Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear TT,

I can’t thank RMLS™ enough for putting great tools into RMLSweb for us to use. In the case of ShowingTime, however, it feels like a layer of tech that I don’t need. I realize it is a great tool and that many folks will use it but in my case, I’m just too old for this! Is it possible to disable ShowingTime on my listings? I’d rather the REALTOR® just call or text me.

Frustrated in Fanno Creek

Dear FFC:

Understood completely. Having come over on the Mayflower, I also struggle with some newfangled technology. Whatever happened to the quill pen and parchment paper?

But back to ShowingTime. Yes, you can certainly disable the tool on either an individual listing or for all your listings. Here’s how.

Individual Listing

When logged in to RMLSweb, head to Listing Load. Click on the ShowingTime icon.

Select your preference for that specific listing by choosing Yes or No.

Don’t forget to save your changes…

All Listings

If you’d like to turn off ShowingTime for all your listings, click the same Listing Load ShowingTime icon as above, then turn your attention to the line that says “Allow Agents to Request Appointments Online?” Set your preference, and don’t forget to save your changes!

That’s all there is to it! As you can see it’s quite easy to control your use of ShowingTime, either on a per listing basis or globally.

TT

Hello Technical Terry!

Help! I’ve been so busy this year helping clients that my license renewal snuck up on me and I need to get some elective CE credit pronto. What am I going to do?

Ida in Felida

Hello Ida in Felida!

Ah yes, the clamor of REALTORS® in need of CE to renew their licenses—what a beautiful sound! Don’t worry, RMLS™ has some resources to help.

Of course the RMLS™ Education Summit and Trade Fair is a major event that RMLS™ holds each year to offer lots of free CE to subscribers. The event has passed for this year, but we also bring our Broker Education Series (BES) events to subscribers across the region. In fact, there’s a BES event happening in Lincoln City on May 22nd!

Aside from RMLS™ events, we also help industry organizations promote their classes and opportunities. Two great places to check for upcoming CE opportunities is on the RMLSweb desktop page and the RMLScentral events calendar (which has 12 event listings in May alone!).

So Ida, when you’re in need of some CE, check out our resources! And if you want to share a class or event with other industry professionals, send the details along to us and we’ll take care of the rest.

Technical Terry in RMLS™land

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear Technical Terry,

My-oh-MY is the market abuzz about the upcoming Coming Soon-No Showing status and the changes to Authorization to Exclude! I think I’ve also heard rumor of a forms change rollout and a new showing scheduler being added to RMLSweb. I’m really concerned that much of what I’m hearing is just rumor. Can you guide me to where I can get more info on these important changes?

Concerned Clarice in Clackamas

Hi CCC-

Why, yes I can! Your perspective that the market is “abuzz” about the upcoming changes is spot on.

RMLS™ communicates information in a variety of ways. We understand that some subscribers rely on the RMLSweb desktop page for information, others rely on the RMLS™ Weekly Report, sent on Monday mornings, and others still really like subscribing to our blog on RMLScentral for information.

For example: on the day I’m writing this, the RMLSweb desktop page has links to an array of useful information about the projects you mention:

We send out the RMLS™ Weekly Report at 6 AM every Monday morning. In it you will find much of the same information shown on the RMLSweb desktop. The email address we use to send RWR is the address you provide to us in the User Preferences section of RMLSweb, shown here:

(If you’re not receiving the email, it could be that your email account filters the email to your junk or spam folder. Check there!)

Last, but certainly not least, is the RMLScentral blog. You can find articles on the blog that cover the same topics and others, with the added benefit of visible subscriber feedback and questions. Access the blog from the RMLSweb desktop page by clicking on the appropriate link in the Links section, seen here:

I sure hope this information helps, Clarice. We realize that your days are very busy, and as such we try to provide information in a variety of channels/formats, hoping one or more will work well for you.

TT

Hey, Technical Terry!

Clarice is my team member and while she may have plenty of time in the office to subscribe to the RMLS™ blog and read news as soon as it’s released, I am in my car all the time. Showings, trips to the RMLS™ office, picking up closing gifts—it seems the hours I spend in traffic every day take me away from RMLS™ communications. Any suggestions there, smartypants?

Cody Clark, Clarice’s Coworker in Clackamas

Hey…CCCCC!

First things first: don’t read this (or anything else from RMLS™) while driving!

That said, I do indeed have the very thing for you: Real Talk with RMLS™, our podcast! We unveiled our first episode just about a year ago, and our audience has been growing steadily ever since. Episodes are offered regularly, and listeners can expect that big projects like the ones Clarice was interested in will be covered in an episode very soon.

Real Talk with RMLS™ is available on iTunes and Google Play. We hope you will pass some of your time sitting in traffic by learning about RMLS™ projects this way!

Technical Terry

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear Technical Terry,

I’m a recent transplant to the Pacific Northwest. I was also a REALTOR® back in Atlanta and our MLS often gave us good, common sense tips about being a REALTOR®. Does RMLS™ do anything like that? As I’ve been reading some local chatter online, it seems like there is a real need for something like this!

Ethical Earlene in Estacada

Dear Earlene-

Your timing couldn’t be better—RMLS™ just released a new document called Best Practices, Courteousness, and Great Tips for REALTORS®!

I hope you will find the new document helpful in your day-to-day activities as a REALTOR® in our market. While reading through the document you may find that some of the items are common sense or we’ve listed things you think every REALTOR® should already know. What I know from watching our industry for many years is that things that are logical to you or me may not be to others.

RMLS™ has always believed that education is the best way to create a predictable and ethical working environment for our subscribers, and we’re hopeful that the new document will assist in doing that.

Technical Terry

Dear TT:

One of my coworkers claims that RMLS™ is going to be converting to a SentriLock lockbox that uses Bluetooth. When I asked him when it would happen, he didn’t know. Can you tell me about this? And why would we be swapping out our SentriLock lockboxes already—didn’t we just get these?

Imin U. Gene

Dear IUG:

The reason your coworker cannot give you a date is this: there isn’t one to give! The RMLS™ Board of Directors has discussed the possibility of doing a conversion to SentriLock’s Bluetooth lockboxes but nothing firm has been decided yet. Your view that we “just” transitioned to SentriLock NXT lockboxes is only partly true—it has been 4.5 years since we did our most recent conversion!

In fact, here are a few fun facts about SentriLock at RMLS™:

• Lockboxes currently in distribution at RMLS™: 56,450
• RMLS™ lockboxes per active/pending listing: 3.64 per listing
• Lockboxes per active RMLS™ subscriber: 4.04 per subscriber

That being said, the new SentriLock Bluetooth lockboxes really do offer a lot compared with the NXT lockbox. Two of the biggest benefits are that the lockbox can be opened via the SentriSmart™ app on your smartphone even when you’re out of cell range, as it uses Bluetooth instead of cellular; and many of the lockbox programming functions can be performed using SentriSmart™ instead of your SentriCard®. (If you haven’t started using SentriSmart™ yet, get it on the Apple App Store or Google Play!)

If you have a lockbox that has suffered battery failure, you can simply plug in a “battery jumper pack” into the side of the Bluetooth lockbox to provide the power for it to open. If you’ve ever needed to use the Power Paddle to get an NXT lockbox open after its batteries have died, you’ll realize what a benefit this is!

If this project moves forward, we’ll surely inform RMLS™ subscribers through the RMLSweb desktop page, the RMLS™ Weekly Report, and our blog on RMLScentral. Keep your eyes toward us!

Technical Terry

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear Technical Terry,

Around the water cooler the other day, my coworkers were abuzz about some form of showing appointment system they think is coming to RMLSweb. Is this true or just a rumor? What can you tell me about it?

Nosy in Newberg

Dear Nosy,

The rumor is true! The RMLS™ Technology Committee advised—and the RMLS™ Board of Directors agreed—that ShowingTime should be integrated into RMLSweb. We anticipate the debut of this new product to coincide with the annual forms change—roughly late April or early May.

RMLS™ subscribers will have access to a free, basic version of ShowingTime through RMLSweb. Here are some of the features:

• Listing agents can configure an online appointment calendar for each listing that will display blocks of time when the listing is available to be shown.

• Three settings can be used for a listing. Appointment Required requires an explicit accept/decline from the listing agent or seller for the showing appointment to be finalized. Courtesy Call automatically accepts a scheduling appointment, sending a notification to the listing agent/office staff who then notify the seller of the showing. Go and Show is immediately accepted, also sending a notification to the listing agent but without any seller notification required.

• Basic notifications are sent via email, one-way text messaging, and through alerts on the ShowingTime mobile app.

• ShowingCart allows a showing agent to create a tour of listings using an interactive feature on the site. The agent can then submit all the appointment requests in one group once the order is finalized. The agent can even get driving directions for their client tour!

• Basic showing feedback is solicited.

• Listing activity reports are available.

ShowingTime has tech support available via phone, email, and chat seven days a week. They’ll be offering webinar training to RMLS™ subscribers before ShowingTime goes live on RMLSweb, with a dedicated training site available after the launch with short video tutorials.

ShowingTime will offer a premium subscription version for RMLS™ subscribers to purchase individually. The premium version will have even more tools including options for more detailed showing feedback and brokerage branding.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it, Nosy? Have a look at ShowingTime online so the next time your coworkers are gathered around the water cooler, you’ll be able to teach them a thing or two!

Technical Terry

Dear TT,

I’m so excited to come to this year’s RMLS™ trade fair in Portland! One of my favorite parts of the event is cruising around the trade fair hall entering drawings. I know there’s a trade fair exhibitor list, but will information be posted in advance about the prizes available at the event?

Q. D. McGraw

Dear Q.D.,

I’m so excited to hear you love our annual event so much! I’ve got some bad news for you though—we do not generally release information about prizes in the on-site drawings in advance of the event. There are several reasons for this, including that we often don’t get information about some prizes until a day or two in advance!

Speaking of the prize drawings though, it’s worth noting that the system for entering drawings will change this year. In the past, trade fair attendees could take a map to designated vendors for a stamp and every stamp would earn the attendee one entry into the drawing. If you visited four of the six designated vendors to get a stamp, you could return to the RMLS™ booth and give us four business cards to enter into the raffle bin.

This year, attendees will need to visit every designated vendor on the map to earn one entry. This entry will be valid for all the prize drawings that happen at the RMLS™ info booth. In the above example then, you’d need to visit six vendors to submit one card for the drawings.

Why are we making this change? We want to cut down on wasting the business cards you’ve paid for, for starters. We also wanted to make the prize drawings more streamlined for our staff at the RMLS™ booth as well. Everyone will have an equal chance to win each prize, and by design the prizes will be distributed more evenly among attendees.

We’ve got some higher-value prizes lined up for this year’s drawings, Q.D., so definitely make time in your day to visit the trade fair vendors! And those of you who could care less about drawings, register for classes or our keynote session sooner than later or you could miss out!

T. Terry

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear TT-

I’m hoping you can clear up some questions I have about Prospecting/Auto Email. First, I have a hard time understanding the difference between the two terms. Can you help with that? It seems like they’re used interchangeably and they can’t both mean the same thing! (Can they?) Second, I suspect I’m not setting up my clients correctly because they never seem to get the first set of listings that match the criteria I’ve set up for them. What should I do?

Struggling in Stayton

Dear SS-

I’m happy to help! And I hear you about those two terms being used interchangeably. Let’s start with the term “prospecting.” Prospecting is simply a set of search criteria you’ve saved in RMLSweb in the Prospecting Profile module. In most cases you will name the saved criteria something related to a specific client.

Remember to NOT use your client’s full name here, because if you allow Reverse Prospecting (I know, another confusing term) and your client’s search criteria matches the descriptive elements of a listing being reversed prospected, the subscriber running the reverse prospecting search would be able to see your client’s entire name! Just their name, nothing else, but still probably not a good idea!

Are we good here with that the term “prospecting” means in RMLSweb? Let’s move on.

Now how do I use this set of saved search criteria going forward? In most cases you will associate this Prospecting Profile with a contact in your saved contacts on RMLSweb, and then set up Auto Email, the process whereby RMLSweb searches and automatically sends out listing matches to your client. (Note that you can associate up to five unique contacts per Prospecting Profile!) You could add the client info in Contact Manager (Toolkit->Contact Manager) before or after creating the Prospecting profile—whichever works for you.

Once you’ve chosen a saved contact or created a new contact to add to the Prospecting Profile you can then set up the Auto Email variables. You have a lot of choices here: frequency of delivery, type of client report, whether to CC yourself, customization of the subject line, and so on.

Here’s a key piece of information for you, SS: only new matches will be sent to your client(s) on the day(s) chosen in the Auto Email setup. The initial matches must be selected manually and sent in a separate email message!

Once you have this process set up and running automatically, RMLSweb will alert you of new matches by illuminating the New Prospect Matches button in the upper left corner of the RMLSweb desktop page. You may also be receiving the emails if you chose to CC yourself when setting up the Auto Email. If you did not choose to be copied on the emails you can still view the email history by navigating to Prospecting Profiles, finding the contact name, and clicking “History” in the contact record.

I sure hope this info helps. Remember that we have a variety of documents in RMLSweb covering all of this. The following are particularly excellent resources for your question:

Document 1737: How to Use the Auto Email Feature
Document 1772: Reverse Prospecting
Put RMLSweb to Work for You

Technical Terry

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear Technical Terry,

My clients just asked me for some market statistics. The statistics module on RMLSweb and Market Action are crazy good, but I just need some simple, easy to understand stats. Any ideas?

Simple Statistics in Stayton

Dear SS,

Of course I have some ideas! There are two really easy places to see and/or print some stats that your clients may find compelling.

One: when you run a search and scroll down to the “Detail View” tab in your search results. At the bottom of each section is a nice synopsis of the properties contained within the section, with the sections separated by listing status. Here’s what that section looks like:

Quick and easy—but not easy to print.

If you want to print a simple, yet statistically effective report for your clients choose the “Summary Only” report from your list of report options. Here’s what that simple yet effective report looks like:

The report gives you and your clients great info on some of the basic stats we talk about all the time. Solds, if they are part of your search, even have sale price to list price ratio.

If neither of these options are good for your needs, have a look at the Statistics menu on the main navigation bar. It gives you many options to compile statistics you and your client may find useful, including the statistical summaries documents which compile years worth of Market Action data for each published area within the RMLS™ region.

Technical Terry

Technical Terry!

Do you keep up on the news? It seems REALTORS® are being accosted when performing showings! There seems to be more and more of it happening. I heard that SentriSmart™, the SentriLock app, has a feature for agent safety. What the heck is that, and how does it work?

Terrified in Troutdale

TT!

In fact I do keep up on the news stories about REALTOR® safety issues around the country. While there are many best practices to use to help your safety as a REALTOR®, SentriSmart™ does provide a resource that may provide you confidence in showing vacant homes or homes to new clients.

To access and set up the agent safety feature in SentriSmart™, follow these steps:

• Log in to SentriSmart™ on either your iPhone or Android.
• Go to the Settings option in the app.
• Tap on Agent Safety and enter your PIN.
• From the Agent Safety page, add your emergency contacts by clicking on the blue + sign. The app will access the contacts stored on your phone and allow you to pick one or more contacts to be included in the list of people the app will contact.
• Enable “Automated Safety Check.” Once enabled, SentriSmart™ will send you an alert approximately 90 seconds after you have opened the lockbox key container. If you do not acknowledge the first alert, a second alert will be sent after approximately 60 seconds. If you do not acknowledge the second alert, an email and text message will be sent to the contact(s) you’ve added to your contacts list in the app. If you have several contacts in that list, the app will alert all of them simultaneously about the potential safety concern.
• Tap on Accept to agree to the Release Agreement, then enter your PIN for verification.

Here are samples of the texts you and your list of contacts will receive if you don’t respond to the two notifications.

Hope that this SentriSmart™ feature can help you feel less terrified, Terrified in Troutdale! It’s great that you’re thinking ahead to prepare for safety issues before they occur.

Technical Terry

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear TT:

I finally got around to looking at the Listing View Counts report that I’ve been sending to my clients for some time now. (By the way, thank you for the automatic delivery process!) I am amazed they have not asked me what the heck the various “views” even mean! Surely they’ll ask one of these days and I want to be prepared. How can I explain to them what each of the categories mean?

Count Conundrum in Corvallis

Dear CCC:

You’re not alone—the RMLS™ Help Desk gets this question regularly. We have a couple of documents that do a great job of breaking down the Listing View Counts report for you. How to Use Listing View Counts, Document #1762, and How Listing View Counts are Calculated, Document #1763, are designed to help RMLS™ subscribers understand the report.

In a nutshell, the categories are as follows.

• RMLSweb Detail View: This is the category that covers views from within RMLSweb by REALTOR® subscribers. There are 13 unique reports available within RMLSweb (See Document #1763 above for the full list) that tally in this category. This category also counts any views by REALTOR® subscribers on the RMLSweb mobile site.

• RMLSweb Emailed View: This categories tallies a count any time the “View Report” link is clicked in an email you’ve sent from RMLSweb to a client/consumer.

• RMLS.com Details: This category tallies a count any time the “Detail Report” is clicked on the public-facing RMLS.com website.

• Unique Subscriber Count: This category reflects the number of unique REALTOR® subscribers that have viewed the listing on RMLSweb. If one REALTOR® views the same report ten times, they’ll only be counted as one unique subscriber, but if 100 REALTORS® view the report one time each, the unique subscriber count would be 100.

Don’t forget to take a closer look at those documents linked above. If you still need more detail, the RMLS™ Help Desk can walk you through any of your remaining questions.

Technical Terry in Tigard

Dear Technical Terry,

I understand the RMLS™ rules about not modifying various aspects of our listings once we’ve added them to RMLSweb—but why can’t we modify any information after the listing is sold? There are times when we may need to modify sales agent, etc., and contacting RMLS™ each time seems pretty inefficient. Can you help?

Frustrated Felicia in Fairview

Dear FFF,

I hear you, loud and clear! While there are certain aspects of your listing that cannot be modified after its published on RMLSweb without RMLS™ assistance, the area you mention can be edited after closing. When you are in the Listing Load screen with the listing in question in list format, just click the “CMP” button:

This pop-up screen will appear, allowing you to modify and save any of the data categories you see:

Knowing about the CMP button does allow you to make some changes, which we hope you’ll find convenient. That said, RMLS™ staff are always more than happy to assist with any other changes that need to be made after a listing has sold!

TT

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dearest Technical Terry,

Oh em geeee! I’m atwitter thinking about the upcoming eclipse and how our SentriSmart™ app and SentriLock lockboxes won’t work during that time. I have clients that are convinced that their perfect home can only be discovered during the time of totality! What am I going to do?

Clueless in Coquille

Dearest Clueless,

Not to worry! Not only is Coquille not in the path of totality for this eclipse, but the eclipse will have ZERO bearing on your use of the SentriLock system.  SentriLock’s technology should not be impacted in any way by the solar eclipse.

Traffic, on the other hand? I’m thinking you may just want to pick another day to cruise around looking for your clients’ perfect home. But what do I know? Isn’t the customer always right?

Technical Terry

Dear TT,

I was just discussing days on market with my clients the other day and had a hard time explaining the difference between DOM and CDOM is. Can you help?

Dum DOM in Damascus

DDD,

Of course I can help! Days on market, or DOM, is a standard industry term used to describe the number of days between list date and the off-market date. When you have a listing that simply goes from a single list date to a single off-market date (let’s say in 50 days for an example) the calculation is quite simple. In this example, DOM and CDOM would both be 50 days.

It’s when you have a property that you list for sale, then cancel it, then relist it with a new MLS number that the calculations get a bit trickier.

Picture this: you list a home and after 30 days you haven’t received any offers and the seller wants to do some repairs. You cancel the original listing and then relist once the repairs are done. The second listing gets a new MLS number. When the gap between your cancellation of the first listing and the relisting date is fewer than 31 days, any off-market gap will not be counted in the CDOM calculation.

So if the first listing had 30 days of market time, the time when the listing was off-market for repairs was seven days then the new listing sold/closed in 21 days, the CDOM would be 51 days. This scenario is called linear relisting.

A final scenario is when you have a listing for sale and cancel it to get a new MLS number with NO gap between the cancellation of the first and second listings. In this case, CDOM would reflect the number of days the property was on the market from the original list date of the first listing through the off-market date of the second listing. This is called an overlapping relisting.

Does that help? RMLS™ also offers Document #1742, How CDOM is Calculated, if you want to read further.

TT

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear TT,

I sent one of my new REALTORS® down to RMLS™ in Eugene to join up. They came back and said there’s a new mandatory orientation class that takes four hours to complete! She said there were quizzes and everything! What is up with that? Don’t you realize we REALTORS® are super busy? Why would RMLS™ make us take that much time out of our busy day to attend a stupid orientation class?

Curious in Cottage Grove

Dear CCG,

Great question! RMLS™ complies with the National Association of REALTORS® model rules for MLS operations. Included in those model rules is a carveout of up to eight mandatory training hours for orientation training. That language has been in the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations since its inception. Given the ever-evolving complexity of the real estate world—and frankly, keeping a close eye on the social behavior of our industry—prompted RMLS™ to take a more aggressive role with orientation. The new orientation format is four hours of training content, including some quizzes intended to really galvanize an agent to understand that content. While it may seem like a lot of time for orientation training, I’m confident our new subscribers will realize the benefit many times over.

Technical Terry

Hey TT-

What in the world did you guys do to the RMLSweb mapping system? I logged in one morning and it had totally changed with absolutely NO warning. And now one of the best pieces of the old system is missing, the birds eye view. Why did you mess with it?

Manic Over Mapping

Hey MOM-

The earlier version of maps on RMLSweb was based on a version of Bing map layers and controls that Microsoft announced they would be retiring by the end of June 2017. Microsoft made this announcement in March 2017! That compressed time frame created a challenge for anyone using that version of Bing in their system.

The RMLS™ development team was already knee deep in the forms change project when the announcement was made. They scrambled to come up with a functional replacement in a very short period of time, and that’s what you’re seeing today on RMLSweb.

As for the birds eye view, there is some functionality from the old version of Bing that has yet to be released for the new version. That doesn’t mean it won’t return, it simply means our developers need some additional time to rebuild it for the maps on RMLSweb.

We did try to provide RMLS™ subscribers as much advance notice as we possibly could. We had an overview video available through an article on the RMLSweb desktop a week prior to the switch, as well as an overview on our blog that was featured in the RMLS™ Weekly Report before the switch. We’re sorry to hear these didn’t reach your eyes in time, but we’re confident that the new tools provided by Microsoft will result in a better mapping experience in the near future.

TT

Ask Technical Terry is a series RMLS™ aims to offer once a month. RMLS™ subscribers will drive the content—submit any question about RMLS™ to Technical Terry in the comments or by emailing communications@rmls.com. Don’t be shy—we won’t identify you by name.

Dear TT,

I am SOOOOOO frustrated! I was watching a property using the new Watch List feature on RMLSweb. I have a client that was interested in purchasing it if it ever hit the market again. Well I found out today that not only did it come on the market but it’s already pending! What gives? Why was I not notified? I have a very upset buyer!

Watching for Nothing

Dear WfN:

You did not mention how you were watching the property—MLS number or Tax ID—but based on what happened, I suspect that you were watching the MLS number for an off-market record of the property.

The way Watch List works, it’s looking for activity on either the MLS number or Tax ID. Since the MLS number you were watching was off-market it would never have any additional activity to trigger a Watch List notification. You should always watch the Tax ID number if the property is in some off-market status. That way if the property is relisted, you will be notified immediately.

Sorry to hear about your lost sale, WfN! Now that you know the crucial difference between watching a MLS number and a Tax ID, I’ll bet you’ll never have this issue again.

Technical Terry

Hello Technical Terry-

The other day I got my very first Watch List notification—a property on the Oregon Coast that had just gone on the market. The only trouble is, I don’t know why I was watching it! Was I just testing the system? Was it for a past client who was looking for a vacation home? Was it for a prospective client? I just don’t remember! Can RMLS™ help?

Laurie in LO

“L-O,” Laurie! (See what I did there?)—

One enhancement request we’ve heard from more than a few RMLS™ subscribers is to add a notes field for each Watch List item. Any notes the user enters could help jog his or her memory about why the property is on the list. If the Tax ID number you’re watching comes back on the market in two years (or more!), will you remember why you were interested in it? Other RMLS™ subscribers have expressed their desire for some kind of reference point.

Our development team has been super busy lately with the RMLSweb forms change project and the new mapping module but once they get some breathing room I suspect you’ll see this feature added to Watch List.

Terry on the WWW

Greetings, Technical Terry:

I’m new to RMLS™—I just moved to the Portland area from Arizona. Can you tell me about how the rules are different at RMLS™ compared to the market where I spent the last ten years? One of my coworkers told me that branded tour videos aren’t allowed on RMLSweb which is much different than what I’m used to. Where do I start to learn how things work in my new market?

Eager Beaver

Greetings, Eager Beaver:

Welcome to the Pacific northwest! And what a refreshing, proactive approach to learning about your new market. It’s true, Section 3.24 of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations prohibits personal advertising and branding in listing information, which includes video and virtual tours—so your education is already underway.

If you’re specifically looking for a rundown on RMLS™ rules, I’d recommend attending the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations class offered at RMLS™ offices. If one of the scheduled classes is inconvenient for you, RMLS™ trainers can also come to an office meeting to present a class! Just email training@rmls.com or call (503) 236-7657 to set up an appointment.

Even after you take the class the RMLS™ Data Accuracy team is here to help you navigate the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations. They field questions from RMLS™ subscribers every day about the rules and the listing data on RMLSweb. They can be reached via email at dataaccuracy@rmls.com or call (503) 236-7657.

That should be enough to get you started, Eager Beaver, but I would be remiss if I didn’t gently suggest having a thorough read of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations yourself to see what you find. A direct link to the document can be found on the RMLSweb desktop page under the Links menu in the left sidebar. You’ll be an expert on your new market in no time!

Technical Terry