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by RMLS Communication Department | Apr 18, 2011
Stay current with the RMLS™ Twitter and Facebook accounts!
Sometime during the last decade, the term “social media” grew more fiercely than wildfire. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Foursquare and LinkedIn were created. To go even farther, we began to see social media in the form of blogging (WordPress, Blogspot), micro-blogging (Twitter), online reviewing (Yelp), photo-sharing (Flickr) and smart purchasing (Groupon).
It’s difficult trying to keep up with the constant flow of new social media applications, trends and products that come on the market each day. Due to the fact that social media has started to play a more key role in the real estate industy, RMLS™ is making an effort at “keeping up with the Joneses.”
Here’s how you can benefit from our efforts:
Did you know you can check up on our Twitter feed, Facebook page and RMLS™ Updates blog, without creating an account of your own? Say there is an RMLSweb outage (which is not something we like to think about, but it has happened before) and you want up-to-date information, here is what you can do:
Twitter: Go to http://twitter.com/RMLSweb
This will take you to the RMLS™ Twitter account, where you can see all of our recent “tweets” and our Twitter profile (even if you don’t have a Twitter account of your own!). From here, you can choose to “follow” us if you have an account! We recommend you do so in order to stay current with our updates.
Facebook: Go to http://www.facebook.com/RMLSweb
Here, you will be directed to our Facebook page! A goal of ours for 2011 is to increase our fan base on our Facebook page. Since we’re on the hunt for new fans, make sure to “like” our page!
Blog: For those of you who may have stumbled upon a link to this blog, at any time you can access it by going to: http://rmlsweb.wordpress.com/
We plan on doing some cool contests and giveaways in the future for those following us on Twitter and Facebook. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to win some free stuff! Also, don’t forget to tune in for these weekly events:
- Tuesday Training Tip – Each Tuesday we post an interesting RMLSweb training tip to our Facebook and Twitter accounts regarding certain aspects of the RMLSweb system.
- Friday Fun Fact – Each Friday we post a humorous fact on Twitter and Facebook about a fact of the day and how it coincides with a statistic from RMLSweb!
Finally, if you are looking to become a more efficient social media user, check out tools such as Hootsuite and TweetDeck that allow you to view and post to your Twitter, Facebook and Blog feeds – all at once!
Happy social media adventures!
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by RMLS Communication Department | Mar 31, 2011
You can now use your Firefox browser to access Listing Load
One of the most common requests we have received in the past is to update Listing Load so that it is compatible with the Firefox browser. As a result, in early February the RMLS™ Board of Directors voted to make Listing Load enhancements and Firefox compatibility a top priority for projects to complete in 2011. Well, we are happy to announce the ability to use Listing Load with your Firefox browser is now available!
To clarify, this announcement is in regard to the compatibility of Firefox with Listing Load. While there are some features of RMLSweb that still are not functional in the Firefox browser, this release is a major step toward full compatibility. (For a list of the functions that are still not fully compatible outside of Internet Explorer, please see Document 1765.) We have tested and approved Listing Load with Firefox Version 3.6.16 and Version 4, and we have also tested it in the Firefox browser on both Windows and the Mac operating system!
Here are some items to keep in mind when using Listing Load in Firefox:
- The look and feel of Listing Load will be slightly different in a new browser, so you may notice small changes in alignment, shape of fields, etc. Below is an example of different field shapes in Listing Load when using Firefox on a Mac. The fields that are more rectangular are the required fields, while the rounded (bubbled) fields are optional.
- Spell Check does not work when accessing Listing Load through Firefox. However, the Firefox browser is equipped with its own Spell Check that you may use.
- To print In-Progress listings from Firefox on a Mac, we recommend using Adobe Acrobat Reader instead of Macintosh’s preview viewer. Adobe Acrobat Reader has more configuration options than the default viewer, allowing users to adjust margins and page size as needed to ensure correct layout and formatting of the printed In-Progress input forms.
If you have any questions or run into any problems or issues, please feel free to call Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169 and mention that you are using Firefox.
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by RMLS Communication Department | Mar 16, 2011
Written by Kelsey Brunson, Communications Specialist
As a member of the Communications Department here at RMLS™, I get asked a wide variety of questions from subscribers. I want to take some time in this blog post to answer two questions that subscribers ask on a regular basis. My thought is that more of you might also have these same questions and might benefit from the answers I can provide.
How Do I Search for Forms, Documents and Tutorials?
The Forms and Documents menu is home to all of our documents, including (but not limited to) training documents, informational documents, desktop news posts, Market Action reports, and tutorials. You can access the Forms and Documents menu through Toolkit at the top of the RMLSweb screen.
Once you are in our Forms and Documents menu, there are three ways to search for that particular document you are looking for. Below is an image showing you the locations of the three areas you can use for your document search:
1) Enter a keyword, phrase or document number into the search box.
2) Click on a tag and get all the documents in that particular category.
3) Search the Forms & Documents Folder Menu. For example, document folder 1500-1699 in this menu is the Market Action and Statistics Menu, where you can find all of the new (and archived!) Market Action reports.
How Does RMLS™ Calculate Appreciation?
Another commonly asked question that I receive from subscribers is how to calculate appreciation (or depreciation). Appreciation is a comparison of the average sales price of a specific area between two time periods. Here are some key points to remember about this calculation:
1) You must compare TWO time periods. Sometimes I get asked, “What is the appreciation of Portland for the last year?” A more accurate question to ask for this statistic would be, “How has Portland appreciated (or depreciated) from 2009 to 2010?” Or, you could compare one month to the next, such as January 2010 to February 2010. (Notice that we are comparing two time periods here).
2) You can use the appreciation formula to calculate both appreciation AND depreciation. Often, subscribers believe that the formula for appreciation is different than the formula for depreciation. In fact, the same formula is used for both of these calculations. Whether the result is a negative or positive number determines if the area’s average sales price has appreciated or depreciated between those two time periods.
3) Document #1745: How to Calculate Appreciation, gives a detailed example of how to use the appreciation formula. This is an easy formula involving plugging in the average sales price for your two time periods! Take a look at this document; I use it for guidance as well!
If you have any questions, feel free to email communications@rmls.com. Or, you can call our Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169. They will be able to answer your question or transfer you to the appropriate department. Thank you!
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by RMLS Communication Department | Dec 22, 2010
RMLS™ can help you show sellers the right price for their listing!
Selecting a price for a listing can be a tricky thing, especially when a client feels their home is worth more than you think it is. With all the sentimental value attached to the house for the client, it can be hard for a seller to stomach the idea of selling for less than the figure in his or her mind. To help your client gain a better understanding of the realities of the market, so he or she can see why the price you’ve suggested is more likely to succeed, here are some tips from within the RMLSweb system:
A Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) report is your most important tool. Our new CMA lets you compare the seller’s home to other similar homes that are or were for sale in the area. By researching active, pending, and closed listings, you can show the client an image of the past and present state of the local real estate market.
Use statuses to provide a complete story. By comparing the listing to not only comparable active listings, but also pending, expired, and closed listings, you can better understand and show an entire story of sales prices. Active listings will show you the current prices of comparable homes on the market, so your client knows the competition. Pending listing prices will show which prices attracted buyers, while closed listing prices show the price at which comparable homes actually sold. Expired listings are also useful to search for, as they can show prices that did not attract any buyers (although price isn’t the sole cause for expired listings).
Use the “Recommended Price” tab in the CMA. The “Recommended Price” tab in the new CMA allows you to see statistics related to your comparable properties, including average and median sold prices. It also gives you the ability to enter your own recommended range, in an easy-to-read graph that shows the price range most likely to succeed in the given market.
By using the new CMA module to its fullest, you can create a more vivid picture of the local market in which the client’s house will be listed. With a better understanding of the history of comparable property sales, you’ll be able to help your client find a listing price that is palatable to them, as well as attractive to buyers!
To brush up on your knowledge of the new CMA module, check out these handy online tutorials:
CMA Overview
Accessing the CMA
How to use Radius Search
User Preferences
Adding Comparables and Making Adjustments
Creating a CMA Profile
Customizing Your CMA Report
Entering Subject Property Information
Or you can look at or print our Creating a new CMA in RMLSweb quick reference guide.
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by RMLS Communication Department | Dec 9, 2010
Use this guide to save your old CMA reports before January 6!
With the old CMA module departing from RMLSweb on January 6, 2011, it is important for all subscribers to go into the system and save any old CMA reports they would not like to disappear along with the module. Luckily, this only requires a small amount of your time, and should be quick and easy if you follow these simple steps:
1. Run a category specific search (such as Residential).
2. Check off at least one listing from the search results.
3. In the “Select a Report” drop-down list, select “CMA Report (old)” and click “GO.”
4. In the “Subject Profiles” drop-down list, select the profile you would like to save.
5. Click “Continue to Pricing.”
6. On the pricing page, select either “Email” or “Print Preview.”
7. If you select “Email,” then email it to your own email address. Then in the email you receive, you can click the link and either print the report or save it to your local drive.
8. If you select “Print Preview,” you can print the report to paper. Or, if you have Cute PDF, you can save it as a PDF.
By following these steps for all your old CMA reports you would like to hold onto, you can ensure that nothing you need is removed from our servers when the old CMA disappears on January 6! And if you need any help with the new CMA, here are some tutorials to answer some of your questions:
CMA Overview
Accessing the CMA
How to use Radius Search
User Preferences
Adding Comparables and Making Adjustments
Creating a CMA Profile
Customizing your CMA Report
Entering Subject Property Information
Or you can check out our Creating a new CMA in RMLSweb quick reference guide.
As always, if you have any further questions or concerns we are here to help. You can call your local RMLS™ office or the RMLS™ Help Desk at (503) 872-8002 in the Portland Metro Area or toll-free at (877) 256-2169.
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by RMLS Communication Department | Dec 6, 2010
Guest post by Terry Romel, RMLS™ Help Desk Manager
With the recent release of the new iPad operating system (Version 4.2) some important changes occurred in the way the iPad interacts with RMLSweb.
As you may recall from my last iPad post, RMLSweb works best with Internet Explorer 6+. All of the RMLSweb system functionality is available and fully supported on IE 6+ (although honestly you should be well past IE 6 by now). Obviously the iPad does not use IE as a browser, and that immediately created some challenges when using the iPad with RMLSweb. In fact the challenges were so diverse the decision was made to re-direct the iPad browser (typically Safari) to the RMLS™ mobile site, to ensure the iPad user wouldn’t be tasked with dealing with the challenges. This was not a popular decision with iPad users but was really necessary due to substantial data integrity issues when using RMLSweb.
With this OS update, and based on substantial testing by RMLS™ technical staff, we are confident that some of the core RMLSweb functionality lacking in the first iPad operating system is now working as it should. That is not to say that the entire RMLSweb system works with the iPad, but simply that it is more functional with this operating system update than it was before. As such, it was decided to remove the automatic re-direct to the RMLS™ mobile site and allow the iPad access to logging in to the RMLSweb site. There are still inconsistencies in several areas of RMLSweb, but most Search functions work as expected and most importantly return an accurate set of search results.
Please keep in mind that while we certainly agree that the iPad is a wonderful new tool that fits well in the real estate space and undoubtedly has many other benefits for our Realtor® subscribers, accessing RMLSweb and expecting full functionality is just not yet possible. As we move forward in the evolution of RMLSweb you will see more functionality available through the iPad.
If you have any specific questions about what does and does not work with the iPad and RMLSweb please contact the RMLS™ Help Desk. The RMLS™ Help Desk is available 8AM-7PM Mon-Thursday; 8AM-5PM Friday & 10AM-2PM Saturday. Call 503-872-8002 or 877-256-2169 (toll-free).
