Update (October 2, 2009): We are still experiencing intermittent shortages of ActiveKEY supplies at several offices, please check RMLSweb for the latest information.

Unfortunately, due to a parts shortage at Supra, we currently have no supply of ActiveKEYs at our Portland office. We are working to obtain inventory as soon as possible. In the meantime, if you’re in the Portland area please call the RMLS™ Front Desk at 503-236-7657 if you need a new key at this time, and we’ll do our best to find a solution for you.

If you’re in a real bind, like you’ve lost your ActiveKEY or it is broken and we can’t find a solution for you right away, remember that according to the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations:

(The) Participant Broker in each office shall be allowed to loan his or her personal lockbox key to RMLS™ subscriber keyholders within such office. While on loan, the full responsibility for use of the key, including compliance with all Rules, remains with the Participant Broker. The purpose of this exception is to accommodate occasional needs created when a subscriber keyholder’s own key is temporarily unusable.

In case you don’t know, the “participant broker” at your office is the person who is responsible for all of your office’s dealings with us.

So, to put this all in more general terms: the participant broker at your office can lend his or her key to you in emergency situations, keeping in mind that if anything happens, the responsibility lies with the participant broker.

We’ve added a new Keyword Search to our Forms & Documents menu on RMLSweb. Our Forms & Documents menu has always been filled with lots of useful information, along with  the documents that you need in your day-to-day business.

Now, instead of navigating through a list of folders, you can type in a keyword and search! Here’s a short demonstration:

In addition to the Keyword Search, you can also browse by Tags or by the old “folder”-style organization. Oh, and you can also search the archives of Newsletter articles as well (we’ll have more on that later!).

As we previewed in an earlier post, to help you handle short sales more efficiently and to help the other types of properties that require 3rd Party approval to get fair exposure, we’ve added Short Sale Yes/No and Short Sale Offer (Seller Accepted; Submitted for Approval) Yes/No to Listing Load.

Watch this short tutorial to learn more about how to use these two new fields.

For more information on short sales see the National Association of Realtors Short Sale Field Guide.

Later this month, we’ll be adding a feature to RMLSweb that allows you to search our Forms & Documents menu by entering keywords or phrases like “short addendum” or “listing abbreviations.” We’ll post more information about this new keyword search soon.

Short video shows why RMLS™ subscribers should keep their ActiveKEYs out of the heat this week

We’re going to have some serious heat in most of Oregon & Southwest Washington this week. As you try to stay cool in the hot weather, keep in mind this friendly ActiveKEY battery tip from Supra:

“Temperature extremes can affect battery performance. If the ActiveKEY is below 0° C (32° F) or above 40 ° C (104° F), it will not charge. During very cold or hot times of the year, bring your ActiveKEY in from your car at night and between showings.”

Also, watch this short video that poses the question – what happens when you leave an ActiveKEY, a frozen pizza and a frozen peanut butter cup in my 1997 Geo Metro that is parked in direct sunlight?

We filmed this a few weeks ago when it was up to about 94 degrees, so keep in mind that you might see more dramatic results in the next few days. Anyone have any other suggestions for things we should try to melt in my car?

PS:  We really do recommend that you remove your key from your car if it’s going to be parked in the sun for a long time – especially for agents that go to our Portland office – because we currently have a limited supply of ActiveKEYs due to a parts shortage at Supra. If you do need to get a new ActiveKEY, please call ahead at 503-236-7657 to ensure that we have one available for you.

The State of Oregon Real Estate Agency has issued the following alert on its website:

The Agency is receiving calls from licensees asking if their fingerprint cards have expired. The licensees explain that someone stating to be from the Agency has called them and informed them that their fingerprints are going to expire. The caller is asking for credit card and social security numbers.

Fingerprint cards and criminal background checks do not expire with the Agency. Also the Agency does not accept any personal or confidential information over the phone. If you receive one of these calls, do not give your information out.

Lots of people are talking about short sales and foreclosures these days. If you didn’t know better, you might think that they’re the dominant type of listing for sale. But fortunately, you do know better and starting next week when we add two new short sale fields to RMLSweb (more on that later)  it’s going to be even easier for you to keep tabs on these distressed properties. 

The graph below shows you the total number of active listings in RMLSweb as of today, July 23, 2009, compared with the number of active listings that are checked 3rd Party to Transaction Yes – approximately 12.8%.

(Since 3rd Party to Transaction doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a short sale – it could also be an estate sale or relo property, for example – I’ve also included the number of 3rd Party to Transaction that mention short sale in the Private Remarks.)

The next logical question is how well are these properties selling? To help answer that here’s another chart that shows the number of listings marked 3rd Party to Transaction Yes that are currently active , currently pending and  that sold in the first half of the year.

As I mentioned earlier, 3rd Party to Transaction Yes does not necessarily mean a listing is a short sale. Therefore, to handle short sales more efficiently and to help the other types of properties that require 3rd Party approval to get fair attention, the RMLS™ Board of directors voted to add the following fields to RMLSweb:

Short Sale Yes/No – will be required when entering a listing and 3rd Party to Transaction will be automatically checked when Yes is selected.

Short Sale Offer (Seller Accepted; Submitted for Approval) Yes/No – The rules will be revised to require updating this field when an offer is made.

For more information on short sales see the National Association of Realtors Field Guide to Short Sales.

P.S. Be sure to check back for statistics on Bank Owned properties to come soon.

With the recent changes to maps in RMLSweb it’s more important than ever that you make sure your listings are mapping correctly so other agents can find them later when running a map search.

Watch this short tutorial to learn more about how to double check and edit your map point if needed.

Need Help with New Mapping Features?
– Read: 5 Ways to Use the New Mapping Features in RMLSweb
– Watch: Searching with Map Ranges Tutorial
– Read: Mapping Tip Sheet
– Watch: Create a Prospect Profile or Hotsheet with a map
– Watch: Save a custom map and use it later in other searches

If you have questions please feel free to contact our help desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 1-877-256-2169.

While, the number of lockboxes that were accessed dipped during the week of the 4th of July, they seem to have rebounded nicely. Comparing June 29, 2009 through July 12, 2009 the number of times RMLS™ subscribers opened Supra lockboxes increased 23.9% in Washington and 21.9% in Oregon.

Click the chart for a larger view (Oregon, left; Washington, right)

Archive
View an archive of the Supra lockbox statistical reports on Flickr.

We’re excited because we just released some upgrades to the maps in RMLSweb. Now you can use a map instead of MLS area in several searches, save a custom map to use with other searches later and navigate the RMLSweb maps with ease.

But what does that really mean with regard to how you do business? Here are some ideas that we came up with of how you can use these new features in your everyday life to save time or get better information for you and your clients:

1. Let’s say you tend to work in a particular area or neighborhood, but you’re constantly working with different styles of homes. Now you can draw a map of your farm area and save it. Then you can create several Hotsheets, Prospect Profiles or Summary Only reports based off of the same map, but with a wide variety of criteria.

2. If you’re working with a client who is worried about living in a good school district, our upgrades to the school information on the listing maps should come in handy. When you’re looking at a map of a particular listing, click on the Schools tab to see a list of schools nearby. (The default is set to look for schools within one mile but you can increase the radius in the upper right hand corner to up to 20 miles.) You’ll notice that we’ve added some demographic information about the schools like pupil to teacher ratio to help you look smart.

3. Rumor has it a lot of appraisers are looking approximately one mile out when getting comps for their appraisals. Now you can look for comps in that same proximity to get an idea of what the appraiser may be looking at. How? Use the circle search and watch the distance indicator when you’re dragging out the line. It’ll tell you how many miles you’re covering in your search.

4. I don’t know about you, but for me it’s much easier to remember a property from the picture than the address. So when I’ve mapped several checked listings from search results, I love the new feature that allows me to see a thumbnail of the property.

5. Now that more agents are going to search with maps instead of MLS area number it’s more important than ever to make sure your listings are mapping correctly. We’ve tried to make this easy for you. We’ve increased the size of the map on the Listing Load page so you can easily see if the listing is missing a map or mapped incorrectly. If that’s the case, just click Adjust map location, click the right location and click Accept.

For a detailed tutorial on how to search using map ranges, click the image above. We’ve also created a printable tip sheet for your reference. To schedule a training session on this new release, call your local RMLS™ office, or e-mail training@rmls.com.