All agents and brokerages must adjust their showing schedule to comply with the Showing Start Date on the MLS.  Most 3rd party showing services offer the ability to set a start date for showings.  This will mirror the Showing Start Date in MLS. Listings cannot have showings for ANYONE prior to the Showing Start Date.

Any brokerage that does not use a 3rd party showing service should make sure that all staff are aware of the new Showing Start Date.

Showing Start Date is now live and required entry for all listings.  Please make all staff aware of this new field and it’s significance when scheduling a showing for a listing that has a future Showing Start Date.

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12/14/2015

View the full results from the MLS election
http://columbusrealtors.com/NewsDetail/mls-election-results-15

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12/10/2015

Implementation of the “Showing Start Date” field has been delayed due to programming issues. The projected release date is now December 14.

New showing policy is in place.  Verbiage such as “No Showings until 12/30/2015” is allowed in the Property Description field. You may also include a reason for the delayed showings such as “new carpet being installed”.  All wording in the Property Description field is still subject to MLS policies, rules and regulations.

Previous Message from 11/24/15:

Showing Start Date field – New Field in MLS

Our MLS has developed a solution to assist our members in promoting those listings “not quite ready for showing” while still entering them in MLS.  A new “Showing Start Date” field will be added to our MLS to enable members to enter an exact date when showings will begin.  Target date for implementation is December 1.

For an explanation of the reasoning behind this new field and how it will work,  Read the Full Article.

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12/01/2015

A recent industry-wide standardization of data fields (RESO) required a new format for several fields in the MLS.  Buyer Broker Tenant Rep (BBTR),Sub Agency (SA) and Listing Agreement Type were modified.

The new format for BBTR and SA is simply 3 fields for each.  Previously, BB/TR Amount and SA Amount were entered as “$3000” or “3%”. There will now be a discreet field for each.  The Listing Agreement Type field was split into 2 fields.  See details of the new fields formats below.

New Format for Buyer Broker/Tenant Rep and Sub Agency Fields:

Buy Brkr/Tenant Rep (Yes/No) – Yes will require entry of fields below.
BB/TR Amount (numeric only field with 2 decimal places)BB/TR Type ($/%)
BB/TR Type ($/%)

Sub Agency (Yes/No) – Yes will require entry of fields below.
SA Amount (numeric only field with 2 decimal places)
SA Type ($/%)

New Format for Listing Agreement Type field (New field added):

Listing Agreement Type (ERS and EA) – Required entry.
Listing Service (Limited Services and MLS Entry Only) – Optional entry.

The data for existing listings should have converted automatically to the new fields.  It is recommended that you review these fields to make sure the automated processes correctly transferred the selections in these very important fields.

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11/17/2015

Changes made overnight to several fields in the MLS caused some difficulty with listing entry this morning. Most of those issues have now been resolved.  Add/Edit should now function as expected.  If you delayed entry of any listing, please enter that listing or listing change at this time.

A recent industry-wide change (RESO) required a new format for several fields in the MLS.  Buyer Broker Tenant Rep (BBTR) and Sub Agency (SA) Fields as well as Listing Agreement Type were modified.  Those new formats were implemented last night.  It appears that the old fields still active this morning.  The Listing Service field was required when it should not have been.  There was also an erroneous requirement to enter data in both fields, regardless if “yes” was selected.

For a description of the field changes that prompted these issues, please read the full article on the MLS Message Board.

The new format is simply 3 fields for each: BBTR and SA.  Previously, BB/TR Amount and SA Amount were entered as “$3000” or “3%”. There will now be a discreet field for each.  The Listing Agreement Type field was split into 2 fields.  See details of the new fields formats below.

New Format for Buyer Broker/Tenant Rep and Sub Agency Fields:

Buy Brkr/Tenant Rep (Yes/No)
BB/TR Amount (numeric only field with 2 decimal places)BB/TR Type ($/%)

Sub Agency (Yes/No)
SA Amount (numeric only field with 2 decimal places)
SA Type ($/%)

New Format for Listing Agreement Type field:

Listing Agreement Type (ERS and EA)
Listing Service (Limited Services and MLS Entry Only)

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If you are using Internet Explorer 11 to access Flexmls, it is possible you may be receiving an error message when trying to access various sections of the system. This is likely caused by your browser having Compatibility Mode turned ON for the Flexmls system. Flexmls has not ever needed Compatibility View turned on, but in some cases, your may have accidentially set your browser to work in this mode for the website. The error you receive will be:

Clearing your cache will not resolve the issue. The resolve is to remove flexmls.com from your list of Compatibility View enabled sites.

To do so, you can do the following:

1. Look for the gear icon that should be displayed on the upper right corner of Internet Explorer. Click on this icon.
2. From the menu, select compatibility view settings.
3. On the list presented under “Websites you’ve added to Compatibility View”, locate any address that contains the string of flexmls.com. Possible entries may be *.flexmls.com or cr.flexmls.com
   • 
4. Highlight the entry and click on the remove button on the right. Repeat if there are more than one instance of flexmls listed. (You do NOT need to remove other sites from this list)
5. Once all flexmls entries are removed, hit the close button.
6. Close out of all instances of Internet Explorer. Once they are all closed, you can re-open a fresh copy of the program and try again.

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11/05/2015

Beginning Monday, November 2, email frequency for Subscription emails will change slightly.  No change or action is required by the agent or client.  All current auto-email subscriptions will continue to be delivered.  The change will only affect “Weekly” subscriptions.  ASAP and Monthly subscriptions will not be affected by this change.

The “Weekly” delivery schedule will now send any matched listings once per day instead of three.  The listings will typically be sent between 4-6am each day. The days of the week can still be selected when using the “Weekly” setting.

This change restores the original delivery schedule that existed with the previous MLS vendor prior to February 2014. FBS did not have an “ASAP” option in early 2014.  Our daily (now called “Weekly” delivery was changed from one to three times per day as a temporary fix.  When ASAP delivery (every few minutes), the three times per day option was to be removed.  That is exactly what will happen on November 2, 2015.

Agents who wish to have the MLS immediately send new or changed listing should use the ASAP option.  The previous “Weekly” three times per day option is delayed 8 hours between batches.  Agents who wish to give a “once-a-day” batch delivery of all changes for the last 24 hours will now have that option with “Weekly” delivery.

Summary:

1. Auto Email will still have the same 3 options: Weekly (now once per day), ASAP (every few minutes), or Monthly.
2. Weekly delivery will now be once per day instead of three times per day.
3. There will be stragglers until November 4^th. (auto-email that were already in the process). These will continue to send three times per day until the queue is cleared.   All “weekly” subscriptions should truly be once per day by Nov. 4.

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10/30/2015

We have been aware that the Flexmls system has been down since at least 5:56 am this morning. We have heard response from our vendor, FBS, that they are aware and looking into the situation. At this time, there is no ETA of recovery. When we hear more or service is restored, we will update this message.

Update 1: Response from FBS – “Outage Identified – Routine maintenance this morning has lead to a situation where the flexmls system is unavailable to all users. We’re aware of this issue and the components involved and are working to restore service.  ”

Final Update: Response from FBS – All systems appear to be operational at this time. We continue to monitor the situation. Timestamped 8:40 am.

FBS (software vendor) Explanation below:

What happened?

In the early morning hours of Friday, October 9th, the Flexmls system became unavailable. The outage was caused by planned maintenance and lasted about 2.5 hours from approximately 5:00AM-7:30AM (Central). The database involved spans both our primary and backup data centers, so both were impacted by the outage.

What were we doing?

The work we were doing was adding an index to one of our database systems. Creation of an index can (and was today) be a long and intensive operation. After the index was created, services did not recover on their own and intervention was required. The benefit of indexes is that they help the system perform faster after they are in place.

Will this happen again?

We will be re-evaluating index creation procedures moving forward. We will also be working on an initiative to upgrade systems involved so that, when we do need to create an index, it won’t be such a long window of system unavailability. We know our users depend on our system to be available when they need it and we failed to deliver on that this morning.

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10/09/2015

Listings in MLS that do not have a building permit are required to be marked “Build-to-Suit” in the Sub-Type field.  The trigger event for a listing to be marked as “New Construction” is acquisition of a Building Permit.  Prior MLS policy has required that the building permit be attached to the listing.  NAR has recently reviewed this requirement and advised that we no longer require “attachment” of the PDF building permit.

MLS policy still requires that a property marked “New Construction = Yes” in the MLS has obtained a building permit.  This listing can be marked Condo or Single Family in the Sub-Type field.  The only change is that the PDF of the permit does not have to be attached to the listing when it is entered into the MLS.  The building permit PDF can still be uploaded as an optional attached document, but attachment is no longer mandatory.  Listings without a building permit are still required to be marked “Build-to-Suit” in the Sub-Type field.

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10/05/2015

The field “SqFt Tax Record” must now be filled in for all MLS listings within 15 days of entry into the MLS.  This field can no longer be left blank.  Agents who have nothing entered in this field will receive an email notifying them of the new policy.

The MLS committee and Board of Directors made this new requirement because there are quite a few listings in the MLS with no entry in the SqFt Tax Record field.  This causes inaccuracy in CMA’s and statistical reports.  This field was deemed very important to agents for search, as well as statistical purposes.

Below is the full text of the message to be sent to agents:

——————————————————————
MLS Policy requires the Sq Ft Tax Record field to be accurate for all listings. The listing agent must provide proof of taxable square footage from a professional source to the MLS within 15 days from the entry date.  You must provide this proof by email in PDF format or by FAX. You cannot update the listing’s Sq Ft Tax Record yourself.  The field is locked after initial entry.

You will continue to receive this notification for 15 days or until the field is updated by MLS staff.  After 15 days, the listing agent will receive a Data Maintenance Fee for late entry of Sq Ft Tax Record. This policy applies to all Residential and Res Rental listings.

PROOF OF SQ. FT. SOURCE DOCUMENTS:

MLS staff must update the Sq. Ft. Tax Record field for you based upon the source document you provide.  Acceptable source documents include county auditor’s record, appraisals, builder statements and floor plans provided by a builder, architect or licensed appraiser.  Please submit these documents to MLS so your listing can be updated immediately.  You may submit documentation as a PDF by email or FAX.

SUBMIT TO:

EMAIL:  mlscorrections@columbusrealtors.com
FAX: (614) 416-0258
QUESTIONS?  (614) 475-4000 (ask for MLS Corrections)

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09/18/2015