Florence, Oregon – Forests, Lakes and Rivers, Oh My!

Florence sits at the mouth of the Siuslaw River on the central Oregon coast midway between Newport and Coos Bay.  The area offers an amazing array of outdoor recreation opportunities. There are sparkling lakes, a river, evergreen forests, the Pacific Ocean and sand dunes. Just north of town 40 miles of wind-sculpted dunes are part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. This region offers everything from dune buggy tours, kayaking the river or ocean, riding horses on the beach, bird watching to hiking.

Old town Florence is located immediately east of Highway 101 and the historic Siuslaw River Bridge. Here visitors can find various shops including art galleries, restaurants, antiques, gifts, ice cream and other specialty foods.

RMLS™ is proud to have subscribers in Florence, Oregon and Lane County. Subscribers can contact Andrea Milbrett our Subscriber Relations Representative in the Florence RMLS™ office at 541-902-2560.

Insider’s tip:  Andrea recommends Ixtapa Mexican Restaurant in Florence directly north of the main intersection on Highway 101.

Photos courtesy of the Florence Chamber of Commerce.




Fair Housing Welcomes Everyone

By Mary-Frances Makichen, RMLS™ Communications Specialist

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of participating as a judge for the Fair Housing Council of Oregon’s (FHCO) annual poster contest. This annual contest is open to children in first through eighth grade. Entry is free and prizes are awarded for the winning submissions. The theme this year was, “Fair Housing Welcomes Everyone.”

It was amazing to see all the creativity that kids poured into their entries. Better yet, it was fun to note that kids want fair housing for everyone including dogs, cats, rabbits and turtles. It’s gratifying that this contest gets children thinking about the idea of fair housing and inclusiveness at an early age.

This was the first time I had judged the contest but many of the other judges have done so for years. In the course of our time together they talked about how even many adults don’t understand the mission of FHCO.

Here is a brief description of the work carried out by FHCO in their own words:

The Fair Housing Council of Oregon (FHCO) is a statewide civil rights organization whose mission is to eliminate housing discrimination through access to enforcement and education. We are a nonprofit corporation, not a governmental agency.

We promote equal access to housing by providing education, outreach, technical assistance, and enforcement opportunities specifically related to federal, state, and local fair housing laws.

In the end we were all very pleased with the grand prize winner that was chosen. If you want to know more about FHCO please visit www.fhco.org




RMLS™ Rules and Regulations Quiz: Do You Know The Answers?

Take our most recent 5-question quiz to see if you know your Rules and Regs information!

Every so often, we publish an RMLS™ Rules and Regulations quiz on the RMLSweb Desktop. We thought we’d also post them here on the blog! Test your knowledge by taking our interactive quiz! Click on the play button on the image below, or take the quiz by clicking here.

Want to brush up on your RMLS™ Rules and Regulations knowledge? Click here to view the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations Document # 1450.

Questions? Please send an email to rules@rmls.com or go to the Questions/Comments section in Toolkit on the RMLSweb desktop page (choose the Rules and Regulations subject) if you have any questions or concerns regarding Rules and Regulations or data accuracy.




Why RMLS™ is Like a Thanksgiving Dinner

As Thanksgiving approaches, I inevitably begin to focus more and more on one concept: FOOD. I know I can’t be the only one who spends the Monday through Wednesday before Thanksgiving (and let’s face it, most of Thursday) in drooling agony, visions of drumsticks and slices of pie dancing through my head. So forgive this post’s extended metaphor, wherein I try to put off my hunger pangs by describing how RMLS™ is like a classic Thanksgiving dinner.

The turkey = The relationship between RMLS™ and subscribers. Much like the turkey is the end-all, be-all of Thanksgiving dinner (sorry, vegetarians and vegans), the relationships we build with our subscribers make up the centerpiece of RMLS™, which in turn help our subscribers connect their clients with their dream properties. We couldn’t be more thankful for all of our subscribers, and we’re sure your clients would agree.

The stuffing = Subscribers who serve. Stuffing provides volume and flavor to the turkey, just like RMLS™ is greatly helped by the generous REALTOR® subscribers who donate their time and efforts to our Board of Directors, Service Advisory Committee, Technology Committee, Forms Committee, Rules & Regulations Committee, and any other task forces as needed.

Mashed potatoes = Your suggestions and feedback. In my opinion, no Thanksgiving dinner goes down easily without mashed potatoes and similarly, your feedback helps greatly improve RMLS™. Your suggestions and comments reflect the wide variety of our subscriber base, the same way everyone has a different concept of the perfect mashed potatoes, whether they’re smooth, chunky, garlic or smothered in gravy. Our Subscriber Satisfaction Survey (ends Wednesday, November 24!) provides us with some of the best insights into what you are thinking, and we love your honesty in helping make our service even better. We also love getting suggestions through RMLSweb (just click on “Questions/Comments” under the “Toolkit” toolbar) and we always take these comments into consideration when deciding on future improvements.

Gravy = Connecting with RMLS™. I like to pour gravy over my whole plate, tying all the dishes together; similarly, your various ways of connecting with us help us to bridge the gap between RMLS™ and its subscribers. Through comments on this blog, Twitter or our Facebook page, and interactions via email and phone calls to the Help Desk, we love having a two-way conversation with our subscribers!

Cranberry sauce = Your patience. Although I have never, ever liked cranberry sauce, it would not be Thanksgiving dinner without a can-shaped, red blob in the middle of the table. Similarly, your consistent patience with us as we strive to make improvements, respond to your questions and requests, and the (hopefully rare) occasions where something just happens to go wrong are greatly appreciated.

Apple pie = Events! Much like a spectacular dessert at the end of a delicious meal, we love interacting personally with subscribers at various events such as our free classes or our RMLS™ Trade Fair (exhibitor registration now open!). We look forward to seeing many more of you in the coming new year!

Loose metaphors aside, everyone here at RMLS™ is extremely thankful for all of our subscribers and the passion, excitement, and varying perspectives you all provide. We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and may your dinner tables be filled with delicious food and joyful company.




Thanks for the Inspiring CMA Success Stories!

Check out these other great stories submitted to our contest

Last week, we chose Jessica LeDoux’s story as the winner of our CMA Success Story Contest. We also highlighted Mark Jones’ story for its ability to make us laugh. With so many other wonderful entries, we decided to share them with you. Here they are:

“We had a listing appointment to list a home.  We prepared the CMA report using the new and improved CMA program found in the RMLS™ Toolkit.  It has some exciting features such as pulling data from previous MLS numbers to populate and reference various cells.  It also saves the current data as you go through the process.  Our clients were impressed with our report.  It has a professional cover with a picture of their home. The report now has a bar graph that is easily understood instead of the scatter graph.  Our clients were very pleased with our report.  They told us that the other agents they had interviewed had only provided flyers from the info boxes on houses for sale in the neighborhood.  Using the new CMA program was not only easy but, as you know, first impressions are very important.  Needless to say, we got the listing.  This has been one of the best improvements made to RMLS™,  our thanks to those who took the time and created such a great real estate tool.”

Sherrill and Eric Lincoln
Oregon Realty Co.

“I wanted to commend you on the new CMA. I have used it seven times already with much success! It is very well put together and adds the extra professionalism you need when asking for the clients listing business and to show clients what the market research is saying about housing prices in their specific area.

I completed one on short notice on Saturday, June 26, after looking at the home on Friday. By showing her the CMA I prepared, complete with graph; she gave me  full price offer, with no closing costs, additions, or repairs. I was able to show her the home was worth full price; and asked her if she would be upset if someone came in at full price, and she offered 5k less. This was a total validation effort gone right!

In another instance, this week I used the new CMA for a past and “to be a repeat listing client” who needed back up for a loan modification request. With all the floor plans the same as hers, most were in short sale status in her community. We added the occupancy issues, kept up landscaping, current HOA dues no liens, and additional garage. This brought her home value up 20k, by noting the short sales, empty homes, no yard maintenance and stripped interiors. I believe this and the list price letter helped them receive an answer swiftly. Thanks for the effort in creating this valuable tool!”

Marleen Sperr
Keller Williams Premier Partners

“I used the new CMA when I was preparing for a new client, an investor. I needed to gather comparables nearby very quickly as he was deciding whether or not to make a bid on an auction property. Even though I hadn’t used it before, I decided to give it a try and see the changes. I found the new form to be easy to use and impressive in formatting.

With the new format, I was able to show that the property would be a good investment as the surrounding area supported the price he was considering and, my client was very happy that he received such a detailed report in just an hour’s time. He told me that even though he decided to pass on this property (his partner was out of town and couldn’t see it) he would like to continue working with me as I was the only Realtor able to gain access to the property and, gave him good resources to make decisions on!

I have also prepared the CMA for a new client for a listing and my client liked how well organized the material was for them to see the price range suggested. Thank you for the wonderful new CMA, it was a breeze to work with and a big improvement in the flow and format.”

Carol M. West
ReMax Equity Group, Inc.

“I received a call late on June 29th from a person needing to sell their mother’s home. She had recently driven her car through the garage door and on into the kitchen. Her kids understandably want to get her into supervised living right away as she has early Alzheimer’s. I know the area and house like the back of my hand and so I felt comfortable doing a CMA to take along on that first appointment. I got on RMLSweb and checked the new CMA even though I didn’t have a lot of time. I was delighted how easy it was. I just breezed through it, printed it and got home 1 hour ago with the new signed listing in my hand. Thank you RMLS™. I think the new CMA is great!”

Laurie Evans Mischel

“I initially was attempting to use Prudential’s system to input a CMA, until I became very frustrated when after uploading photos for my client and then creating the report, the photos were not included on the report. Being persistent I kept trying without using any help buttons, because I can usually figure things out quicker by observation and database experience. My attempts ended in frustration, so I turned to RMLS™, since in the past I have created CMA’s in their system. I found the new CMA process very user friendly and had no issues…although it would be nice to have the option of additional photos on the cover page. I didn’t actually experiment much since by that time I just wanted to get a complete CMA sent to my client without wasting anymore time, so maybe you can!!”

Kathleen Griffin
Prudential Northwest Properties

“I love it, I do a lot of REO and BPO work and the banks are now requiring an upload of a one page CMA. I used to have to do it in excel and since I am not that good at excel it took HOURS! With the new program I just load the three active and three sold MLS # into the MLS# page hit new CMA and the first page is exactly what I need, I save it to a PDF and load it. I also like the fact it has no contact info on that page so I can pass it around! Thanks!”

Leigh Golson

“My landscaper told me that the owner of a house in our neighborhood was in the process of preparing their house for sale and that he didn’t think she had an agent yet.  I logged onto RMLSweb, clicked on the new CMA tool link, and quickly put together a reasonably comprehensive CMA for the surrounding area.  I like the fact that the user interface is very clean, clear and concise, and I was able to get the report done in a fraction of the time that the old report took.  I dropped by my neighbor’s house later that day with the CMA report, a business card, and a listing agreement and now I have one more house in my inventory to sell.”

Jeff Bob

“I first tried the new CMA and thought it was way too complicated so I opted for the old one. I was preparing a CMA for a rural property and the lot sized really mattered. I finished the old one and remembered the lot sizes were not included so it was rather useless. This forced me to the new one which includes the lot size in the comparables. I was able to pick and choose what I wanted to fill out for my clients needs and was done in no time. My clients thought it was very helpful. I would recommend making the plunge and checking the new one out!”

Marilyn Cooley
Coldwell Banker, BSSP

“I recently saw the new CMA module, so I thought I’d check it out. Timing was perfect. I discovered a home that was foreclosed on recently by a bank client. So, I set up a profile for the bank & did a preliminary CMA on the home. The bank then asked me for a CMA on this lot they own, and I simply went in and created it, using the bank’s profile. It took me all of 15 minutes as the new program was so much easier to use, and allowed the ability to save the CMA, thus allowing further tweaking if I missed something. I forwarded it to the client. Then, I further refined the foreclosed home and added some relevant comps, and sent it in too. Had it been with the old CMA program, I’d have had to start over the 2nd time around. The bank seemed pleased with the work.”

Eugene Lew
RE/MAX Equity Group, Inc.

“Hello  just wanted to let you know a great story about the new CMA system. I am in the process of a short sale with HSBC Bank and the negotiator said they wanted 220 from an old BPO.  I told them that was old and there was only 4 sales in the radius of .25 miles that are at a lower amount. The bank said to send over a CMA for the property. So I used the new CMA system and printed it out and faxed it over to HSBC. The new graphs and charts showing how we were at the top of the range worked. I got approval within 24 hours. I can not believe how fast that was. I like the new CMA it is so easy to use and also shows very well to a bank or at a listing appointment. This is just my little story.”

Gary Horton
RE/MAX Signature Properties

“I’ll make this short and sweet and to the point. I used the new CMA and was impressed at how easy it was to use. Also I love that it saves your work and allows you to go back and get more information without losing all your hours of hard work.”

Patty Aubert

“We recently used your New CMA Unit to provide our sellers with new comps in order to get a price reduction on their home, it worked after seeing the new comps they said yes to a new list price…thanks.”

Don Love

“I am considered as a fairly new real estate agent. I have knowledge about properties and real estate but I was so troubled when my clients asked me to prepare comp reports for them.  In order to provide a very well prepared and thorough comp report, I had to visit different websites to obtain detailed information about each property. It usually took me about one or two whole day to prepare a report with only 3 to 5 properties to compare with.

Now with RMLS’ help by creating the CMA tool, it really saves me so much time so I can spend more time on taking care of more clients.  I can now enter the information about the subject property, the tool then generates tones of properties that are comparable to the subject property.  With the list, I can easily browse through and change any specification if necessary and only select the ones I think that most fit my clients needs.  I can also add information about my experience and any other information I would like my clients to know about in one single report.  It is just one click away – a complete and professional looking report is created and ready to be sent to serve my client.”

Shih-Han Lu
Keller Williams/PDX Central




Winner Chosen for the CMA Success Story Contest

Thanks to everyone who submitted entries into our contest

We received many uplifting stories about the new RMLSweb CMA feature. RMLS™ staff who worked on the development of the new CMA were delighted to read all of your positive experiences.

The winner of the contest is Jessica LeDoux, a broker for RE/MAX Signature Properties. This is her CMA success story:

“Prior to the new CMA tool RMLS™ has created for us I would use two systems to generate a report.  So needless to say I was eager to try this out and see if it would replace the system I am paying additional for.  I watched the short video and got very excited to try it.  Once the program was released I opened it up and started on two CMA reports.  The program worked just as stated and was streamlined into a very user friendly system.  With little to no frustration I created two very professional looking CMA reports.  That next morning I headed to my clients home to present my report and they were more than pleased with the format, professional look, and me!  Here is their comment…

‘I appreciate your help and the work you did was fantastic!’

The system was fast, effective, and easy to use!  Oh and by the way I got the listing!”

Jessica LeDoux

In addition, we decided to give an unexpected honorable mention to the funniest story that we received. Mark Jones of Mal & Seitz sent in this submission that gave us a laugh:

“I had incredible results. I gave a listing presentation that seemed to be going nowhere until I rolled out the new CMA report. I was awarded the listing despite their concerns of my inappropriate language, my commission rate of 15%, and my crayon renditions of the property. (I forgot my camera). I hope they find their Persian cat I accidently let out. What a great tool!! Kudos to our new CMA report.”

Mark Jones

We will be publishing the rest of the success stories in a later blog post. If you would like more information about the new RMLSweb CMA, view these tutorials:

  • CMA Overview
  • Accessing the CMA
  • How to Use Radius Search
  • User Preferences
  • Adding Comparables and Making Adjustments
  • Creating a CMA Profile
  • Customizing your CMA Report
  • Entering Subject Property Information
  • Or, print out our Creating a New CMA in RMLSweb quick reference guide. Thanks again for all of the positive CMA stories!




    CMA Success Story Contest

    Enter to win one month of free RMLS™ dues!

    We’ve noticed that several of you have been using the new RMLSweb Comparative Market Analysis and we’d like to hear about what’s working for you.

    Send us your success story about how you have used the new CMA  and you can win one month of free RMLS™ dues and your story will be featured on our blog!  There will be only one lucky winner, but any additional submissions that we find inspiring will be compiled into a blog post at a later date.

    Details of the contest:

    • Entry is a story about how you have successfully used CMA
    • Your story can be a maximum of 200 words
    • Type your entry into the body of an email
    • Submit your entry via email to communications@rmls.com
    • Must be submitted by June 30th, 2010
    • Winner will be notified by July 1st, 2010
    • All submissions may be published by RMLS™ at later date

    In case you didn’t know that we recently released a new CMA, here is some information about our new, transformed CMA report feature. View our tutorials below:

    Or, print out our Creating a New CMA in RMLSweb quick reference guide.

    Thanks and we look forward to seeing your submissions for our contest!




    Holiday Greetings from RMLS

    Happy Holidays to all of our subscribers & friends in the real estate world!

    We’re thankful to be working with a great network of 12,000+ Realtors® and real estate professionals in Oregon & Southern Washington. Thank you for all you do & for helping so many people “be home for Christmas” this year.

    Warmest wishes this holiday season and cheers to a wonderful 2010!

    RMLS™ Holiday Schedule

    All RMLS™ offices will be closed for Christmas on December 25 and for New Year’s Day on January 1. Some of the RMLS™ offices will also be closed for an additional day around the holidays.

    Closed December 24: Hood River, Coos County, Curry County

    Closed December 31:Eastern Oregon

    Closed January 4: Florence

    The RMLS™ Help Desk will also be closed Saturday, December 26 and Saturday, January 2. Should you need to report an emergency during this time, please call our Corporate Office (503-236-7657 in Portland, 877-256-2169 outside of Portland) and select the “Emergency” menu option and a technician will contact you shortly.




    Are You Disclosing Your Disclosures on RMLSweb?

    Only 16% of Listings in RMLSweb Have Documents Attached

    When entering a listing in RMLSweb you can attach up to five PDFs of documents that would be useful to other agents such as:

    • Lead Paint Disclosures
    • Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions
    • Floor Plans
    • Feature Sheets
    • Platt Maps

    It’s pretty simple to do and we’ve been told that it’s incredibly important to provide this information, but it appears that only a handful of agents are using this feature of RMLSweb. In fact, only 16% of active listings have documents attached.

    We’re curious why that number is so low. Are any of those 6,500 listings yours? If so, what kinds of documents do you normally attach? If not, why don’t you use it? How do you share that information with your fellow agents? Leave a comment below and let us know.




    Thank You.

    It’s our favorite time of year, a time for family, succulent turkey, delicious pies, stuffing… well, we could get carried away about the food… more importantly, though, it’s a time to give thanks.

    To our subscribers, we want to thank you for:

    Cooperation. The network of more than 12,000 real estate professionals that subscribe to RMLS™ have assisted 31,122 people in Oregon and Washington with a real estate transaction in 2009.

    Your feedback. You’ve provided lots of feedback about our services this year. We received more than 2,100 responses alone in our first ever customer satisfaction survey. While we evaluate the survey results, we encourage you to continue to provide feedback and suggestions on RMLSweb – just scroll over Toolkit and click on Questions/Comments. We serve a diverse group of customers, each with unique business needs. While it might not always be possible to meet each need, we’re doing our best to listen to all of your ideas and work toward making them a reality.

    Your patience. We’re proud to say that, aside from planned outages, RMLSweb has officially been available 99.9% of the time this year. But sometimes we have to close up shop to make changes or additions and, on rare occasions, something goes wrong. Thanks for understanding when we aren’t available for you.

    Our subscribers who serve. RMLS™ Realtor®-subscribers comprise our Board of Directors, Service Advisory Committee, Technology Committee, Forms Committee and Rules & Regulations Committee and also serve on other task forces as needed. Thank you to all who generously contribute their time and efforts to helping guide our decisions.

    Reading this blog. We’ve had over 10,000 visits since we launched this blog in June and we’re starting to have some great conversation about RMLS™, market trends and other industry news. Thanks also to the hundreds of followers and fans of our Twitter & Facebook accounts. We hope you’ll continue to make these a part of your online activities and that you’ll join in the conversation.

    Attending our classes and events. Approximately 4,000 of you have chosen to take an RMLS™ class or have attended an RMLS™ Trade Fair this year. We hope that you’ll continue to take advantage of these free educational opportunities.

    We’re thankful for being able to work with such a great community of Realtors® and real estate professionals and we wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving and holiday season!

    Photo courtesy of Jennifer Dickert, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.