RMLS™ subscribers who use OREF forms, great news—a new feature has been released on RMLSweb that helps make transactions easier. Technicians have rolled out mlsPush/SSO by zipLogix, enabling users to move seamlessly from RMLSweb into zipForm®.

While viewing an Agent Full report, clicking the OREF button will begin a new transaction within zipForm® and auto-populate some listing information into the cover sheet. Users wishing to manage all OREF transactions on their account should click the OREF/zipLogix link under the Toolkit menu or in the list of links on the RMLSweb desktop.

RMLSweb users will need to log in to zipForm® the first time they use this service, but future access will utilize single sign-on technology, meaning less hassle.

Those who prefer to keep using zipLogic’s mlsConnect for forms will be able to do so.

Read more about this project or access tutorials on the OREF website.

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.

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.

Hello Technical Terry:

A RMLS™ trainer recently advised me to confirm the tax data on my listing before publishing the listing on RMLSweb. It’s a good thing I did…the tax data that came up on RMLSweb was out of date compared to what I found on the county website! Why is that?

Elizabeth P. Unum

Great question, Elizabeth. Of course the county is going to have the most up-to-date data—they’re the source!

Tax data on RMLSweb covers the entire state of Oregon as well as part of southern Washington—a one-stop shop. In order to provide that much data, we work with four intermediate data providers, and in a few cases the county itself. In nearly all those cases, the data still comes initially from the county.

RMLS™ will always have less up-to-date data than the county assessor.

When you enter in a listing on RMLSweb with a Tax ID, the system fills in some values for you. Confirm these values and if they’re not 100% accurate, you may edit them before the listing goes live. After the listing is live, you’ll need to contact RMLS™ to make changes.

One last note: RMLS™ updates different counties on a schedule. Tax data for some counties is updated once a year (like those in southeastern Oregon), and some (like Multnomah and Clark County) are done weekly.

Technical Terry—

I’m not finding my client’s property in the tax system on RMLSweb. How can I enter the listing?

Penny Gerettet

Through the front door?

But seriously. A property tax ID (APN) is required to enter a listing into RMLSweb.

If you’re not finding the correct Tax ID, skip it. The system will enter Not Found into the Tax ID field. Every week, the RMLSweb servers find listings without Tax IDs and tries to match them up with tax data using several components of the property address.

If the property has been subdivided, added, or reassessed within the past year, RMLS™ will likely not have updates until the next yearly update—late fall for Oregon and early spring for Washington.

Dear Technical Terry,

The tax information on my client’s property is just flat wrong. How did this happen?

Sincerely,
Ron R. Ronger

When you enter in a listing on RMLSweb with a Tax ID, the system fills in some values for you. Confirm these values and if they’re not 100% accurate, you may edit them before the listing goes live.

If tax information is incorrect on your published listing on RMLSweb, the first thing to do is note the incorrect data in the private remarks so that other agents will know there’s a potential issue. Next, email RMLS™ tax staff and describe the problem, making sure to identify the county, Tax ID, and MLS number (if appropriate). Attach any relevant documents.

When RMLS™ receives this information, tax guru Kim Hutchinson will attempt to verify the data with the county. (If the county’s data is incorrect, contact them directly to resolve the issue.) If the county verifies RMLS™ data is incorrect, Kim will update the data on RMLSweb and work with the data provider for a long-term solution, emailing you about the outcome.

After all, we wouldn’t want you to be taxed by the details.

Does your seller want daily updates about how many people are seeing their listing on RMLSweb and RMLS.com? Do they want this information only on Saturday? Or perhaps Tuesdays and Thursdays?

RMLS™ can help. Starting Thursday morning February 25th, RMLS™ subscribers will be able to schedule automatic emails to clients with listing view count information.

Not only can subscribers schedule these automatic emails, but the emails will now directly send the data to the recipient, instead of a link to the information.

Here’s how it works. On RMLSweb, use Listing Load to locate the listing. Access the view counts report by clicking “VC” (list view) or “View Counts Report” (detail view). Click the Email button located on the upper right of the screen. Fill in the form as you normally would.

If you wish to send automatic emails, clicking the box marked “Auto Email to Contact” will open the automatic email options below. If your client prefers to see data in a bar or line graph, click on the appropriate option underneath the scheduling information. Check the boxes for days you wish automatic emails to be sent, then click “Schedule” to save.

At this time, RMLS™ can only send one email per day. Emails will be sent as long as the listing is in ACT, BMP, or SSP status.

Need more information? Have questions about the details? Check out Document 1762, How to Use Listing View Counts, on RMLSweb.

Subscribers who need assistance walking through this new system may, as always, contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at (503) 872-8002 or (877) 256-2169.

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

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law in 1998 with the intent to bring US copyright laws into the digital age. MLS listings normally contain several items subject to copyright, most prominently the photos and remarks. When a listing is loaded into RMLSweb, the understanding is that the listing content is authorized or legitimate, and there is no copyright issue.

This understanding is stipulated in the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations under Section 10.3 – Authority to Publish: By the act of submitting any property listing content to RMLS™, the Participant represents that the Participant has been authorized and also thereby does grant authority for the MLS to include the property listing content in its copyrighted MLS compilation and also in any statistical report on comparables.

In addition to the responsibility of the listing broker to ensure that there is no copyright infringement in the listing content they provide, RMLS™ also has responsibilities as a publisher under the DMCA. In order to limit liability for copyright infringement we may unknowingly include on our site, we have followed the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA since 2009. These provisions include appointing a copyright agent and making it easy for someone who spots a copyright infringement to contact us.  RMLSweb and RMLS.com have a link on every listing to report any claims of copyright infringement, and there are specific steps we follow to meet the requirements of the safe harbor when we are notified of a problem.

That covers the responsibility of the listing broker and RMLS™.

Does it end there? NO!! It does not.

Each website posting listing data is individually responsible for copyright infringement that might appear on that site. That means that every IDX website needs to protect itself under the DMCA safe harbor provisions.

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) became concerned about potential liability for brokers, and in their model rules for 2016 they have required the addition of a section about copyright and the DMCA. The RMLS™ Board of Directors adopted this language and it has now been added to Section 10.3 of the RMLS^™ Rules and Regulations. This is an important advisory recommendation from NAR. If you have a website that displays listing content, make sure you ask your website provider about their compliance with the DMCA. Here is the new RMLS™ Rules and Regulations language in full.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is a federal copyright law that enhances the penalties for copyright infringement occurring on the Internet. The law provides exemptions or “safe harbors” from copyright infringement liability for online service providers (OSP) that satisfy certain criteria. Courts construe the definition of “online service provider” broadly, which would likely include MLSs as well as participants and subscribers hosting an IDX display.

One safe harbor limits the liability of an OSP that hosts a system, network or website on which Internet users may post user-generated content. If an OSP complies with the provisions of this DMCA safe harbor, it cannot be liable for copyright infringement if a user posts infringing material on its website. This protects an OSP from incurring significant sums in copyright infringement damages, as statutory damages are as high as $150,000 per work. For this reason, it is highly recommended that MLSs, participants and subscribers comply with the DMCA safe harbor provisions discussed herein.

To qualify for this safe harbor, the OSP must:

• Designate on its website and register with the Copyright Office an agent to receive takedown requests. The agent could be the MLS, participant, subscriber, or other individual or entity.
• Develop and post a DMCA-compliant website policy that addresses repeat offenders.
• Comply with the DMCA takedown procedure. If a copyright owner submits a takedown notice to the OSP, which alleges infringement of its copyright at a certain location, then the OSP must promptly remove allegedly infringing material. The alleged infringer may submit a counter-notice that the OSP must share with the copyright owner. If the copyright owner fails to initiate a copyright lawsuit within ten (10) days, then the OSP may restore the removed material.
• Have no actual knowledge of any complained-of infringing activity.
• Not be aware of facts or circumstances from which complained-of infringing activity is apparent.
• Not receive a financial benefit attributable to complained-of infringing activity when the OSP is capable of controlling such activity.

Full compliance with these DMCA safe harbor criteria will mitigate an OSP’s copyright infringement liability. For more information see 17 USC §512.

NAR has additional information on its website, including a recent video on photo copyright. In the case of copyright infringement, the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” surely applies.

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!

How much work does RMLS™ do for the thousands of subscribers across Oregon and Southwest Washington? We’ve compiled the following numbers for the third year in a row to show just how much RMLS™ has supported real estate activity over the course of a single year.

RMLSweb
Number of times subscribers logged in to RMLSweb: 1,787,385
Photos uploaded to listings: 1,161,918
Property searches run: 549,388
Number of new prospect profiles created: 75,750
All residential properties listed for sale: 74,585
All residential properties sold: 57,860
Median sold price of homes listed: $270,000
Total dollar volume of homes sold: $17,999,392,000
Unique tax searches: 111,038
Reports viewed: 10,523,082
Broker tour searches run: 13,049
Open house searches run: 9,867
Statistical searches run: 29,062

RMLS™ Subscribers
RMLS™ subscribers as of December 2015: 12,213
New RMLS™ subscribers (compared to December 2014): 934
Increase in subscribers, above: +8.2%
Subscribers who attended training: 3,412
Number of calls to the RMLS™ Help Desk: 21,115
Number of Help Desk chats: 3,707
Number of incidents reported using the “Report Issue” button: 6,678
CE hours distributed by RMLS™ at no cost to subscribers: 2,310
Total attendance at RMLS™ training events: 4,567

RMLS.com
Total customer visits to RMLS.com: 3,623,006
Unique visits: 1,203,729
Total listing views: 2,377,287

Social Media
RMLS™ followers on Facebook (December 31st): 3,255
RMLS™ followers on Twitter (December 31st): 2,646

RMLS™ regularly compiles plenty of other numbers as well! In addition to publishing Market Action each month, we have statistical summaries available on RMLSweb with information dating back several years. Since 2012 we’ve also been compiling statistics about residential distressed properties in RMLSweb.

We love numbers here at RMLS™, and hope you find this data as fun and interesting as we do.

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

Before we plunge headlong into the new year, let’s take one last look back at 2015.

It was a year of growth and change, energized by real estate market conditions. Closed sales recorded through November approached or exceeded 120% of closed sales in the previous year in almost every area served by RMLS™. This translates into a 20% increase in dollar volume of transactions. 2014 posted approximately $15 billion in sales, and 2015 will see over $18 billion in volume for all properties sold through RMLS™.

The improvement in real estate prospects has not gone unnoticed by job seekers. RMLS™ started the year with 10,676 subscribers and is projected to end 2015 with over 12,200 subscribers, an increase of 14%.

Some highlights of 2015 for RMLS™:

• Eight new RMLS™ classes were added to the list over the course of the year, including RPR Basics, SentriLock Essentials, Android Essentials, iOS Essentials, Utilizing RMLSweb Statistics, RMLS™ Rules and Regulations, RMLS™ Rules and Regulations Jeopardy, and Mobile Apps for REALTORS®. (To register for any of these classes, please contact training@rmls.com or call the Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or 877-256-2169 toll free.)

• RMLS™ was invited and became a Home Energy Info Accelerator Partner in May, when that US Department of Energy program was established.

• A listing forms change in July featured a new supplement for green/energy information.

• We became the fifth MLS in the nation to be certified with RESO (Real Estate Standards Organization) Data Dictionary version 1.3 in August. (We went on to surpass that level in December and were certified compliant at 1.4 Silver.)

• A new photo loader was introduced on RMLSweb in October which allows up to 32 images per listing and features high-resolution imagery and built-in basic editing tools.

• A new Beaverton training venue was inaugurated in November.

• A new mapping interface for RMLSweb was released in December.

• The Financial Tools on RMLSweb were modified to work with multiple browsers in February and the outdated default values within the tools were updated in December.

We want to take this opportunity to say a special thank all of our subscribers. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you and look forward to sharing our 25th anniversary celebration with you in 2016.

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

Big changes are on the road ahead for RMLSweb maps! A new mapping interface is coming to the system the morning of Thursday, December 3rd. This change, announced in July, is the first step to a better mapping experience for RMLS™ subscribers. As soon as the initial switch is made, RMLS™ developers will start planning for further improvements.

WHAT’S IN STORE
RMLS™ subscribers will notice a new look and feel to all maps on RMLSweb. The new system will still use Bing Maps as a base, but the overall user interface has been enhanced.

Here are a few features we think RMLS™ subscribers will appreciate:
• Map layers that will include neighborhoods, city boundaries, flood zones, traffic, and more. These layers will not only be accessible on the map for an individual listing, but on Advanced Search and Map Search. Access the layers by opening the Tool Box sidebar on each map, shown above.
• Shapes on the map can be larger than before. Up to 10 shapes can be present on the map at one time, and those can represent areas to exclude in a search. Click on the shape for a prompt to delete or exclude the area. Custom shapes can have a maximum of 50 points, and closing a custom shape will be easier as well.
• Centering your map on a specific address will be easier than ever. Just type an address in the search bar inside the map, and a pin will appear on the requested address.
• Customizable, printable driving directions will be available by using the Map Checked feature of RMLSweb! Select the properties you wish to visit and select the Map Checked button. Select Driving Directions on the pop-up screen. Click and drag the properties in the right sidebar to rearrange the order, then hit Calculate to generate driving directions below the map. Print these directions and the map by selecting the Print button.

Although the new map system will sport some changes, plenty of features related to mapping will remain the same or similar. Users entering listings on Listing Load, for example, will find the process of placing a map pin for a property to be very similar to the current system. Setting a map pin for a CMA will be similar as well.

Once this new interface is live, RMLSweb developers will start optimizing the features. Moving forward, expect further fine-tuning based on subscriber feedback and map layers that include demographic information.

NEED ASSISTANCE?
RMLS™ hopes that subscribers will find this new mapping system easier to use and more useful for helping clients. Contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at (503) 872-8002 or (877) 256-2169 with any questions or for more information.

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.

Hey, Technical Terry.

What can I do about all these emails I keep getting from RMLS™ about my pending listing? It’s got a lease option right now and I don’t need more emails in my inbox!

William Wesley Wiewel

Hey WWW-

Did you know about the Pending Lease Option status we introduced on RMLSweb last month? This status is for listings which have offers accepted with lease option terms.

Just mark your listing as POP and enter in the anticipated lease end date. This will change when you receive status change reminders from RMLSweb. You’ll see fewer unnecessary emails.

When searching for listings on RMLSweb, you can also include or exclude the POP status from your search.

Good luck on taming that email inbox!

Dear Technical Terry:

I’m sure the RMLS™ office move to the Portland airport area made perfect sense for many reasons—but those of us on the west side of Portland really feel left out! It’s such a long way to drive for a training. What do you suggest?

Alan of Allen Boulevard

I feel your pain, Alan! The Portland metro area is slowly becoming Bay Area North as far as traffic is concerned. I’m pleased to report we have been working on a sustainable solution for this very issue for some time.

Starting this month, we’ve begun offering training classes in Beaverton at The Round (the Beaverton City Hall building). We chose this location for several reasons: it’s close to Highway 217, it has free parking, and they offer a variety of classroom sizes and configurations.

Our very first day of classes was met with great success! We heard many positive comments about the facilities, location, and so on.

Tell all your west side REALTOR® friends of this exciting new training location! We’ve reserved space at The Round for the next three months and expect the location to be very successful (which would result in us reserving space going forward) but the decision to keep training at this location will be somewhat influenced by REALTOR® attendance.

Take a look at the Beaverton training calendar for November and December on RMLSweb (login required).

Remember—the RMLS™ trainers love doing office trainings/presentations as well. If you want a trainer to come to an office meeting, just let us know! Email training@rmls.com or call us at (503) 236-7657 to set up an appointment.