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 27 specific issues outlined in the RMLS Rules and Regulations, and is responsible for addressing subscriber questions and concerns regarding listing accuracy.

HIGHLIGHTS
Although area numbers were originally adapted to segment out the location of listings in the newspaper, they have come to serve many purposes regarding accuracy and data analytics. Here are a few examples why choosing the correct area is important.

• Incorrect Schools One of the most common responses we get after sending a Missing School violation notice is that the correct school was not available. The reason that the correct school is not available is frequently because the wrong area number has been selected. The area number is what triggers the selections for the drop-down items. If you select the wrong area for your listing, then the schools for the area you selected will show up and not the actual schools that go with your listing.
• Statistical Skewing Having listings in the incorrect areas will throw off statistics for that area. Listings in different areas will have different price points and trends. For example, a listing that is on the outskirts of a city will likely have a lower price point than listings located in the city proper. So, selecting the wrong area and grouping that lower priced listing with those will cause it to be an outlier and distort the stats.
• Search Results You want the correct people to be able to find your listing. Having it in the wrong area will cause you to miss out on search results for the correct area. The goal is to reach people who actually want to live where the house is located.

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 a case in August 2023.

INFORMAL VIOLATIONS
The majority of violations are simple errors – forgotten or misplaced data, or a misunderstanding of the rules. Our goal is to reduce all types of violations through education and awareness campaigns.

We’ve been thinking about violations in three categories:

• Ready to Sell: Only a small amount of violations (less than 15) occur each month.
• Fixer Upper: These violations totals (between 15 and 50) need a little TLC.
• Complete Renovation: These violations (50+) need some immediate attention.

In the new chart below, we’ve included the Fixer Upper and Complete Renovation violations in ascending order. You can see that Personal Promotion, Missing Owner Name, Missing School, and Missing Tax ID are four of the top five violation occurrences. Though Tax IDs are not always available at the time of listing, we can collectively reduce the other violations by double checking owner names and schools and making sure to avoid personal promotion violations.

Data Accuracy Department Statistics

• Listings Reviewed: 25,371 (+868)
• Notices Sent: 2,430 (+228)
• Violation Notices Received: 372 (+13)
• Courtesy Notices Sent: 1,493 (+61)
• Phone Calls Received: 430 (+75)

How to Report Violations

Subscribers have multiple options to report violations, including a Report Issue button on every RMLSweb listing. Subscribers can email our Data Accuracy team at dataaccuracy@rmls.com or call them at 503.395.1916. When there are increases in specific violation types, we sometimes place notifications on RMLSweb.

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.

HIGHLIGHTS

Personal promotion is consistently one of our top violations, and a good many of them result from virtual tours. While virtual tours are an excellent tool to give buyers a feel for a home and to help them decide if they want to see it in person, there are rules which govern these tours.

• People (including yourself) are not permitted to be in photos or virtual tours.
• Virtual tours must be free of any branding.
• They cannot have any contact or identifying information.
• Virtual tours must be free of links.
• Voiceovers are prohibited.
• Virtual tours cannot contain copyrighted material.

If any of these violations are found in a virtual tour, the tour will be removed from your listing, and you will be asked to upload a new tour that is free of violations.

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 a case in July 2023.

INFORMAL VIOLATIONS

Personal Promotion violations saw a sharp decline in July after continuing to rise since December of 2022. The 131 July violations are a 38% drop from the previous month.

The chart below shows the next three most frequent informal violations from July 2023. After dipping into third place in June, Missing Owner Name violation saw a steep jump up back into second place over has Missing Tax ID violations.

This pie chart shows the remainder of the informal violations last month.

Data Accuracy Department Statistics 

• Listings Reviewed: 24,503 (-2,989)
• Notices Sent: 2,202 (-133)
• Violation Notices Received: 359 (+8)
• Courtesy Notices Sent: 1,432 (+142)
• Phone Calls Received: 355 (+25)

How to Report Violations

Subscribers have multiple options to report violations, including a Report Issue button on every RMLSweb listing. Subscribers can email our Data Accuracy team at dataaccuracy@rmls.com or call them at 503.395.1916. When there are increases in specific violation types, we sometimes place notifications on RMLSweb.

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.

HIGHLIGHTS

We have seen a dramatic drop in Tax ID violations since excluding New Construction listings near the end of 2022. We are always looking for ways to streamline and make our violations process more effective and efficient.

Reporting violations and offering enhancement requests by email are great ways to be involved in the process, and it helps us understand your needs. We can set up custom classes and One-on-Ones to go over rules related questions at your leisure. Email training@rmls.com to schedule a custom class if you are interested.

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 April of 2023.

INFORMAL VIOLATIONS

Personal Promotion has been the top violation for the last few months, and as summer nears, the typical increase in active listings also sees an increase in personal promotion violations. Please be aware of the requirements and common violation errors that can occur.

The chart below shows the next three most frequent informal violations from April 2023. Please note the dramatic decline in Tax ID violations since December.

This pie chart shows the remainder of the informal violations last month.

Data Accuracy Department Statistics 

• Listings Reviewed: 21,289 (-60)
• Notices Sent: 1,897 (-166)
• Violation Notices Received: 396 (-15)
• Courtesy Notices Sent: 1097 (-30)
• Phone Calls Received: 400 (-79)

How to Report Violations

Subscribers have multiple options to report violations, including a Report Issue button on every RMLSweb listing. Subscribers can email our Data Accuracy team at dataaccuracy@rmls.com or call them at 503.395.1916. When there are increases in specific violation types, we sometimes place notifications on RMLSweb.

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.

HIGHLIGHTS

We have seen a dramatic decrease in the number of photo violations since adopting the recommended changes passed by the rules committee. Tax ID violations are also once again seeing lower numbers now that the programming is set to ignore Proposed, New Construction, and Under Construction listings.

The recently updated version of the RMLS Rules and Regulations is now available.

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 February of 2023.

INFORMAL VIOLATIONS

Listings missing Tax ID information are typically the top informal violation within RMLSweb. Recently this rule has been edited to exclude Proposed and Under Construction property types. Because of this, there was a drop in the number of violations and now we are seeing Personal Promotion as the top violation for February 2023.

The chart below shows the next three most frequent informal violations from February 2023. This month we saw a spike for Incomplete or Inaccurate Data, making it the second-most violated category.

This pie chart shows the remainder of the informal violations last month.

Data Accuracy Department Statistics 

• Listings Reviewed: 15,946 (-5,804)
• Notices Sent: 1,554 (-253)
• Violation Notices Received: 310 (-23)
• Courtesy Notices Sent: 711 (-118)
• Phone Calls Received: 327 (-32)

How to Report Violations

Subscribers have multiple options to report violations, including a Report Issue button on every RMLSweb listing. Subscribers can email our Data Accuracy team at dataaccuracy@rmls.com or call them at 503.395.1916. When there are increases in specific violation types, we sometimes place notifications on RMLSweb.