RMLS™ Rules Roundup for January-February 2019

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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 and February 2019 our team handled 529 phone calls.

We track 30 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

In January we saw quite a few instances of personal promotion in video/virtual tours that were branded, along with other forms of personal promotion in the public remarks field. As a reminder, personal promotion is not permitted in public remarks, photographs, video, or virtual tours. Personal promotion includes and is not limited to phone numbers, agent name, firm name, email address, and websites. Remember, when submitting data to a listing that the information should describe the property only.

In February we sent out a number of courtesy notices on listings that included more than one owner name in the first owner name field. This courtesy notice was created in 2018 to remind subscribers that there are two owner name fields in RMLSweb. Both owner name fields are provided to ZipLogix and when a subscriber uses MLS Connect or MLS Push to autofill information into ZipLogix, the information is auto filled as appropriate. This is not a rules violation but simply a way that RMLS™ is working to help educate our subscribers where we can.

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. In January and February 2019, no formal rules violations were filed by RMLS™ subscribers.

INFORMAL VIOLATIONS

In January and February 2019, RMLS™ Data Accuracy staff reviewed 34,656 listings and found the following informal violations:

JanFebCategory
686723Listing Missing Tax ID
15190Incorrect/Missing Information
11373Personal Promotion
5364Year Built Description
13583Owner Name
7060Missing School
00Incorrect Address
065Duplicate Listing
2445No Showing
2623Incorrect 1st Photo
2131Concessions
1521Missing Condo Unit
84Partial Bathroom 5+
119Listing Input in Incorrect MLS Area
33City Unknown
422HUD
3421Is Property a Condo
96Duplicate Sold in Different Category
00Photograph Omit Form
01Short Sale Not Indicated
00Fannie Mae
00Duplicate Listing Different Agent
01Inaccurate Lot Size
00Missing SqFt by Level

Following are the courtesy notifications sent to RMLS™ subscribers in January and February 2019:

JanFebCategory
934764Multiple Owners in 1st Owner Name Field
199139Listing is Still Pending
029New Listing Input Over 24 Hours
12Listing Status Change Over 72 Hours
00Listing is Still Pending w/ Lease

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.

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