UPDATE (April 25): Office Exclusive Changes Finalized
RMLS™ has finalized changes to office exclusive policies, effective May 5, 2014.

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UPDATE (February 28): Office Exclusive Changes to be Delayed
A significant number of questions were raised when we outlined changes to the office exclusive form, rules, and contracts. RMLS™ will be delaying the release of these changes until we can work through these concerns and clarify details. If you have a comment, please email communications@rmls.com. We anticipate this process will be worked out by the end of March.

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There has recently been a lot of national buzz about pocket listings. The RMLS™ Board of Directors and Rules Committee received several inquiries over the past year about the practice, and how pocket listings affect our own real estate community. So at the November 2013 meeting of the Board of Directors, the Office Exclusive Task Force was appointed to evaluate the issue of office exclusives and pocket listings.

The Office Exclusive Task Force was comprised of five members of the RMLS™ Board of Directors: Mark Meek (Task Force Chairman), Rick Jenkins (Chairman of the Rules and Regulations Committee), Ed Petrossian, George Perkins, and Steve Lucas.  They looked at and discussed our current policies and rules regarding Office Exclusive listings and various interpretations among subscribers about List Date and Date Marketing to Begin.

Their recommendations were presented to the RMLS™ Board of Directors at their February 2014 meeting. The recommendations were approved and will take effect March 3, 2014. Three documents are affected:

• The Office Exclusive Addendum (Authorization to Exclude) form has been totally revamped. This form will be required when a seller elects to opt out of placing their property in RMLS™ along with a copy of the Listing Agreement. This new form informs the seller(s) of the risks of excluding their property from the multiple listing service (MLS).
• The RMLS™ Rules and Regulations were modified to define marketing and clarify the difference between the effective date of a listing, when all the necessary signatures have been obtained, and the Date Marketing to Begin which can be a later date. Also, a new sanction was added for marketing of a  property prior to publication in RMLS™.
• The Listing Contract language for Oregon and Washington was changed to be in harmony with the changes to the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations.

The Office Exclusive Addendum will now cover all the benefits of MLS publication so that the seller is fully informed. Some of the concepts include the wide distribution of property information to more than 10,500 other real estate brokers who subscribe to RMLS™, bringing together buyers and sellers in an efficient marketplace. RMLS™ subscribers are REALTORS® who abide by the NAR Code of Ethics. Cooperation among brokers from many brokerage firms, by including the listing in the MLS, increases a seller’s chances of identifying a qualified buyer and obtaining fair market value for the property. It also helps provide a rich database in which subscribers can identify comparable properties for CMA reports and valuable statistical information.

Just how big is RMLS™ anyway? We thought it would be fun and interesting to compile numbers showing just how much RMLS™ has supported real estate activity in 2013. This is our first year doing it, but we hope to continue collecting these numbers in order to also see how the company is expanding over time.

RMLSweb
Number of times subscribers logged in to RMLSweb: 6,185,000
Photos uploaded to listings: 926,490
Property searches run: 422,049
Number of new prospect profiles created: 57,599
All residential properties listed for sale: 65,824
All residential properties sold: 45,243
Median sold price of homes listed: $235,000
Total dollar volume of homes sold: $12,373,855,000
Unique tax searches: 103,077
Hit count reports viewed and auto-emailed to sellers: 12,608,195
Broker tour searches run: 12,475
Open house searches run: 7,357
Statistical searches run: 51,745

SentriLock Conversion
Number of lockboxes exchanged: 44,234

RMLS™ Subscribers
RMLS™ subscribers as of December 2013: 10,676
New RMLS™ subscribers (compared to December 2012): 497
Increase in subscribers, above: +4.9%
Subscribers who attended training: 1,857
Number of calls to the RMLS™ Help Desk: 26,119
Number of Help Desk chats: 2,564
Number of incidents reported using the “Report Issue” button: 4,155
CE hours distributed by RMLS™ at no cost to subscribers: 4,227
Total attendance at RMLS™ training events: 2,858

RMLS.com
Total customer visits to RMLS.com: 3,822,036
Unique visits: 1,110,135
Total listing views: 2,982,408

Social Media
RMLS™ followers on Facebook (December 31st): 2,472
RMLS™ followers on Twitter (December 31st): 2,000

Don’t forget about the other numbers we regularly compile! In addition to publishing Market Action each month, we have statistical summaries available on RMLSweb with information dating back several years. Since 2012 we’ve also been compiling statistics about residential distressed properties in RMLSweb.

We love numbers here at RMLS™, and hope you find this data as fun and interesting as we do.

RMLS™ has partnered with Realtors Property Resource® (RPR) and starting September 25th, RMLS™ listing data will be available on RPR to RMLS™ subscribers. RMLS™ subscribers will have access to hundreds of datasets on over 150 million properties across the country through RPR at no additional cost. These reports include:

• Tax assessments
• Notices of default (NODs)
• The largest database of foreclosure and pre-foreclosures in the country
• Mortgage and history data
• Value estimates, refinements, and comp analysis
• Neighborhood and demographic information
• FEMA flood maps
• School zoning and information

On RMLSweb subscribers will be able to quickly access a listing on RPR using the button on the search results screen or at the bottom of an Agent Full report:

RMLS™ and RPR have also integrated ZIP code statistics at the bottom of the Agent Full report on RMLSweb (below). Click the green button (above) that says “[+] RPR Statistics by Zip” to view these statistics, which are based upon the listing’s ZIP code, county, and state.

Additional features and reports will be available by logging in to the RPR website.

RMLS™ subscribers don’t need to take action to register: RPR will be pre-registering our subscribers using their NRDS ID in order to simplify access. Once RPR has created each user’s account (starting September 24th) RPR will send an email to the subscriber.

RPR training sessions will be available for subscribers during the week of September 30th, held at multiple locations across the RMLS™ region (Portland, Vancouver, Tigard, Gresham, Eugene, and Roseburg). Register for an informative RPR training session here.

Watch for an email from RPR with user information starting September 25th!

If you have any questions about your RPR account or the RPR website, please visit the RPR Help Desk or call (877) 977-7576.

This is a blog post by RMLS™ Data Accuracy Liaison Vallerie Bush (at left). Vallerie is a 15-year veteran of RMLS™, including over a decade working with RMLS™ Rules and Data Accuracy.

Do you know the difference between ER and EA?

There are a number of terms used in RMLSweb listings that are rather technical and may seem confusing. The following is a list of some commonly used terminology and their meanings which will help you when entering or viewing a listing:

Exclusive Right to Sell (ER):  This is one of the options in the “List Type” field. The seller gives the Listing Broker the exclusive right to sell their property for a specified period of time and authorizes the Listing Broker to cooperate with and compensate other RMLS™ brokers, with no exceptions.

Exclusive Agency (EA):  The exclusive agency listing also authorizes the Listing Broker, as exclusive agent, to offer cooperation and compensation on blanket unilateral bases to other RMLS™ brokers, but the seller reserves the right to sell the property without paying a commission, if the buyer is not obtained by the listing agent or their advertising and marketing efforts. You must select EA in the “List Type” field if an Exclusive Agency agreement exists.

Dual or Variable Rate Commission Agreement:  This is an  arrangement in which the total commission paid by the seller is variable and dependent on who brings in the buyer.  For example, the commission offered by the seller may be different should the property be sold by the listing broker, than if the listing is sold by a cooperating broker.  You must enter a YES in the “Total Comm. Differs” field of your listing if an agreement exists.

Owner:  The term “Owner” can represent: 1. the person or persons who have legal ownership of the property; 2. their authorized agent; or 3. someone with the legal right to sell the property. However, the RMLS™ definition of the term owner does not include a person or persons who merely has the right to purchase the property, but does not yet own it. The owner’s name is required to be entered in the listing under “Owner” field unless an Owner Name Omission Form or similar document is submitted to RMLS™.

If you have any questions, contact us at rules@rmls.com or at (503) 236-7657.

Our trainers are available for onsite training at your office!

If you are an RMLS™ subscriber, we have lots of FREE educational opportunities at a location near you including RMLSweb CMA, Statistics and Listing Load. View the October Training Calendar in your area:

-Brookings
-Coos County
-Eastern Oregon
-Eugene
-Gresham
-Hood River
-Portland
-Roseburg
-Salem
-Vancouver

-Webinars

You can also find ongoing education and training classes through a number of different associations in the Portland Metro area and beyond. To search for education classes check out the following sites:

Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors® (PMAR)
East Metro Association of Realtors® (EMAR)
Clark County Association of Realtors® (CCAR)
Fair Housing Council of Oregon (FHCO)

This Week’s Lockbox Activity is Marginally Lower in Both Oregon and Washington

For the week ending on 9/23/12, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened Supra lockboxes in Washington and Oregon. Compared to the previous week, activity decreased in both states, 1.8% in Washington and .7% in Oregon.

To see larger versions of these charts, visit our photostream on flickr.

This Week’s Lockbox Activity Increases for Oregon and Washington

For the week ending on 7/15/12, these charts show the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened Supra lockboxes in Washington and Oregon. Compared to the previous week, activity increased in both Oregon and Washington.

To see larger versions of these charts visit our photostream on flickr.

Activity rises in Washington and Oregon