The RMLS™ Rules and Regulations Committee has requested that periodic reports are given to subscribers about the number and types of formal rules violations, along with information about informal violations and courtesy notifications by type. Read “If a RMLS™ Rule is Broken, What Happens?” for a deeper explanation.
Have you ever spotted something wrong in a property listing on RMLSweb? The Data Accuracy team is responsible for sorting things out whenever a RMLS™ subscriber contacts us—whether that is via the “Report Issue” button on a listing, by email, or contacting us directly by phone. In May 2020, our team handled 546 phone calls.
We tracked 32 specific issues in Listing Data Checker (LDC), the software that helps us spot and correct issues proactively. Six of these are courtesy notifications, but the other 26 are informal violations of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations. In addition to our focus on education, we also process formal violations throughout the year.
HOT TOPICS
At the beginning of May, a new rule called Clear Cooperation 8.0 was introduced. This rule simply means that if a listing is to be marketed in any way to the public, it must be input into the MLS within 24 hours, excluding weekends and postal holidays. If your client wishes to hold their listing out of the MLS, then the property is only able to be marketed to your firm.
As a reminder, public marketing includes, but is not limited to, flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public facing websites, brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW), digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, and applications available to the general public.
This month, we also want to continue reminding everyone to please also check the listing for special accommodation requests or notes from the home seller or seller’s agent prior to scheduling a showing.
The committee did not meet in May 2020 as there were no cases to review.
INFORMAL VIOLATIONS
In May 2020, RMLS™ Data Accuracy staff reviewed 30,954 listings in addition to the 475 notices sent through “Report Issue” button on RMLSweb. Of the items reviewed, 1,290 violation notices and 1,900 courtesy notices were sent out.
Category
May
Missing Tax ID
476
Personal Promotion
223
Incorrect or Missing Information
130
Missing Owner Name
87
Missing School
72
HUD
49
Duplicate Listing
46
Incorrect Status
32
Conditions to Compensation
24
No Showings
24
Is Property a Condo
21
Incorrect Property Type
21
Listing Input in Incorrect MLS area
13
Partial Bathrooms 5+
9
Inaccurate Lot Size
8
Duplicate Listing in Different Categories
8
Property Condition
7
City Unknown
5
Missing Condo Unit Number
5
Address Issues
3
Missing SQFT by Level
1
Fannie Mae/Homepath
1
The following are the courtesy notifications sent to RMLS™ subscribers in May 2020:
Category
May
Listing is Set to Expire
915
Multiple Owner Names in First Field
491
Listing Still Pending
423
New Listing Input Over 24 Hours
63
Listing Status Change over 24 Hours
8
When we notice an uptick in a specific type of violation (perhaps a rule recently changed or market conditions lead to an increase in a certain type of issue), we may also put a notification up on RMLSweb, educating subscribers before one of their listings gets flagged and we need to contact them.
RMLS™ Data Accuracy can be reached via email or by phone at (503) 236-7657 if you have questions about the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations, if you wonder whether a specific listing has inaccurate data, or if you want to chat with us more about the above information.
I saw the recent release of the INRIX Drive Time mapping tool in RMLSweb. I have to admit that while I had heard of INRIX before, and understand a bit about the technology, I was not sure I’d ever have use for it in RMLSweb.
Boy was I ever wrong! A day after you folks announced its availability, I got a new client lead that is a doctor moving to Portland, and he said he must live within 20 minutes of his work location and also, ideally, within 20 minutes of the daycare where he wished to enroll his son.
I explained that I have access to a really cutting-edge tool called INRIX Drive Time, and he was quite impressed! I created a search using both addresses and the 20-minute time frames, which helped narrow the number of listings down to homes that would keep him close to work and his child’s daycare.
Really cool! Thank you for adding this feature!
—Thrilled in Tigard
Hi TT (oh, I see what you did there!),
I’m so happy to hear of your success in using the new mapping tool! It really is designed to facilitate the very sort of search you just described. It sounds like you had no problem figuring out how the “Union” and “Intersection” controls work with the Drive Time tools.
For those who may not feel as confident in using the new INRIX Drive Time map functionality, the RMLS™ Training Team has created both a PDF overview and a video overview to walk you through the process.
You also mentioned being familiar with INRIX technology. I find their stuff fascinating, so I poked around on their website and found a great Trip Analyticsresource page that is worth reading if you want to really dive into what INRIX can do.
The INRIX Drive Time feature will be ready for you to use in RMLSweb the afternoon of Tuesday, March 26. This new mapping feature allows you to highlight an area — based on specified addresses and available traffic data — of the map, and see listings that meet your clients’ needs for a reasonable drive from home to work, school, a hospital, a grocery store, etc.
Drive Time is based on typical traffic conditions, rather than actual traffic, which includes nonrecurring activity, such as an accident or construction. With Drive Time, you can analyze the extent of a drive by day of week, time of day and length of journey.
Log into RMLSweb, then follow these steps to create a map that shows listings within your desired drive time between locations:
Navigate to “Map Search”
Click the “Locate” field and enter your destination address
Click “Go” to zoom the map in around a pin at the address
Click “Draw” and select the “Drive Time” icon
Enter your desired Drive Time Duration
Choose either “Arrival Time” or “Departure Time”
Click the “Calculate” button
Click “Count” to see listings in the selected drive time area
To learn more about INRIX Drive Time and other map search capabilities, contact an RMLS™ Trainer at training@rmls.com to schedule your own personal one-on-one training session. Please let us know if you have any questions!
The RMLS™ Rules and Regulations Committee has requested that periodic reports are given to subscribers about the number and types of formal rules violations, along with information about informal violations and courtesy notifications by type. Read “If a RMLS™ Rule is Broken, What Happens?” for a deeper explanation.
Have you ever spotted something wrong in a property listing on RMLSweb? The Data Accuracy team is responsible for sorting things out whenever a RMLS™ subscriber contacts us—whether that is via the “Report Issue” button on a listing, by email, or contacting us directly by phone. In April 2020, our team handled 450 phone calls.
We tracked 32 specific issues in Listing Data Checker (LDC), the software that helps us spot and correct issues proactively. Six of these are courtesy notifications, but the other 24 are informal violations of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations. In addition to our focus on education we also process formal violations throughout the year.
HOT TOPICS
Please remember to check state and local policies regarding showings, since several new policies, rules and regulations, and business best practices have been rolled out in recent weeks.
Please also check the listing for special accommodation requests or notes from the home seller or seller’s agent prior to scheduling a showing.
The committee did not meet in April 2020 as there were no cases to review.
INFORMAL VIOLATIONS
In April 2020, RMLS™ Data Accuracy staff reviewed 26,993 listings in addition to the 347 notices sent through “Report Issue” button on RMLSweb. Of the items reviewed, 1,337 violation notices and 1,875 courtesy notices were sent out.
Category
April
Missing Tax ID
407
Personal Promotion
337
Property Condition
177
Incorrect or Missing Information
102
Missing School
57
Duplicate Listing
50
Incorrect Property Type
37
No Showings
21
Missing or Incorrect 1st Photo
21
Is Property a Condo
14
Address Issues
13
Incorrect Status
9
Partial Bathrooms 5+
8
Conditions to Compensation
7
Listing Input in Incorrect MLS area
5
Inaccurate Lot Size
5
Duplicate Listing in Different Categories
4
City Unknown
4
HUD
3
Missing Condo Unit Number
1
The following are the courtesy notifications sent to RMLS™ subscribers in April 2020:
Category
April
Listing is Set to Expire
943
Multiple Owner Names in First Field
469
Listing Still Pending
377
New Listing Input Over 24 Hours
84
Listing Status Change over 24 Hours
2
When we notice an uptick in a specific type of violation (perhaps a rule recently changed or market conditions lead to an increase in a certain type of issue), we may also put a notification up on RMLSweb, educating subscribers before one of their listings gets flagged and we need to contact them.
RMLS™ Data Accuracy can be reached via email or by phone at (503) 236-7657 if you have questions about the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations, if you wonder whether a specific listing has inaccurate data, or if you want to chat with us more about the above information.
In my tenure as a Realtor, I thought cooperation had always been one of the fundamental tenets of MLS — any MLS, not just RMLS™. I’ve tried to read up on the plethora of info that RMLS™ has been providing regarding this Clear Cooperation MLS 8.0 change, but I’m still not 100% sure I understand exactly what the change means.
I’ve heard the terms “pocket listing”, “off-MLS listing” and “office exclusive listing” — what the heck is the difference? I suspect it won’t really affect or alter my business practices, but I’m assuming it may other practitioners depending on how this changes the landscape. Can you help?
—Intrigued in Iona
Dear Intrigued,
Of course I can! Or, I should say, I will do my best to help you and others confused as we adjust to the new rules.
As you stated above, one of the core tenets of MLS is cooperation. That, along with a guarantee of compensation, make up what I consider to be two cornerstones in the foundation of MLS. As the industry has evolved over time, there have been many business models employed, some with greater success than others.
Regardless of their differences, all of the models relied on those two fundamental tenets (cooperation and compensation) via the MLS system. However, throughout the history of MLS, even with the demonstrable benefit to both seller and buyer of sharing listing information within the MLS co-op, there have been real-world reasons to withhold listings from the co-op. Most of those examples were based on seller security/privacy in some way — which is perfectly legitimate.
The problem that arose over time, facilitated in particular by web-based real estate marketing, is the reality that some “pocket listings” (or “off MLS listings” as they’ve been more recently described) were not actually being excluded for privacy reasons. They were excluded out of a desire to capture more of the money available in a transaction — this is clearly not within the framework of MLS rules regarding cooperation.
So along comes Clear Cooperation MLS 8.0, the new policy approved earlier this year by NAR and being implemented by RMLS™ on April 30, 2020. Intending to add clarity to what can and cannot be done by MLS subscribers with exclusions, this is a national change for any MLS aligned with NAR. In some ways, Clear Cooperation MLS 8.0 makes it better for sellers wanting their property excluded from the MLS co-op, in that they no longer experience a 30-day penalty to have their property added to the MLS co-op if it does not sell “off MLS”.
That was a very real deterrent historically that has been changed with this new policy. So, you can still take a “pocket” or “off MLS” listing but the criteria for keeping it out of the co-op has become much clearer.
You mentioned that you have read and watched a lot of info about this change, so this may not be news to you. However, here is a look at key attributes of the new policy:
Any “public” marketing of the pocket / off MLS listing immediately invokes a violation of the new rule, requiring the listing be added to the MLS co-op within one business day of public marketing.
“Public marketing” includes (but is not limited to):
flyers displayed in windows
yard signs
digital marketing on public-facing websites
brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW)
digital communication marketing (email blasts),
multi-brokerage listing sharing networks
applications available to the general public
“Office Exclusive” listings are still possible within the framework of this new rule, but your “marketing” of this type of listing is limited to direct promotion of the listing between the licensees/brokers in your brokerage office, and one to one promotion between these licensees and their clients. In essence, you could share your Office Exclusive listing with the licensees within your brokerage at an office meeting, and they can one to one share with their clients, and that’s it.
Coming Soon No Showing listings are still possible for RMLS™ subscribers even after the implementation of CC 8.0 (same CSN rules apply as prior to this change).
In closing, thank you for the great question, and for trying hard to stay abreast of this really important evolution of MLS rules. Keep your eye on the RMLSweb Desktop News for more info as this rule change is rolled out.
