2006 MLS Committee Report

Striving to improve your MLS

By Jeff Murray, Chair
MLS Committee 

The MLS Committee has been very busy this year -- right from the start!

On January 1, 2006, we began implementation of the fining system approved last year by the MLS Committee and Board of Directors. For the first three months of the year, members received a communication identifying the offense(s) and what the fine would be if they repeated it after the warning period.

Having accurate information in our database will make a better MLS for all our members.

Approximately 20 percent of the listings submitted during January contained fineable offenses. That number decreased drastically before we reached the time for actually assessing fines. Staff had their hands full just checking new listings that were submitted for violations. As time permits, they are starting to sift through our existing inventory.

We greatly appreciate all the feedback and suggestions received from the membership. There's going to be quite a learning curve and we need your patience while we work out any bugs.

You have the right to appeal any fine notice you receive. However, you are required to mail a check for the amount of your fine along with your appeal letter. If a member fails to pay their fine within 30 days, the debt becomes the responsibility of the broker and will be added to their board bill.

We ceased publishing MLS Books on May 1, 2006. This was a very hard and long thought out decision. As fewer and fewer people purchased the books, the price kept climbing. As the price continued going up, sales continued going down. It got to the point where we couldn't accurately predict the number of monthly book sales to set the price properly and the MLS was losing money. We were able to add a print option in CBR Tempo? that allows you to print out pages that look just like the book did.

As our "Regional MLS" continues to grow, the need to change some of our areas was brought to our attention. Knox County has been divided in a fashion similar to Licking County. The new areas are: KNE, KNW, KSE, KSW, and KMV (Mt. Vernon).

The practitioners in the Pickaway County area chose a similar arrangement except theirs follows Township lines instead of highways and includes: PNE, PNW, PSW, PSE, and PCI (Circleville).

Crawford County was given its own area, CRA.

Additional changes have included modifications and additions to the worksheet which address issues the membership brought to us. Some of these include the addition of a field for a phone number of a showing service, egress windows and walk-up in basements, and `Community Data' added to Subdivision/Complex.

The MLS Committee is made up of elected representatives from all sizes of firms and includes our surrounding counties. If you have concerns or suggestions to make your MLS better, please notify any MLS Committee member or MLS Staff person so your issue can be addressed.