This chart shows the number of bank owned properties and short sales in all areas of the RMLS™ system during the third quarter of 2012.

Below are links to additional charts for some of our larger areas.
• Portland Metro Distressed Properties (3rd Quarter 2012)
• Clark County, WA Distressed Properties (3rd Quarter 2012)
• Lane County, OR Distressed Properties (3rd Quarter 2012)
• Douglas County, OR Distressed Properties (3rd Quarter 2012)
• Coos County, OR Distressed Properties (3rd Quarter 2012)

Here are some additional facts about distressed residential properties in the third quarter of 2012:

All areas when comparing percentage share of the market, third quarter 2012 to second quarter 2012:
• When comparing the third quarter of 2012 to the second quarter, distressed sales as a percentage of new listings decreased by .6% (18.2% v. 18.8%).
• In a comparison of the third quarter of 2012 to the second quarter, distressed sales as a percentage of closed sales decreased by 5.3% (24.8% v. 30.1%).
• Short sales comprised 9.8% of new listings and 12.2% of sales in the third quarter of 2012, down .1% and up .5% from the second quarter of 2012, respectively.
• Bank owned/REO properties comprised 8.4% of new listings and 12.6% of sales in the third quarter of 2012, down .5% and 5.8% from the second quarter of 2012, respectively.

Portland Metro when comparing percentage share of the market, third quarter 2012 to second quarter 2012:
• When comparing the third quarter of 2012 to the second quarter, distressed sales as a percentage of new listings decreased by 1.4% (18.5% v. 19.9%).
• In a comparison of 3Q 2012 to 2Q, distressed sales as a percentage of closed sales decreased by 5.3% (24.2% v. 29.5%).
• Short sales comprised 10.2% of new listings and 12.5% of sales in 3Q 2012, down .3% and up 1.1% from 2Q 2012, respectively.
• Bank owned/REO properties comprised 8.3% of new listings and 11.7% of sales in 3Q 2012, down 1% and 6.4% from 2Q 2012, respectively.

Clark County when comparing percentage share of the market, third quarter 2012 to second quarter 2012:
• When comparing the third quarter of 2012 to the second quarter, distressed sales as a percentage of new listings decreased by .4% (24.6% v. 25.0%).
• In a comparison of 3Q 2012 to 2Q 2012, distressed sales as a percentage of closed sales decreased by 5.3% (29.7% v. 35%).
• Short sales comprised 17.2% of new listings and 20.1% of sales in the third quarter of 2012, down .1% for new listings and down .3% for sales when compared to the second quarter of 2012, respectively.
• Bank owned/REO properties comprised 7.4% of new listings and 9.7% of sales in the third quarter of 2012, down .4% and 4.9% from the second quarter of 2012, respectively.

If you’d like more information or percentages of distressed residential sales in other areas not represented by our charts, please contact us at communications@rmls.com.

The spotlight continues to shine on some of our REALTOR® subscribers this week! Meet Tim Sellers, who works with Barb Sellers and Associates Realty in Fairview, Oregon. Tim, who specializes in residential resale, was another one of this year’s Subscriber Satisfaction Survey winners.

How did your real estate career begin?

I’m a third generation real estate agent. I thought I’d just give it a try, and 24 years later I’m still trying.

What do you enjoy most about being a REALTOR®?

I like working with people, no matter who they are, where they’re from, or what their world view is.

Tell me about a particularly interesting property you sold.

Well…it’s more the people than the properties that are interesting, and I probably shouldn’t say any more.

Everyone has a secret talent. What’s yours?

I can make a bubble sound that always makes babies smile. And for the older kids, I made great paper airplanes.

Thanks, Tim!

RMLS™ subscribers are diverse in their talents and immensely interesting, and we like to spread the word by spotlighting individuals now and again. Adam Sarancik (GRI, ABR) was recently one of our Subscriber Satisfaction Survey winners! Adam works at The Meadows Group, Inc., REALTORS® (Westside office). We asked Adam to tell us a little more about himself:

How did your real estate career begin?

It began 22 years ago with the Lutz Snyder Co. in Tualatin, Oregon. I was very lucky because the office I was in had a branch manager and a group of brokers who were extremely dedicated and talented. They were great role models. I also taught at the Lutz Snyder Training Center for three years.

What do you enjoy most about being a REALTOR®?

I enjoy turning initial realtor-client relationships into lifelong friendships. I have made friends with so many amazing people who are truly inspirational to me.

A particularly interesting property you sold:

Many years ago I was the buyers’ agent for a home in Beaverton. The home was in excellent condition and rightfully so, the seller had an extreme amount of pride in his home. He absolutely refused to allow us to have a home inspection, telling us adamantly that there was absolutely no need for one. After a week or so of very delicate pleading and negotiation, he very reluctantly agreed to allow us to do the home inspection as long as the home was spotless when we were done, that we started exactly at 1:00pm, and we were gone by 3:00pm, when he would promptly return.

Well, about an hour or so into the inspection I smelled something burning, an electrical fire kind of smell. The home had a heat pump, so we shut it down as well as all of the electricity in the home.

When the homeowner returned promptly at 3:00pm, not only were we not gone, there were three fire trucks and the fire chief’s car parked in front—the entire property was surrounded by yellow tape.

Getting that deal to close was one of the best negotiating jobs I have ever done.

Everyone has a secret talent. What’s yours?

Most of my adult life, I have coached youth sports: baseball, basketball, and soccer. I have coached at Jesuit, Canby, and Westside Christian High Schools. I have also written a book, published this year: Coaching Champions for Life: Coaching the Whole Person, Not Just the Athlete.

Thanks, Adam! We will be spotlighting our other two survey winners in the coming weeks.

RMLS™ will be rolling out several improvements to RMLSweb over the next week! Our developers have been working hard to improve the site for our subscribers—here are our latest tweaks.

Listing View Counts

As of next week, subscribers will be able to send their sellers a copy of their listing view count directly from RMLSweb. Currently, the system offers options to print the results or view them in PDF format. When clicking on “View Counts Report,” look for the new email option at the top right of the screen.

Another change: view counts for each listing will soon be available for the previous 60 days. The current view count range is 30 days.

Phone Number Modification

Starting later next week, RMLSweb will allow agents to set a primary phone number directly into RMLSweb, saving time and eliminating several steps for users. This phone number field will auto-populate into listings as the agent’s phone number.

To use this new feature, navigate to your user preferences (“Toolkit” in the menu bar, then “User Preferences” in the drop-down menu). A field now appears to enter the phone number that will appear in the agent roster online. Previously, users were required to navigate to our Internet Member Services (IMS) online payment system to change this information.

Green Certification and Home Energy Performance Rating Listings

As of this week, properties listed with a green certification or home energy performance rating will be required to upload a copy of the appropriate scoring documentation into Listing Load.

If green certification information is entered in the “Residence” tab or an energy score is entered into the “Amenities” supplement, the listing agent will be required to upload PDF documentation supporting the numbers, along with the date the property was evaluated.

If the property is listed without the required documentation, the listing agent will receive an email reminding them of the requirement. If the document(s) are still missing several days later, the agent will receive a second email and the RMLS™ Rules Department will follow up.

Green certification and home energy performance documentation will be retained with the listing indefinitely, unlike other PDFs which are deleted several months after the property is off the market.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, email Help Desk at helpdesk@rmls.com or call us at (503) 872-8002, or outside the Portland area at (877) 256-2169.

Congratulations to Tim Sellers (Barb Sellers and Associates Realty—Fairview, Oregon), Tami Morin (Century21-The Neil Company Real Estate—Roseburg, Oregon), and Adam Sarancik (Meadows Group, Inc.—Tigard, Oregon) for winning a free quarter of RMLS™ subscriber dues! We offered a free quarter of RMLS™ subscriber dues to the 2000th respondent of our annual Subscriber Satisfaction Survey, and to two randomly selected participants.

We collected 2,101 responses this year, representing 20.3% of our membership.

Thanks to everybody who completed the survey! Results are shown to the RMLS™ Board of Directors and used to improve the products and services we provide to subscribers. Comments that need a response will be answered via phone or email. We will also be sharing some responses in the RMLS™ Weekly Report and on the blog in coming weeks—stay tuned!