Ever since ShowingTime went live on RMLSweb this spring, RMLS™ has been hearing some common confusions from subscribers. Perhaps you’ve received an email from ShowingTime and don’t understand why. Or maybe you want to opt out of ShowingTime but don’t know how to do so. We’re here to help, so here are some basics we hope will clear the confusion.

SHOWINGTIME BASICS

ShowingTime is an online scheduling tool that was introduced on RMLSweb in May. ShowingTime can reduce calls and phone tag by allowing users to schedule showing times online. Using ShowingTime is completely optional, although hundreds of RMLS™ subscribers are already using this convenient tool to schedule showings on their listings.

ShowingTime held a series of webinars for RMLS™ subscribers when the product was released—view a recorded walkthrough of ShowingTime Basics.

OPTED IN BY DEFAULT

All RMLSweb users were opted in to the service when ShowingTime was released. Whether you use the service is completely up to you though—ShowingTime can be turned off for one listing or all your listings (see below for instructions)! RMLSweb listings that feature the ShowingTime icon offer online scheduling, but if you prefer a good old conversation, you can contact the REALTOR® that way instead.

Subscribers who have not opted out may not realize that ShowingTime is still live on their listings. This means that you’ve received an email from ShowingTime with a showing request and you’re not sure why, you’ll want to get familiar with the service so you can accept or reschedule the showing.

CHANGE THE SETTINGS

Everyone was opted in to the service by default, but ShowingTime can be turned off for one of your listings, or all of your listings, as Ask Technical Terry outlined back in May.

GO DEEPER WITH SHOWINGTIME

We think that ShowingTime makes the business of scheduling showings far more convenient for RMLS™ subscribers. ShowingTime has great features that can save time, and we hope that you’ll explore which features may be able to make your day simpler. ShowingTime even offers a paid service for agents who want to go deeper with the product—it includes brokerage branding and special tools to use with clients.

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,

I can’t thank RMLS™ enough for putting great tools into RMLSweb for us to use. In the case of ShowingTime, however, it feels like a layer of tech that I don’t need. I realize it is a great tool and that many folks will use it but in my case, I’m just too old for this! Is it possible to disable ShowingTime on my listings? I’d rather the REALTOR® just call or text me.

Frustrated in Fanno Creek

Dear FFC:

Understood completely. Having come over on the Mayflower, I also struggle with some newfangled technology. Whatever happened to the quill pen and parchment paper?

But back to ShowingTime. Yes, you can certainly disable the tool on either an individual listing or for all your listings. Here’s how.

Individual Listing

When logged in to RMLSweb, head to Listing Load. Click on the ShowingTime icon.

Select your preference for that specific listing by choosing Yes or No.

Don’t forget to save your changes…

All Listings

If you’d like to turn off ShowingTime for all your listings, click the same Listing Load ShowingTime icon as above, then turn your attention to the line that says “Allow Agents to Request Appointments Online?” Set your preference, and don’t forget to save your changes!

That’s all there is to it! As you can see it’s quite easy to control your use of ShowingTime, either on a per listing basis or globally.

TT

Hello Technical Terry!

Help! I’ve been so busy this year helping clients that my license renewal snuck up on me and I need to get some elective CE credit pronto. What am I going to do?

Ida in Felida

Hello Ida in Felida!

Ah yes, the clamor of REALTORS® in need of CE to renew their licenses—what a beautiful sound! Don’t worry, RMLS™ has some resources to help.

Of course the RMLS™ Education Summit and Trade Fair is a major event that RMLS™ holds each year to offer lots of free CE to subscribers. The event has passed for this year, but we also bring our Broker Education Series (BES) events to subscribers across the region. In fact, there’s a BES event happening in Lincoln City on May 22nd!

Aside from RMLS™ events, we also help industry organizations promote their classes and opportunities. Two great places to check for upcoming CE opportunities is on the RMLSweb desktop page and the RMLScentral events calendar (which has 12 event listings in May alone!).

So Ida, when you’re in need of some CE, check out our resources! And if you want to share a class or event with other industry professionals, send the details along to us and we’ll take care of the rest.

Technical Terry in RMLS™land

Tired of playing phone tag with other REALTORS® to secure a showing appointment? Learn how ShowingTime can save you time! This exciting new offering will go live on RMLSweb on May 2nd.

Listeners may now subscribe to Real Talk with RMLS™ on iTunes and Google Play!

Music: “Tropical Summer” by ArtIss (via MelodyLoops.com)

ShowingTime is an efficient online scheduling tool allowing, but not requiring, RMLS™ subscribers to schedule a showing from right inside RMLSweb. Listing brokers using ShowingTime may set up showing schedules, automate communications with owners, while confirming, rescheduling, or denying showing appointments. Buyers’ brokers may use ShowingTime to schedule appointments, get driving directions. ShowingTime can even be used for showing feedback!

Here are just a few of the ways ShowingTime can help RMLS™ subscribers:

• Create showing schedules for listings
• Schedule showings for a listing
• Instant notifications via text, email, or phone when showings are requested/confirmed
• Online access to showing information from any device
• Showing Feedback
• Schedule multiple showings at once (via Showing Cart)
• Map a buyer’s tour
• Display driving directions

All of this is free to RMLSweb users, but power users may want to level up to the ShowingTime paid product for advanced capabilities.

JUMP-START YOUR SHOWINGTIME EXPERIENCE

ShowingTime is offering a limited run of webinars for RMLS™ subscribers. Get acquainted by joining one of the four webinars happening May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

Once the product goes live on May 2nd (along with the other RMLSweb projects debuting at the same time), head to RMLSweb. Navigate to the Toolkit menu and select ShowingTime (above).

Set up your user preferences on this page—they will help you use ShowingTime successfully. Scroll down this page to find a special button to download the ShowingTime app and access your account easily, without a lengthy login process.

SET UP SHOWINGTIME ON A LISTING

Once your preferences are set up, you may enable ShowingTime on any of your RMLSweb listings in Listing Load:

Once you’ve enabled ShowingTime on a listing, head back to the ShowingTime page (or use your app) to set up a showing calendar for the property, add your clients into the loop, set up automatic feedback requests, and more.

(Note that showing instructions don’t automatically transfer from RMLSweb to ShowingTime, so users will need to enter the information again.)

REQUEST A SHOWING

Buyers’ agents, when you find a property in RMLSweb that you’d like to show, simply click the ShowingTime icon wherever you see it—in list view (above), detail view, or on the Agent Full report.

Simply fill out the form and either schedule a single showing or add to your ShowingCart to request a batch of showings at a later time.

ShowingTime has more intricacies and features that RMLSweb users are sure to appreciate. Sign up for the webinars happening May 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, to learn more! These webinars will only be offered a few times by ShowingTime, so register today.

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 Technical Terry,

Around the water cooler the other day, my coworkers were abuzz about some form of showing appointment system they think is coming to RMLSweb. Is this true or just a rumor? What can you tell me about it?

Nosy in Newberg

Dear Nosy,

The rumor is true! The RMLS™ Technology Committee advised—and the RMLS™ Board of Directors agreed—that ShowingTime should be integrated into RMLSweb. We anticipate the debut of this new product to coincide with the annual forms change—roughly late April or early May.

RMLS™ subscribers will have access to a free, basic version of ShowingTime through RMLSweb. Here are some of the features:

• Listing agents can configure an online appointment calendar for each listing that will display blocks of time when the listing is available to be shown.

• Three settings can be used for a listing. Appointment Required requires an explicit accept/decline from the listing agent or seller for the showing appointment to be finalized. Courtesy Call automatically accepts a scheduling appointment, sending a notification to the listing agent/office staff who then notify the seller of the showing. Go and Show is immediately accepted, also sending a notification to the listing agent but without any seller notification required.

• Basic notifications are sent via email, one-way text messaging, and through alerts on the ShowingTime mobile app.

• ShowingCart allows a showing agent to create a tour of listings using an interactive feature on the site. The agent can then submit all the appointment requests in one group once the order is finalized. The agent can even get driving directions for their client tour!

• Basic showing feedback is solicited.

• Listing activity reports are available.

ShowingTime has tech support available via phone, email, and chat seven days a week. They’ll be offering webinar training to RMLS™ subscribers before ShowingTime goes live on RMLSweb, with a dedicated training site available after the launch with short video tutorials.

ShowingTime will offer a premium subscription version for RMLS™ subscribers to purchase individually. The premium version will have even more tools including options for more detailed showing feedback and brokerage branding.

Sounds exciting, doesn’t it, Nosy? Have a look at ShowingTime online so the next time your coworkers are gathered around the water cooler, you’ll be able to teach them a thing or two!

Technical Terry

Dear TT,

I’m so excited to come to this year’s RMLS™ trade fair in Portland! One of my favorite parts of the event is cruising around the trade fair hall entering drawings. I know there’s a trade fair exhibitor list, but will information be posted in advance about the prizes available at the event?

Q. D. McGraw

Dear Q.D.,

I’m so excited to hear you love our annual event so much! I’ve got some bad news for you though—we do not generally release information about prizes in the on-site drawings in advance of the event. There are several reasons for this, including that we often don’t get information about some prizes until a day or two in advance!

Speaking of the prize drawings though, it’s worth noting that the system for entering drawings will change this year. In the past, trade fair attendees could take a map to designated vendors for a stamp and every stamp would earn the attendee one entry into the drawing. If you visited four of the six designated vendors to get a stamp, you could return to the RMLS™ booth and give us four business cards to enter into the raffle bin.

This year, attendees will need to visit every designated vendor on the map to earn one entry. This entry will be valid for all the prize drawings that happen at the RMLS™ info booth. In the above example then, you’d need to visit six vendors to submit one card for the drawings.

Why are we making this change? We want to cut down on wasting the business cards you’ve paid for, for starters. We also wanted to make the prize drawings more streamlined for our staff at the RMLS™ booth as well. Everyone will have an equal chance to win each prize, and by design the prizes will be distributed more evenly among attendees.

We’ve got some higher-value prizes lined up for this year’s drawings, Q.D., so definitely make time in your day to visit the trade fair vendors! And those of you who could care less about drawings, register for classes or our keynote session sooner than later or you could miss out!

T. Terry

You’ve found a great potential home for your client, and you know it won’t be on the market long. You want to show it to your client as soon as possible, but 5am is hardly the time to be calling the seller’s agent. If only there was a way to schedule a showing online…

ShowingTime is a new service that is set to roll out on RMLSweb this spring along with other RMLSweb improvements we’ve recently written about. Once released, RMLS™ subscribers will be able to schedule a showing from inside RMLSweb, eliminating the phone tag that can slow down the process of securing a property showing.

Sellers’ agents putting a listing into RMLSweb can—but don’t have to—use ShowingTime to facilitate showings. If ShowingTime is used, a listing agent may choose to make an open schedule (ideal for vacant listings or empty parcels of land), require an appointment during a schedule they set, or display showing instructions only.

Brokers who have found a property with ShowingTime enabled may schedule their showing immediately, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A showing schedule is available so the property is never mistakingly double-booked, and an instant confirmation with showing instructions is delivered via text or email to both showing agent and listing agent.

Aside from its basic functions, ShowingTime will offer other amenities for RMLS™ subscribers. ShowingTime creates notifications via email, text, or through its mobile app so both agents have a confirmation of a showing. A feature called ShowingCart can help an agent create a tour of properties and other stops the group may want to make, complete with driving directions. Basic showing feedback is solicited and collected in one place for convenience. Listing activity reports are available for properties using ShowingTime, including the ability to export the showing data. Naturally, ShowingTime has a mobile app for iOS and Android with a mobile site available for Windows or Blackberry devices.

RMLS™ subscribers interested in having even more tools can pay for ShowingTime’s premium service which adds the option of brokerage branding, with special ShowingTime tools to offer sellers who want to have more involvement in the process.

Training will be available to RMLS™ subscribers leading up to the rollout through webinars, video tutorials, and standalone tips. Live technical support will also be available seven days a week via phone, email, or chat.

Get ready to schedule showings easily and conveniently once ShowingTime is available later this spring!

RMLS™ is excited to announce that our development team has started work on several projects which will be released on RMLSweb this spring.

On the surface these projects look very different, but as they require some bigger back-end changes to the website, we’ll be rolling them into one project that should make a big splash with RMLS™ subscribers once it all goes live.

COMING SOON/NO SHOWING STATUS

UPDATE (April 5, 2018): Read more details about Coming Soon/No Showing

Creation of a new listing status, Coming Soon/No Showing, was approved by the RMLS™ Board of Directors in September. This new status will mean changes to the RMLS™ Rules and Regulations as well as the Authorization to Exclude from MLS Addendum.

2017 FORMS CHANGE

UPDATE (April 5, 2018): Read more details about this year’s forms changes

RMLS™ will be rolling out the 2017 forms change, a regular improvement of the forms and fields on RMLSweb that are a direct result of input from RMLS™ subscribers.

Subscriber comments are given to the Forms Committee, then recommendations are approved by the RMLS™ board. This year’s changes were approved in November, and highlights include updated language to listing contracts, improved addendums, terminology changes, and some new features and small changes to other fields in RMLSweb.

SHOWING TIME

UPDATE (April 5, 2018): Read more details about ShowingTime

ShowingTime is coming to RMLSweb! ShowingTime makes the scheduling of showings easy for everyone. RMLS™ subscribers can edit and control the showing schedule on their own listings, reducing calls and the inevitable phone tag. Using ShowingTime will be optional, so subscribers who would rather schedule showings offline will still be able to do so.

Watch RMLScentral and the RMLSweb desktop page in the coming weeks, as we’ll be discussing each piece of this larger project in more detail. If you have a question about any of these, leave it for us below!