Rules Roundup for December 2021

Rules Roundup for December 2021

by | Jan 21, 2022

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 34 specific issues outlined in the RMLS Rules and Regulations, and is responsible for addressing subscriber questions and concerns regarding listing accuracy whether those are submitted via the “Report Issue” button on a listing, through email, or by phone. When there are increases in specific violation types, we often place notifications on RMLSweb in order to alert subscribers so that they can avoid violations.

DECEMBER HIGHLIGHTS

A new year means new listing numbers and often the ‘refreshing’ of listings in order to get a new listing number. If you represent sellers, please let them know that if they ‘refresh,’ they could receive solicitation phone calls from other REALTORSⓇ aiming to represent their property.

Conversely, if you are planning to solicit business from sellers who have had a listing cancel or expire, please double-check that the property has not been relisted before contacting them. Solicitation of a listing that is under contract (i.e., Active (ACT), Bumpable Buyer (BMP), Short Sale Pending (SSP), Pending (PEN), Pending Lease Option (POP), Withdrawn (WTH), or Coming Soon-No Showing (CSN) statuses) can result in a fine of up to $2,500.00, in an amount to be determined by the RMLS Rules and Regulations Committee.

If you have any questions or need any assistance, please reach out to Data Accuracy by emailing dataaccuracy@rmls.com or by phone at 503.395.1916.      

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 any cases in December 2021.

INFORMAL VIOLATIONS & COURTESY NOTICES

In December 2021, the RMLS Data Accuracy staff reviewed 17,605 listings in addition to the 295 notices sent through the “Report Issue” button on RMLSweb. Of the items reviewed, 925 violation notices and 1,515 courtesy notices were sent out. In addition, our team handled 291 phone calls.

CategoryDecember
Missing Tax ID366
Incorrect or Missing Information87
Personal Promotion82
No Showings66
Missing School61
Incorrect Status50
Missing Owner Name38
Property Condition33
Duplicate Listing30
Incorrect First Photo25
Incorrect Property Type 24
Is Property a Condo16
Listing Input in Incorrect MLS area11
HUD 9
Conditions to Compensation7
Partial Bathrooms 5+ 6
Duplicate Listing Sold in Different Categories5
Address Issues 5
Missing Condo Unit Number4
Inaccurate Lot Size3
City Unknown 2
Missing SQFT by Level1

The following are the courtesy notifications sent to RMLS subscribers in Decemberr 2021:

CategoryDecember
Listing is Set to Expire1152
Listing Still Pending248
Multiple Owner Names in First Field92
New Listing Input Over 24 Hours23

Questions about RMLS Rules and Regulations or the accuracy of specific listings can be directed to the RMLS Data Accuracy department at dataaccuracy@rmls.com or 503.395.1916.

The Lifecycle of a Reported Issue (Part 4)

The Lifecycle of a Reported Issue (Part 4)

by | Jul 1, 2021

In Part 1 of this series, we covered how to report issues and inaccuracies to our Data Accuracy department. In Part 2, we discussed how issues are reviewed and processed. In this edition, we’ll cover how issues are resolved and how to check on the status of a specific matter. In Part 3, we covered how issues are resolved and how to check on the status of a specific matter.

For Part 4, we’re looking at how some of the recent statistics stack up to each other. In comparing 2019 to 2020 data, we’ve noticed some interesting trends.

  • Missing Tax ID, Personal Promotion, and Incorrect/Missing Information were the top three issues in both 2019 and 2020.
  • Total reported issues decreased 8.1% from 2019 to 2020 (15,574 down to 14,309). The sub-category of reported issues submitted via the ‘Report Issue’ button decreased 5.7% (5,387 down from 5,715).

Data Accuracy department staff run proactive audits to look at common potential data inaccuracies. It is interesting to compare these two years because you can see the way the pandemic has impacted different categories. 2020 had fewer listings and subsequently fewer issues than 2019. On the other hand, our Data Accuracy team handled a significant increase in the number of calls.

  • In 2020, staff reviewed almost 332,000 listings that resulted in 36,800+ issues being resolved, a decrease from the 394,000+ listings reviewed and 37,600+ issues resolved in 2019.
  • There was a 34.7% increase (3,451 in 2019 vs 4,650 in 2020) in the number of phone calls handled by the Data Accuracy team.

When we compare the first 5 months of 2021 to the same period in 2020, we see some interesting takeaways.

  • Two of the top three issues are the same, Missing Tax ID and Incorrect/Missing Information, but other top three spot is currently Missing School. This may have to do with changes that various school districts are making regarding school names.
  • In 2021 we are ahead on Reported Issues (2559 vs 2224) and Violations (6338 vs 4883) but are behind on Courtesy Notices (7169 vs 8686) and calls (1749 vs 1799).
  • We are slightly behind the 2020 monthly average of 6847 new listings added per month with 6685 new listings added per month so far for 2021.

Ultimately it will be interesting to see at the end of this year how 2021 compares to 2020. Our Data Accuracy team continually examines statistical trends to improve issue resolution and improve accuracy.

The Lifecycle of a Reported Issue (Part 4)

The Lifecycle of a Reported Issue (Part 3)

by | Jun 25, 2021

In Part 1 of this series, we covered how to report issues and inaccuracies to our Data Accuracy department. In Part 2, we discussed how issues are reviewed and processed. In this edition, we’ll cover how issues are resolved and how to check on the status of a specific matter.

Step 3: Status & Resolution

Our subscribers are able to check the progress of the issue at any time through the RMLSweb dashboard.

Under ‘Back Office,’ look at the options below ‘Listing Issue.’ ‘Reported by Me’ provides status information on listings you reported, the current status of the report, and any available notes.

‘My Violations’ displays resolved violations for your listings, while ‘My Open Violations’ displays violations with your listings that are currently open. Both screens list the violation notes that have been reported. Principal Brokers can view this information for their agents as well.

The ‘My Notifications’ section tracks notices about your listing violations. You can see when the notifications were sent and to whom they were sent. If you click the link under ‘Sent Date’ you can read the notice that was sent.

Any issues that were discovered by our data checking software or staff will also appear in ‘My Notifications.’ The data is available for 18 months from the date the issue was closed. This does not mean that you cannot report an issue on a listing older than 18 months.

One factor that could affect whether an issue can be reported is if the Seller’s Agent or firm are no longer RMLS subscribers. In that event you would receive an error and to report the issue you would need to use one of the previously mentioned alternative methods.

Should you ever have a question about an issue that you submit or about a notice that you received on one of your own listings please reach out to us and we will be happy to answer any questions.

The Lifecycle of a Reported Issue (Part 4)

The Lifecycle of a Reported Issue (Part 2)

by | Jun 15, 2021

In Part 1 of this series, we covered how to report issues and inaccuracies to our Data Accuracy department. In this edition, we’ll cover how matters are reviewed and processed.

Step 2: Review

Our Data Accuracy team will begin processing these submissions in the order they are received. Sometimes we receive several notifications about the same issue at different points in the resolution cycle – these are grouped together and handled collectively.  

After reviewing the particular issue, we reach out to the Seller’s Agent and sometimes their Principal Broker to determine if the listing data is accurate. For example, a listing that says ‘waterfront’ may in fact only be ‘water view.’ If the data needs to be changed, we request that the Seller’s Agent either make the change or give us permission to make the change for them. Once the change has been made, we mark the reported issue as corrected in our tracking system.

Issues in the system will show as Active (review ongoing), Corrected (information adjusted), Reviewed and Already Corrected (report sent after information already corrected), Not a Violation (no adjustment required), Duplicate (this issue is already in the process of being reviewed), or Agent Asked (agent-submitted question instead of reporting an issue).   

In Part 3 of this series, we’ll cover how issues are resolved and how to check on the status of a specific matter.

The Lifecycle of a Reported Issue (Part 4)

The Lifecycle of a Reported Issue (Part 1)

by | Jun 11, 2021

Without accurate data it would be very difficult to perform real estate transactions with any confidence. RMLS has a number of tools to identify inaccuracies in the data but our subscribers are the most important by far. Subscribers are experts in their fields and in their neighborhoods and communities. RMLS relies on them to spot data issues that a machine would surely miss.

Here’s how the process of reporting an issue with listing data works.

Step 1: Reporting

It all begins with alerting RMLS to the issue. There are a few ways to report an issue, including emailing dataaccuracy@rmls.com or calling us at 503.395.1916, but the easiest is the ‘Report Issue’ button that is on the bottom right of each listing in RMLSweb, or by going to RMLSweb and choosing ‘Help’ from the navigation menu. Under the ‘Help’ sub-section, choose ‘Questions/Comments/Feedback’ and select ‘Data Accuracy/Rules and Regulations’ for the message subject.

When you find an issue in a listing the first step is to press the ‘Report Issue’ button. A new screen will open. On this screen you can enter a detailed account of the issue in the ‘Note Text’ section – please be as descriptive as possible.

Once finished, press the ‘Submit’ button and the issue will be routed to our Data Accuracy team for review and resolution. You will receive a popup notification confirming the submission.

In Part 2 of this series, we’ll discuss how issues are reviewed and processed.