger version of each chart, visit the RMLS™ photostream on Flickr.
Please note: due to the RMLS™ transition to SentriLock, historical data is only currently available through the RMLS™ Flickr page, under the tag “Supra lockbox activity.” SentriLock data will continue accumulating until each chart represents a year of data.
![Residential Distressed Properties for First Quarter (January-March) 2014]()
by RMLS Communication Department | Apr 17, 2014
This chart shows the number of bank owned/REO properties and short sales in all areas of the RMLS™ system during the first quarter of 2014.
Below are links to additional charts for some of our larger areas.
• Portland Metro Distressed Properties (1st Quarter 2014)
• Clark County, WA Distressed Properties (1st Quarter 2014)
• Lane County, OR Distressed Properties (1st Quarter 2014)
• Douglas County, OR Distressed Properties (1st Quarter 2014)
• Coos County, OR Distressed Properties (1st Quarter 2014)
Here are some additional facts about distressed residential properties in the first quarter of 2014:
All areas when comparing percentage share of the market, first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013:
• When comparing the first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013, distressed sales as a percentage of new listings decreased by 2.4% (10.1 v. 12.5%).
• In a comparison of the first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013, distressed sales as a percentage of closed sales increased by 1.5% (13.6 v. 12.1%).
• Short sales comprised 4.4% of new listings and 6.3% of sales in the first quarter of 2014, down 1.6% and 0.5% from the fourth quarter of 2013, respectively.
• Bank owned/REO properties comprised 5.7% of new listings and 7.3% of sales in the first quarter of 2014, down 0.8% and up 2.0% from the fourth quarter of 2013, respectively.
Portland metro when comparing percentage share of the market, first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013:
• When comparing the first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013, distressed sales as a percentage of new listings decreased by 1.7% (8.9 v. 10.6%).
• In a comparison of first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013, distressed sales as a percentage of closed sales increased by 0.2% (11.0 v. 10.8%).
• Short sales comprised 4.3% of new listings and 6.1% of sales in the first quarter of 2014, down 1.7% and 1.1% from the fourth quarter of 2013, respectively.
• Bank owned/REO properties comprised 4.6% of new listings and 4.9% of sales in the first quarter of 2014, even with and up 1.3% from the fourth quarter of 2013, respectively.
Clark County when comparing percentage share of the market, first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013:
• When comparing the first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013, distressed sales as a percentage of new listings decreased by 6.1% (12.5 v. 18.6%).
• In a comparison of first quarter 2014 to fourth quarter 2013, distressed sales as a percentage of closed sales increased by 5.5% (23.1 vs. 17.6%).
• Short sales comprised 5.9% of new listings and 10.9% of sales in the first quarter of 2014, up 2.3% for new listings and 1.8% for sales when compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, respectively.
• Bank owned/REO properties comprised 6.6% of new listings and 12.2% of sales in the first quarter of 2014, down 3.8% and up 3.7% from the fourth quarter of 2013, respectively.
If you’d like more information or percentages of distressed residential sales in other areas not represented by our charts, please contact us at communications@rmls.com.
by RMLS Communication Department | Apr 14, 2014
This Week’s Lockbox Activity
For the week of March 31-April 6, 2014, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Showings rose in Oregon, but fell in Washington this week.
For a larger version of each chart, visit the RMLS™ photostream on Flickr.
Please note: due to the RMLS™ transition to SentriLock, historical data is only currently available through the RMLS™ Flickr page, under the tag “Supra lockbox activity.” SentriLock data will continue accumulating until each chart represents a year of data.
