This Week’s Lockbox Activity
For the week of April 18-24, 2016, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity decreased in both Oregon and Washington this week.
For a larger version of each chart, visit the RMLS™ photostream on Flickr.
A big transition is on the horizon for subscribers when RMLS™ changes its billing and subscriber management system. This change—which we anticipate will take place in late May—will affect every single RMLS™ subscriber, but each person will be impacted a little differently. Take note of the following changes:
A New Approach to Logging In
All RMLS™ subscribers will have a different login name and see a different login screen when accessing RMLSweb. The email address that appears on the RMLSweb roster will now be your user name. (Subscribers with licenses in both Oregon and Washington will have one login and password like everyone else.)
This means subscribers should log in to RMLSweb before May 13th to confirm their email address. Access User Preferences on RMLSweb and confirm the email address that appears in the RMLSweb Contact Email field—that email address is what your new login will be once the transition happens. (See update below.)
Due to account security, RMLS™ staff will be unable to help subscribers who have lost their password in this new system. Instead, the login screen will feature a password reset link.
One Call Does It All
Contacting RMLS™ can involve a transfer from department to department. A centralized system means callers should be able to take care of multiple needs in just one stop. Subscribers will be able to manage more account information on RMLSweb as well, meaning less of a need to wait until a particular office is open to take care of a pressing issue.
Billing and Payments: You’re In Control
Changing this system will give subscribers access to more billing and payment options. One perk of this higher-security system: RMLS™ will now be able to accept ACH, eChecks, and checks by phone for payment!
Subscribers will be able to directly manage email address(es) where bills are sent. Have a personal assistant or accountant? No problem! They both need a copy of your bill? Also no problem! You’re in control of how bills from RMLS™ are routed.
RMLS™ subscribers will also be able to manage personal assistant accounts online rather than contacting RMLS™.
However, RMLS™ subscribers enrolled in the auto-pay program will need to re-enroll. RMLS™ will contact subscribers once the systems are in place to re-enroll in auto-pay—keep an eye out in the coming weeks. Everyone will receive a bill on June 1st unless there is a credit balance on the account.
Smoother Event Registration
Attending a RMLS™ Broker Education Series (BES) event or trade fair? Registration will be handled using this new subscriber management system. RMLS™ staff will be able to register subscribers for classes, as well as modify or cancel event registrations.
Changing a system that is such an integral part of RMLSweb is no small task, but it was a long-needed change, and we’re all in this together. RMLS™ staff will receive training to ensure a smooth transition and ease subscribers through the process.
RMLS™ will soon reach out to smaller groups of subscribers via email about other more specific changes. Continue to watch RMLScentral and the RMLSweb desktop for updates in the coming weeks.
UPDATE (May 9, 2016):
Subscribers should still log in to RMLSweb before May 13th to confirm their email address, but the email address used for the new system will be the Association Email address listed in Internet Member Services (IMS) instead of the RMLSweb Contact Email field. Contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at (503) 872-8002 if you need assistance making this change.
RMLS™ subscribers who use OREF forms, great news—a new feature has been released on RMLSweb that helps make transactions easier. Technicians have rolled out mlsPush/SSO by zipLogix, enabling users to move seamlessly from RMLSweb into zipForm®.
While viewing an Agent Full report, clicking the OREF button will begin a new transaction within zipForm® and auto-populate some listing information into the cover sheet. Users wishing to manage all OREF transactions on their account should click the OREF/zipLogix link under the Toolkit menu or in the list of links on the RMLSweb desktop.
RMLSweb users will need to log in to zipForm® the first time they use this service, but future access will utilize single sign-on technology, meaning less hassle.
Those who prefer to keep using zipLogic’s mlsConnect for forms will be able to do so.
Read more about this project or access tutorials on the OREF website.
MLS Insight is a series about how things work at RMLS™.
As we celebrate 25 years of service to the real estate community in the northwest, it is interesting to look at some of the high-level numbers that describe the business and economics of the multiple listing service.
Let’s start with the number of subscribers. In March 1991, before service had even begun, there were over 3,400 Portland-area REALTORS® committed to participating in the new multiple listing service. This March, we had 12,472 subscribers from all over Oregon and southern Washington. The March with the most subscribers was 2007 with 14,178 active REALTORS®.
The chart below shows the rise and fall of subscriber numbers (as of March of each year) plotted against total numbers of closed residential sales for the year across the entire MLS. Sales peaked in 2005 with a total of 57,745, two years prior to the peak in subscriber numbers. The number of sales has been steadily rising since the recession low of 31,028 in 2008. The 55,979 sales in 2015 were the second highest number recorded in a year at RMLS™.
Due to a much higher overall average sales price, the total dollar volume of residential sales posted in RMLS™, 2015 achieved a new high water mark of $17,567,003,000 despite fewer total sales than 2005. The average sales price across all RMLS™ sales in 2005 was $268,300 compared to $313,800 in 2015.
If you have questions on any RMLS™-related topic that you would like to have answered, I encourage you to post a comment.
UPDATE: May 5, 2016
By subscriber request, here are the same graphs broken down by state:
This Week’s Lockbox Activity
For the week of April 11-17, 2016, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity rose in both Oregon and Washington this week.
For a larger version of each chart, visit the RMLS™ photostream on Flickr.
