MLS News

Two additions to the MLS Policies

The following items have been added to the MLS Policies. Fines for violations of either of these policies are expected to be implemented after proper notification is provided to members.

Section 4.13 - CBR TEMPO Reports: No standard or customized report shall be utilized as a part of any company, agent or personal web site. No linking to any report other than through the CBR TEMPO system or email sent through the CBR TEMPO system is permitted.
Section 4.13.1 - Client Listing Site: Links for the Client Listing Site in the CBR TEMPO system are intended to be used by agents/clients for which the information is specifically generated. These links shall not be posted to or used as a portion of any company, agent or personal web site outside of the CBR TEMPO system.

MLS Worksheet Revised

Several enhancements have been included on the revised MLS residential worksheet. Existing worksheets are still acceptable but the CBR Tempo? system will allow the new entries.

Property Type is now identified in the upper left hand corner only (it was removed from the body of the worksheet)
Showing Phone # is a new data field after the Additional Contact Info data field.
As an aid for the listing loader, bold markings were added to the work sheet to alert the person entering the listing of the need to answer questions regarding Variable Rate Commission, Listing Agreement Type and Internet (YES or NO question)
As a convenience, the number of allowable characters for Public Remarks (300) and Agent to Agent Remarks (800) were printed on the new worksheet
The new basement features of Egress Window(s) and Walkup were added
The new amenity of Garden/Soaking Tub was added
The overall flow of the worksheet is now better suited to follow the questioning asked on TEMPO.

New Reciprocal Agreement with Scioto Valley Association

CBR has signed a reciprocal agreement with the Scioto Valley Association of REALTORS® (SVAR) located in Chillicothe, Ohio. SVAR represents the counties of Ross, Vinton, Jackson and Pike. With this reciprocal agreement, CBR members may join the SVAR MLS and participate in their KeyBox system without having to pay additional REALTOR® dues to SVAR. As with any reciprocal agreement in Ohio, the broker is first required to join the Board/MLS before any sales associate may join. CBR also has a reciprocal agreement with Licking County, WRIST, Firelands, Marion, Lancaster and Mansfield.

Broker/Tenant Rep Data Field must contain a single number

Recently we've seen members entering a range in the Broker/Tenant Rep Data Field (i.e. 1-2, 2-3, 1-3 etc). Allegedly this practice is the result of bank-owned property being subject to last minute changes in commissions being paid to listing companies resulting in possible changes to the co-op companies. Per NAR (and therefore CBR) policy, this practice is not permitted and violates section 7.23 of the NAR Handbook on MLS Policies which requires compensation specificity.

Fines

Fines assessed in March amounted to $4,550 compared to February's $3,850, likely as a result of the increase in listings (5,846 in March compared to 4,033 in February). Top fine for March was Area with 12 violations, followed by Municipality and Non-Reported Closings each with 9. There were 65 fines in March compared with 49 in February. There were 249 warnings issued in March compared with 152 in February. With traditional areas likely to disappear with the new mapping product and the hope of auto popping municipality and/or township, it could serve to help members avoid warnings and fines in these areas.

Firefox Incompatible with Client Listing Site

The Client Listing Site (CLS) may not function correctly for clients who use Mozilla Firefox browser. This is not only for agents. This applies to clients who receive links to listings on a CLS created by an agent.

The link will take the client to their CLS, but the site itself will not be displayed correctly in the Firefox browser. The folder tabs "Favorites", "Possibilites", and "Rejected" will not be clickable. This means that a client will not be able to view their saved listings on the CLS using Firefox.

If your client encounters this problem, please have them close Firefox, and simply open Internet Explorer. The Internet Explorer browser will open the CLS and display the folder tabs correctly. Marketlinx is currently working to correct this problem, but an estimated time until Firefox is functional for clients is not known. Only Internet Explorer has ever been supported for agent TEMPO logins. Until recently, however, Firefox was supported for client access to listings and CLS. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

FYI...

There is a lot that the MLS Committee and Tech Staff do each month that is not always `newsworthy'. However, we'll try to include some of these tidbits as you may find them interesting.

New Mapping Product -- Although not every "i" is dotted or "t" crossed, everything is moving along on schedule to roll out the new mapping product on July 2, 2007.
Condo Fees do not appear on Realtor.com. (there was concern about this.)
Agent Remark Links -- CBR Tempo? will not accommodate live links in the `Agent Remarks' section. (We looked into this.)
Auto-popping Municipality -- this is not a simple process, but we're looking into it for the future.
Realist -- based on positive findings from the survey 1,138 members voluntarily took in March, CBR has entered into negotiations to extend this partnership beyond its contract expiration in July.
Bonus Room will be added to the feature list in the next update (expected August 2007)