Some of my REALTOR® friends and I were chatting recently about RMLS™ and how many cool tools we now have available for us. We tried to think about all the new “stuff” that has been provided to us just this year and while I’m sure we remembered a lot of the things could you give me a quick recap on the highlights for 2020? And also, THANK YOU to all the RMLS™ staff for keeping RMLS™ products and services up and running without skipping a beat during COVID. Much appreciated!!
Ecstatic in Estacada
Hi EE,
First of all, thank YOU for the kind words. The RMLS™ staff really does pride itself in not only providing/integrating those cool tools you reference above, but also recognizing that our core responsibility is to make sure RMLSweb is up and available for you 24/7.
Now, for a list of the deployment highlights from 2020.
Q1:
Added Immoviewer to the list of approved 3rd party products. Immoviewer automatically sends you a link to a simple video tour upon saving your new listing in the RMLSweb database.
Added the ability to customize the subject line in manually sent client reports from RMLSweb
Added a red button indicator Back Office on the Menu bar to alert you of your expiring listings
Added the SentriLock Access Report to the Statistics menu in RMLSweb
Implemented various COVID-19 accommodations to RMLSweb
Q2:
Released Phase 1 of the new RMLSweb reports including Client Full and Medium report styles
Added INRIX Drive Time mapping toolset as well as a new “freehand” drawing tool to Map Search
Continued with Phase 1 of the RMLSweb reports project by releasing new Open House and Broker Tour reports
Q3:
Added Paragon as the first “System of Choice” in the MLS industry
Added RatePlug to the approved 3rd party products
Added Price Change Amount filter in Prospecting to confine searches to a price change threshold
Q4:
Added button to Advanced Search to allow the creation of a Prospect Profile directly from the search
Added a new Agent Limited One Page report option
Keep in mind that I pulled these improvements/enhancements from a 20-page single line report of all the various items accomplished in 2020 – really quite impressive given the challenges of a global pandemic!
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.
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
Property Condition (previously known as Year Built Description) saw a spike in violations last month. As a reminder, the Property Condition needs to be changed to “New” on a new construction property before it is updated to sold (SLD) status. Making sure that the Property Condition is up to date throughout the construction and selling process will help to ensure that the listing data is accurate. Further, it will make the post close process as smooth as it can be.
TIP: Prior to scheduling a showing, it’s important to double check the listing for any special showing accommodation requests or notes from the seller(s) and/or Seller’s Agent. Be safe out there!
The committee did not meet in August 2020 as there were no cases to review.
INFORMAL VIOLATIONS
In August 2020, RMLS™ Data Accuracy staff reviewed 31,594 listings in addition to the 476 notices sent through “Report Issue” button on RMLSweb. Of the items reviewed, 1,241 violation notices and 2,196 courtesy notices were sent out. In addition our team handled 419 phone calls.
Category
August
Missing Tax ID
390
Incorrect or Missing Information
159
Personal Promotion
131
Missing School
77
Missing Owner Name
71
No Showings
70
Property Condition
66
Duplicate Listing
44
Incorrect Status
44
Incorrect First Photo
44
Conditions to Compensation
26
Is Property a Condo
26
Incorrect Property Type
24
Listing Input in Incorrect MLS area
15
Duplicate Listing in Different Categories
14
Inaccurate Lot Size
12
Partial Bathrooms 5+
9
Address Issues
6
City Unknown
5
Missing Condo Unit Number
3
HUD
3
Remarks Incorrectly Indicate Short Sale
1
Missing SQFT by Level
1
The following are the courtesy notifications sent to RMLS™ subscribers in August 2020:
Category
August
Listing is Set to Expire
983
Multiple Owner Names in First Field
585
Listing Still Pending
496
New Listing Input Over 24 Hours
127
Listing Status Change over 24 Hours
5
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.
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 January 2020 our team handled 214 phone calls.
We track 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
A new year brings with it a new sequence for MLS numbers. Listings published in 2020 begin with ’20######’, where listings published in 2019 began with ’19######’. While it is not against the RMLS™ rules to refresh a listing, there are a few points to keep in mind. Refreshing a listing should be done at the request of the seller(s). If the seller(s) elects to refresh their listing in the MLS, the old listing should be changed to canceled (CAN) status not withdrawn (WTH). The Data Accuracy Department has received reports where the original listing was changed to withdrawn (WTH) status instead of canceled, and forgotten until the listing expires at some future date. This causes not only confusion for RMLS™ subscribers, it can be confusing to the property owner who may or may not have been the original seller(s) who receive inquiries on the status of their property.
The committee did not review any formal violations in January 2020.
INFORMAL VIOLATIONS
In January 2020, RMLS™ Data Accuracy staff reviewed 22,529 listings in addition to the 493 notices sent through “Report Issue” button on RMLSweb. Of the items reviewed, 1,221 violation notices and 1,953 courtesy notices were sent out.
Category
January
Missing Tax ID
471
Incorrect or Missing Information
129
Duplicate Listing
119
Missing Owner Name
94
Personal Promotion
85
Missing School
58
Incorrect Status
50
Year Built Description
46
Is Property a Condo
37
No Showings
22
Missing or Incorrect 1st Photo
18
Duplicate Listing in Different Categories
17
Conditions to Compensation
15
Duplicate Listing in Different Categories
13
Incorrect Property Type
15
Missing Condo Unit Number
8
Inaccurate Lot Size
8
Listing Input in Incorrect MLS area
7
Address Issues
7
Partial Bathrooms 5+
4
HUD
2
City Unknown
1
Is Listing a Short Sale
1
Following are the courtesy notifications sent to RMLS™ subscribers in January 2020:
Category
January
Listing is Set to Expire
1,015
Multiple Owner Names in First Field
405
Listing Still Pending
377
New Listing Input Over 24 Hours
156
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 ever 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.
For the week of October 28-November 3, 2019, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity decreased again last week in both Oregon and Washington.
For the week of October 21-27, 2019, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened SentriLock lockboxes in Oregon and Washington. Activity decreased last week in both Oregon and Washington.
