Listing Load Enhancements – Questions and Answers

We’ve put together a list of the questions that our subscribers may have about the Listing Load enhancements that will be out in mid-September. This article is updated as we receive additional questions and comments from our subscribers.

**New Question**

Is there a character counter in this release? Will there be an increase to the character count in Public Remarks?

There is a character counter for the remarks sections included with the new release. A request for additional characters in Public Remarks will be submitted to our Forms Committee, brokers who gather each year to assess the data we collect on our listing forms. Don’t forget that there is additional room for remarks on the Supplement Forms, if any of those are appropriate for your listing.

**New Question**

Will Listing Load now work in the Chrome browser?

Listing load will still not work with Chrome at this time. We are maintaining the IE and Firefox whitelisting currently in place. Our goal is to include Chrome in that group, but testing with that browser is not complete.

How will the changes to Listing Load affect me?

Although some of the pages may look different, the basic work flow has not changed dramatically. The enhancements we’ve added should make your ultimate experience more streamlined and productive.

If I have problems using the new Listing Load, what can I do?

RMLS™ trainers and Help Desk are here to answer any questions you have. You can reach us by phone at 877-256-2169 or email helpdesk@rmls.com. In case you need to get started when our offices and Help Desk are closed, we have also prepared an on-line tutorial available 24/7.

Why are you changing Listing Load? I know how to use it and it works.

We compiled many subscriber comments and requests about listing load over the last few years, and the upcoming changes reflect those requests. The result is a new detail view of the listing load search results with quick access to listing reports (agent full, tax full, history, photos and map) directly from the listing load screen. However, if you prefer, there is still a list view that looks very much like the old results screen. You can choose your experience.

What feature am I going to love the most?

We don’t really know, but it could be the Auto-save function, if you have ever lost work.

Where can I go to get information about the changes?

We’ve put together a summary about the changes that you can read here. You can also plan ahead and sign-up for a class in late September or find out how to set-up a training in your own office for Listing Load Enhancements by contacting training@rmls.com or 503-236-7657.

Spotlight on Supplements: Condo and Amenities

Learn more about these two new Supplement forms!

On August 3rd, our Forms Change was released, which made five new Supplement forms available for subscribers to use to share even more information about their listings. In this blog post, we are highlighting the Condo and Amenities Supplement forms. Later, we will highlight the other new Supplement forms.

Condo Supplement:

The new Condo Supplement includes fields that offer the ability for Listing Agents to describe the condo building beyond just the unit for sale. For example, there is a field for Condo Conversion Yes/No, and a field for the number of condo units in the complex.

Want to provide information about the condo association? The Condo Supplement makes this possible. There are fields for Condo Association Name, Condo Association Contact, Condo Association URL and Condo Association Phone.

There is also a field for Pending HOA Litigation Yes/No. Keep in mind that the condo association information and pending litigation fields are kept private and can only be viewed by subscribers, meaning that they are not included in client reports.

Note: We moved the Upper Condo Level field from the address line of the main Listing Load page to the Condo Supplement form. The visibility of the field stays the same (the field will only be visible when the “Condo Unit Location” is set as UPPER).

Click here to view the Condo Supplement.

Amenities Supplement:

Is your client an avid public bus commuter? Does your client have a child who rides the public school bus? Or perhaps your client has a pet that needs frequent trips to the park? The Amenities Supplement allows Listing Agents to describe the distance from the property to different public features, such as parks, bus stops and shopping areas.

The Amenities Supplement also provides a field for Easement Information and a field for Walk Score! Many consumers are familiar with the Walk Score website, which rates neighborhoods for distance to walkable amenities, like shops, restaurants, transportation, etc. Visit walkscore.com for more information. The Walk Score field in the Amenities Supplement allows for the actual number of the walk score to be entered.

Click here to view the Amenities Supplement.

General Information:

On a general note, we want to mention that all of the new Supplement forms (except for Auction, which isn’t new) provide a Public Remarks field to further describe the property for that supplement.

Want to know more about Supplement forms? View the Utilizing Supplement Forms tutorial, it’s a visual learning experience!

To see the other Supplement forms and to see other changes that were released with the Forms Change, view the Listing Forms Change Summary document.

Questions? Contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169.

Coming August 3rd: Listing Forms Change

Includes New Supplement Forms!

Each year, the RMLS™ Forms Committee, which is comprised of volunteer Realtor® subscribers, recommends changes to the Listing Input Forms to be approved by the Board of Directors. The annual Forms Change will be released on August 3rd, 2011 from the suggestions made in 2010.

Click here to view the Listing Forms Change Summary document.

Click here to watch the Utilizing Supplement Forms tutorial!

Extended Outage: The upcoming changes to Listing Load will require some additional time to update the website. As a result, RMLSweb will be in maintenance mode from 7 p.m. on Tuesday, August 2 to 7 a.m. Wednesday, August 3. Please plan your work schedule around this outage.

Five New Supplement Forms Available On RMLSweb: We are adding new Supplement forms for Additional Structure(s), Amenities, Condo, Farms & Ranches and Water Rights.

There are Supplement form navigation links at the top of the “Listing Load: Edit Listing” page and also in between the individual form sections. These links will take the user to the Supplement form section at the bottom of the page.
To add an Amenities, Additional Structures or Water Rights Supplement form, the user must check the “include” box on the far right side of the Supplement section bar in order to see the Supplement fields and to input information into them. The Supplement forms for Auction, Farm and Condo cannot be selected or unselected with a check box. These will be included as required by selecting an Auction price type, a Property Type of Condo or a Property Type of Farm (or Farm/Forest).
When viewing a report within RMLSweb, users will have the option to “Show/Print Supplements” at the top of the page.

Below are some of the significant changes to the forms:

Year Built Description Field: Starting on August 3rd, this field will become required for all Residential listings. We will backfill this field (fill in the Year Built Description for you according to certain criteria), but suggest that if you have ACT, BMP, PEN or WTH listings that are Residential, to select the Year Built Description before August 3. We are also adding a RESALE option to this field. The criteria we are using for our backfill process is as follows:

If the Year Built Description is blank and Occupied By is Proposed or Under Construction, then the Year Built Description will become Proposed or Under Construction.
If the Year Built Description is blank and the List Date is within the last 5 years, then Year Built Description becomes UNKNOWN.
If the Year Built Description is blank and the List Date is older than 5 years and Status is ACT, BMP, PEN or WTH, then the Year Built Description becomes UNKNOWN.

Farms and Ranches: Due to the addition of the Farms and Ranches Supplement form, we will be converting Farm listings to either Residential (RES) or Lots and Land (LND) categories, according to specific criteria. The conversion of Farm listings to either RES or LND is based on the following criteria:

If Habitable Residence is Yes, then the listing will be converted to RES
If Habitable Residence is No, then the listing will be converted to LND
If Habitable Residence is blank (meaning it was a pre-RMLS listing), and the number of bathrooms is greater than zero, then the listing will be converted to RES, otherwise it will convert to LND.

Want to know more about the changes? Attend one of our RMLSweb updates classes at your local RMLS™ office. See the Training Calendar to find a class near you.

Questions? Contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169.

New Photo Manager Available on RMLSweb

You can now upload multiple photos at one time and add captions to photos!

The new, transformed Photo Manager is now available in Listing Load on RMLSweb! Feedback from subscribers in the 2010 Subscriber Satisfaction Survey, as well as other channels, showed a need for RMLS™ to update our photo loading functions. Due to this interest, we have released a new Photo Manager, which enables users to upload multiple photos at one time, add captions to photos, and provides users with added functionality to make uploading and maintaining photos much more efficient.

Here are some exciting things you can do with the new Photo Manager:

Upload multiple photos at one time. When locating photos to upload, you can now select multiple photos and upload them all together. The new photo upload feature also displays thumbnail previews of the photos, as well as status and progress information, so you can track the uploading process. Note: To use this feature, you will need to install the free Microsoft Silverlight plugin on your computer, which can be downloaded here. For users who don’t want to download Silverlight, the previous functionality of uploading photos individually will still be available via a link on the Silverlight installation prompt screen.

Add captions to your photos. You can now add captions and sub-captions to your photos from a list of provided captions. If you don’t see a caption that fits your desired description, please email the desired caption to rules@rmls.com. The captions will only appear within RMLSweb and not in data feeds at this time. Note: you cannot assign a caption to the first photo.

Drag and drop your photos to reorder. The new Photo Manager allows you to drag and drop your photos to reorder them, making it easier than ever to manage all of your photos! To rearrange, simply click on the photo you would like to reorder, and drag that photo to the location you would like it to appear. Once the photos are in the desired order, you must click “Save the Order” before continuing for the changes to be saved.

Auto resizing. No more stretched photos! One of the reasons the new Photo Manager will be more efficient than ever is that it now resizes photos for you! Silverlight allows you to select any sized photo and will resize it prior to upload. It will resize the photo to the size of 640 x 480. This makes uploading faster! For best results, we recommend using landscape photos. However, the Photo Manager now recognizes the orientation of the photo (whether landscape or portrait) and will now add padding (white space) to portrait photos to make them into a landscape-oriented photo. Therefore, portrait photos are now accepted and will be resized (with padding/white space) to prevent distortion and stretching.

Other highlights:

Bulk deletion – delete multiple photos at one time!
List & Preview/Grid View – two viewing options via a dropdown menu!
New arrow buttons – allows scrolling through photos using a “previous” and “next” method!
Pop-up Viewer – view and print larger photos!

For more details and information on the Photo Manager, take a look at Document #1726: How to Upload Photos Using Photo Manager. Or, watch our video tutorial: Adding Photos To Your Listing.

If you have any questions or need help with the Photo Manager, feel free to call Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169.

Two Commonly Asked Questions

Written by Kelsey Brunson, Communications Specialist

As a member of the Communications Department here at RMLS™, I get asked a wide variety of questions from subscribers. I want to take some time in this blog post to answer two questions that subscribers ask on a regular basis. My thought is that more of you might also have these same questions and might benefit from the answers I can provide.

How Do I Search for Forms, Documents and Tutorials?

The Forms and Documents menu is home to all of our documents, including (but not limited to) training documents, informational documents, desktop news posts, Market Action reports, and tutorials. You can access the Forms and Documents menu through Toolkit at the top of the RMLSweb screen.

Once you are in our Forms and Documents menu, there are three ways to search for that particular document you are looking for. Below is an image showing you the locations of the three areas you can use for your document search:

1) Enter a keyword, phrase or document number into the search box.

2) Click on a tag and get all the documents in that particular category.

3) Search the Forms & Documents Folder Menu. For example, document folder 1500-1699 in this menu is the Market Action and Statistics Menu, where you can find all of the new (and archived!) Market Action reports.

How Does RMLS™ Calculate Appreciation?

Another commonly asked question that I receive from subscribers is how to calculate appreciation (or depreciation). Appreciation is a comparison of the average sales price of a specific area between two time periods. Here are some key points to remember about this calculation:

1) You must compare TWO time periods. Sometimes I get asked, “What is the appreciation of Portland for the last year?” A more accurate question to ask for this statistic would be, “How has Portland appreciated (or depreciated) from 2009 to 2010?” Or, you could compare one month to the next, such as January 2010 to February 2010. (Notice that we are comparing two time periods here).

2) You can use the appreciation formula to calculate both appreciation AND depreciation. Often, subscribers believe that the formula for appreciation is different than the formula for depreciation. In fact, the same formula is used for both of these calculations. Whether the result is a negative or positive number determines if the area’s average sales price has appreciated or depreciated between those two time periods.

3) Document #1745: How to Calculate Appreciation, gives a detailed example of how to use the appreciation formula. This is an easy formula involving plugging in the average sales price for your two time periods! Take a look at this document; I use it for guidance as well!

If you have any questions, feel free to email communications@rmls.com. Or, you can call our Help Desk at 503-872-8002 or toll-free at 877-256-2169. They will be able to answer your question or transfer you to the appropriate department. Thank you!

Bar or Line Graph? You Choose!

Listing View Counts has a new graph feature

We’ve had a lot of positive feedback regarding our new Listing View Counts feature on RMLSweb. As you know, Listing View Counts allows listing agents to see how often the public and other subscribers are viewing their listings. To make Listing View Counts even better, we’ve added a new graph feature that allows you to see a graph of listing views for the last 30 days!

You have the choice between inserting a bar graph, a line graph, or no graph at all into your report. We have also combined the RMLSweb Mobile Detail counts with the RMLSweb Detail counts.

Here is an example of the bar graph:

(Click on the graphs to view larger images)

Here is an example of the line graph:

If you’d like more information on Listing View Counts or the new graph feature, view the How to Use Listing View Counts document or the Accessing Listing View Counts online tutorial.

For additional information, please contact RMLS™ Training at 503-236-7657 or for immediate assistance you can contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at 503-872-8002 (toll free 877-256-2169 or via e-mail at helpdesk@rmls.com).

How to Create a Combined Report

Printing multiple reports is more convenient than ever!

We’ve received input from subscribers about their desire to print multiple reports, such as History and Tax full, along with Agent and Client Full reports. It’s now possible! The Combined Reports feature that is now available on RMLSweb allows agents to print multiple reports for a maximum of 25 listings at one time. Agents can gather information related to a particular property or set of properties with fewer clicks of the mouse!

To create a Combined Report, select up to 25 listings on the Search Results screen and then choose “Combined Reports” from the “Select Report” drop down list. Due to the size of the report, Combined Reports are limited to 25 listings. You can drag and drop reports to arrange in the sequence you choose and also print or PDF a Combined Report.

A new report called Client Map is also available in Combined Reports. This report shows information similar to the Buyer Tour Map report and also has a large map image. Client Map is available on its own or can be included in Combined Reports.

If you’d like help getting to know Combined Reports, view this tutorial for more information:
Creating a Combined Report

For additional information or to attend a class on the RMLSweb system, please contact RMLS™ Training at 503-236-7657 or access the RMLS™ Training calendar under the Toolkit option. For immediate assistance you can contact the RMLS™ Help Desk at 503-872-8002 (toll free 877-256-2169 or via e-mail at helpdesk@rmls.com).

How to Access Listing View Counts

See how often your listing is viewed!

After hearing requests from subscribers, the Listing View Counts feature is now available on RMLSweb. This means that listing agents are now able to see how often the public and other subscribers are viewing their listings.

In addition, listing agents can share the impact of their online marketing efforts by showing their clients the Listing View Counts report. Agents can also use these statistics in listing presentations and to see if a listing is being considered, but not shown.

To access Listing View Counts, follow these steps below:

1) Access your listings in Listing Load under Back Office. You will see the Listing View Counts button to the far right (lower) of the screen.

2) You can select the “View Counts” button to see a quick snapshot of your listing view counts.

3) Then, you can select the “View Counts Report” button to see more detail on listing views. For example, you can see more detail on listing views from the day before, 7, 14, or 30 days back, and the life of a listing (as far back as 8/1/2010).

4) On the Listing View Counts Report page, you will see the ability to convert to PDF or print in the upper right corner of the screen.

Remember, each time a report is viewed counts as a listing view and listings are not counted when they come up in a search, but when a more detailed report is selected.

Take a look at these tools below for more information:

Help Document: How to Use Listing View Counts

Help Document: How Listing View Counts are Calculated

Tutorial: Accessing Listing View Counts

Old CMA Report Feature to be Discontinued December 31, 2010

Learn and experience our new, improved CMA

Since the release of the new CMA, the number of old CMA users has been steadily declining. Because of this, we will be discontinuing the old CMA report feature so that we can now focus on pursuing future projects and improvements. You may have noticed that we have recently extended the deadline for the discontinuation of the old CMA from October 4th to December 31st. As of December 31st, you will no longer have access to the old CMA.

We have also heard concerns from users regarding font size being too small on the new CMA. We appreciate your feedback and are currently working to improve this aspect of the new CMA.

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.

In addition, RMLS™ is offering a new training course called CMA & Statistics. To view the training calendar, go to Toolkit on the toolbar at the top of the screen and scroll down to Training Calendar. Or, you can contact the RMLS™ Training department at 503-236-7657 or call help desk toll-free at 1-877-256-2169 or via email at helpdesk@rmls.com

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