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,

RMLS™ has done a great job finding products that provide great benefit to its REALTOR® subscribers, but at times it seems like there are just too many options! It seems like we have new tools to learn on a daily basis. Just recently I went to a training session for a new product called Remine, and now I understand there is another product coming soon called Homesnap. Can you tell me why I would choose one over the other? What are the differences?

Overloaded in Orenco

Dear OO,

Understood completely! It’s not just you—it’s even a challenge for our support and training staff to keep abreast of the rapid pace of innovation around RMLS™ these days.

Here’s a brief overview of the products you mention above.

Homesnap Pro

Homesnap Pro combines agent-only MLS data on a web portal with a mobile app for use in the field.

• Provides real-time information to agents on the go, giving them the flexibility to research homes, interact with each other, and collaborate with clients from their mobile devices. Agents and consumers can use the same platform to seamlessly share real estate information and communicate directly.
• Additional features of Homesnap Pro include real-time access to agent-only MLS information, information about any home, messaging with clients and agents, customized email marketing, CMA generation from a mobile device, and information about other agents.

Remine

Remine provides some of the same capabilities as Homesnap, but it really excels more for data mining. This means Remine provides users the ability to “watch” homes, neighborhoods, and people to best understand market motivation. Users can use this data to scientifically allocate marketing efforts toward specific properties or people that indicate potential motivation.

Remine has three main components on its app: Discover, Track, and Engage.

• Discover: This is the map, where you can use layers to narrow down properties you want to target and set up farming areas to find opportunities.
• Track: This is the list of properties and people you’re tracking. You can upload contacts to track data that will help you prioritize who you should reach out to, and when to reach out. You can use this page to export spreadsheets to use for mailers, call lists, or email campaigns.
• Engage: This is your client dashboard, where you can keep track of your clients’ activities, invite new clients, and manage your leads.

Both Homesnap and Remine provide great benefits, but they have different strenghts. Homesnap provides great tools to engage clients, and Remine specializes in farming activities. Both products have amazing support portals available, containing plenty of how-tos in both written and video formats, there to help you decide which might work best for you.

The RMLS™ trainers are developing classes for both products, so keep your eyes on your local training calendar in the coming months!

TT

Hey Ask Technical Terry!

Homesnap seems like it’s going to be great for my workflow and working with my clients! My assistant told me that RMLS.com will be going away because of Homesnap—is this true?

Snappin’ for Homesnap

Hey Snappin’!

It is true: RMLS.com will redirect to Homesnap’s Broker Public Portal once RMLS™ rolls out the project on May 7th! We recently published a video about the change:

It’ll be a big change, but one that we think will better serve our REALTOR® subscribers and their clients. We can’t wait to hear what you think once Homesnap is live!

Ask Technical Terry

There’s a lot to like about Homesnap, an app coming to RMLS™ subscribers on May 7th. RMLS™ subscribers will get free pro-level access to Homesnap, which includes features like a broker-client portal to facilitate communications about listings, unique client-facing materials, and convenient tools giving brokers access to a gold mine of aggregated data.

HOMESNAP FEATURES

Homesnap’s broker-client portal will facilitate communications about listings. Brokers and clients will be able to connect, access real-time data about RMLSweb listings, send specific listings to each other, and converse about all of it.

Brokers will be able to use Homesnap to generate specialized, branded market reports for clients, post branded ads on social websites, and even create Homesnap stories for your Homesnap listings.

If that’s not enough, Homesnap users will also have access to handy tools that utilize the wealth of Homesnap’s aggregated data to make their job easier. Homesnap can guide users in walking a property line, using augmented reality technology. The app may even be used to research information about off-market listings if needed.

RMLS.COM BECOMES HOMESNAP

Homesnap will replace RMLS.com, the website that currently provides public access to RMLSweb listings. Once Homesnap is launched, the RMLS.com URL will redirect automatically to Homesnap. Leads generated through Homesnap public access will be passed to RMLS™ subscribers at no cost.

MORE COMING SOON

Look for more information about Homesnap from RMLS™ closer to the launch date on May 7th. In the meantime, Homesnap is offering training in May to give brokers a head start on using this exciting new platform. Register for one of the following training options:

• Portland (May 8th)
• Vancouver (May 8th)
• Eugene (May 9th)
• Webinar (May 13-14th)

RMLS™ is excited to offer Homesnap access at a pro level to all subscribers, and we think you’ll be as excited about its capabilities as we are. As we approach the launch date, keep your eye out for more details from RMLS™.

UPDATE (May 1):

MLS Insight is a series about how things work at RMLS™.

At their annual leadership retreat, the RMLS™ Board of Directors reviewed a list of potential projects and prioritized those they believe will have the best benefit for RMLS™ subscribers. Following is a brief description of the three projects that will get the attention of our software development team this year along with a fourth that will be scheduled if possible. The forms changes approved in 2015 are also in the works.

Watch List: This project will create a new feature on RMLSweb enabling subscribers to add individual listings to a “shopping cart” and receive push notifications when the status or a price change occurs. Potential scope includes ability to tag tax parcel records for notification when a listing is published.

Mobile Innovation Project: This project will utilize information available in a mobile device – photos, GPS, etc. – to create a property profile for use in creating CMAs, running reverse prospecting searches, and starting an in-progress listing in RMLSweb.

Frequency of Auto-Emails: This project will re-engineer auto-emails to reliably run the entire process within an hour. As part of this project, subscribers should be able to refine the frequency at which auto-emails are sent to individual clients.

Facebook Integration: This project will allow subscribers to easily post their own listings to Facebook, and will also fix formatting problems for mobile devices when RMLS.com listings are shared to Facebook.

If you have questions on any RMLS™-related topic that you would like to have answered, I encourage you to post a comment.

Are you ready to connect with fellow REALTORS® more easily using RMLSweb? RMLS™ is about to unleash improvements to the RMLSweb roster designed to make your work easier!

In August, the RMLS™ Board of Directors voted to integrate links from RMLS™ websites to REALTOR® agent profiles on Realtor.com. On Thursday, January 28th, RMLS™ will debut the first step in this process when it releases some improvements to RMLSweb roster pages.

Agent Full Reports

While viewing an Agent Full report on RMLSweb, clicking the agent’s name will open a pop-up displaying the broker’s roster information, including a link to their Realtor.com profile. Roster information will also include the license number of both the agent and their office. RMLS™ has added these fields so subscribers may find this information easily for use in various transaction documents.

Once these improvements are live, subscribers should double-check their license number and other information displayed in the roster. If the license number displayed is incorrect, contact the RMLS™ Front Desk for assistance.

Agent or Office Search

Looking for contact information for a specific agent or office? Use the MLS Roster tab on RMLSweb to search for an agent or office. Subscribers may now search for agents by language, designation, or email address!

Coming ahead, RMLS.com—the RMLS™ website for consumers to browse listings—will see the Find a REALTOR® feature improved as well. Consumers coming to the site will be able to find REALTORS® based on the current criteria with added languages and designations. Links to Realtor.com profiles will be available for prospective clients as well.

Don’t have your Realtor.com profile set up yet? Head over to the REALTOR® profile page quick start guide and get set up today!

New features and enhancements to RMLSweb are implemented regularly, including during our monthly scheduled outages.

Here are some of the changes we implemented in February to improve the site for subscribers…

Map Checked Switched to Bing Maps

RMLS™ is continuing to switch its map systems over to Bing Maps, and this month we’ve integrated Bing with the map checked feature of RMLSweb.

This means that when plotting multiple listings on a map for a client tour, the map will match other mapping features on RMLSweb and their enhanced map performance.

This is the third of a series of five rollovers into Bing. Our final two changes will be to switch the Listing Load mapping module to Bing, followed by switching Map Search. Look for the complete transformation in coming months!

RMLS™ Inventory on Desktop

Perhaps you’ve already noticed this new feature on the left sidebar of the RMLSweb desktop: we’ve added a feature showcasing collective listing data. In a glance, subscribers can see just how many active listings are in RMLSweb, the number of sold listings for the last 12 months, the dollar value those listings represent, and the total number of listings in the system. The numbers are updated daily.

Shorter Session Times

Starting this week, subscribers logging in to RMLSweb will be automatically logged out after 90 minutes of inactivity. This is a shorter session time than the site had previously (four hours), but we’re making the change based on some of the initial findings of our unauthorized access project on RMLSweb.

We’ve also got some exciting developments coming soon in March…

Chat with RMLS™

We will be adding a new way to contact RMLS™—chat! Access RMLS™ staff online by clicking the chat button at the top of the right sidebar. A chat window will open, and staff will assist you shortly.

Representatives from Help Desk, Training, Accounting, and Front Desk/Membership will be available during normal RMLS™ business hours. During the times when no staff is available, the pop-up window will allow you to send an email, and a representative will be in touch as soon as possible.

RMLS.com Facelift

Our client-facing website, RMLS.com, will have a new look starting March 5th! We think you’ll like what you see. Besides the new look, consumers will now be able to search listings by either an address or MLS number.

As Gail Hare, Executive Vice President, posted last week, the RMLS™ Board of Directors recently made tablet and browser compatibility for RMLSweb the number one priority for our technical team this year. Look to the RMLS Blog and RMLSweb desktop for updates as that major project progresses.

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.

Starting December 6th, listing agents will be required to upload at least one photo in Listing Load before a new listing can be published on RMLSweb.

Agents working with sellers who wish to omit photographs from their listings will need to indicate that preference on Listing Load. In an in-progress listing, click “Edit” in the Photo field. The Photo Manager will open, then click on “Seller Requires Photo Omission.”

Agents who publish a listing using the “Seller Requires Photo Omission” option will be required to then provide a Photograph Omission Form or equivalent to RMLS™ within 72 hours after the listing is published. If the RMLS™ Rules Department does not receive the form, they will follow up with the listing agent via email. Listings where the seller has omitted a photo will show a “Photo Omitted by Seller” image.

If a listing is published with a photo omission but the seller changes their mind, an agent can still upload photo(s). Navigate to Photo Manager, then click “Cancel Photo Omitted by Seller and Replace Image with First Photo,” as shown below.

As part of this change, RMLS™ will also be phasing out its service of uploading photos emailed to photos@rmls.com.

Photography is crucial in selling properties, and RMLS™ recognizes the need for this data in the publishing process. RMLSweb listings appear on many other websites (including RMLS.com, REALTOR.com, and IDX sites). This change ensures both the photo(s) and data will be available for websites when new listings are published.

View the amended sections of the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations for more information. If you have any questions regarding these changes, contact Help Desk at helpdesk@rmls.com or by phone at (503) 872-8002, or toll free at (877) 256-2169.

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