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

As of September 29, 2015, there have been some BIG changes in how automatic emails work in the MLS. These changes are part of FBS’s (the software vendor for the MLS) first response to reduce the growing number of emails blocked by spam filters and to ensure that notifications of new listings reach their intended recipients. Here are the highlights of the changes:

• New Terminology
  • The term Automatic Emails has been replaced by Subscriptions. The functionality is the same but the verbiage for these “automatically sent listing emails” will now be “Subscriptions”.

• Mandatory Client Opt-In
  • Clients must opt-in (agree to receive) for automatic listing emails to begin.
  • An opt-in confirmation e-mail will be sent to the recipient before listings are sent. 
  • The button in the opt-in confirmation email must be clicked by the client to confirm that they agree to receive subscription emails.

• Expiration Rule Changes
  • Email notifications will continue indefinitely if the client is actively clicking on links within the emails being sent to them (just as in the past). This applies to subscriptions setup before and after September 29, 2015.
  • The opt-in status will expire after 90 days only if the recipient does not click any listing links in the listing update emails.
  • If the client does not click links within emails or the subscription does not send any emails within 90 days:
    • After a subscription expires, the agent may send another one-time opt-in email to the client through the Contact Manager, clicking the client’s name, then clicking “Send opt-in request” next to the email address that needs the request sent. If the client clicks on the link to agree to opt back into subscriptions, the client’s subscriptions will be good for another 90 days. There is no longer an agent option to extend the subscription before it expires. In other words, the client must agree to receive subscription emails.
    • To avoid the need for the agent to send an opt-in request to the client, the client may click a listing link in the automatic emails sent to them, prior to the 90 day expiration to extend the subscription (auto-email) for an additional 90 days.

• Improved Visual Design
  • The search name now shows at the top of the body of the email, making for easier identification for the client, especially when the client receives notifications on multiple searches.
  • The email sent to your client will look better than ever.

Full details about the changes to Subscriptions (Auto-Email):

New Terminology: Subscriptions
Flexmls will no longer use the terminology Automatic E-mail. Instead, automatic notifications of new listings will be known as Subscriptions. Just as before with automatic emails, subscriptions will appear in the contact’s News Feed. Also, just as before, you can create a subscription at the same time you save a search to a contact. Adding the subscription follows the same process as adding an automatic email.

Confirming New Subscriptions
When you create a subscription for an email address that has never received an auto email or subscription before, the first time there is a listing that matches the search criteria the email address will receive an email asking the contact to click a link to Confirm Email Address. Clicking the link will take them to a landing page where they can confirm that they would like to receive listing updates via email. The recipient will not receive email notifications of new listings for their subscription unless they click to confirm their email address.

On the Confirm Email Delivery landing page, they will click Confirm and View Listings. After clicking, they will be taken to their News Feed where they will see all of the listings that were added between the time they received the confirmation email and the time they clicked to confirm their subscription.

If your contact does not click to subscribe, you can send an additional reminder asking them to click to subscribe. To do this, go to the Contact Management screen under the Contacts menu, select the contact, and click Send opt-in request.
Note: You can only send the reminder once, so it would be appropriate to contact the user personally before resending the Confirm Subscription invitation.

Existing Contacts and Confirming Subscriptions
Your contacts in Flexmls who already receive automatic emails will continue receiving notifications–there will be no break in continuity for them. There will be a notice at the top of the listing notification email alerting them that by clicking to view the listings, they are opting in to the listing subscription service. If they do not click to view the notification emails within 90 days, they will fall into the Expiration category detailed below.

When do Subscriptions Expire?
Subscription notifications will not expire unless the recipient goes 90 days without clicking on an email notification for the subscription. After 90 days of non-use, email notifications for the subscription will expire. The particular email address associated with a subscription can expire independently of the subscription itself. For example, if the recipient does not click on the subscription link sent via email, but is otherwise active in the portal, then that email address will expire after 90 days of non-use. The email address will be considered lapsed and shown as Inactive on the Contact Management screen. No more listing updates will be sent to that inactive email address. However, since the user is active in their portal, they will still get listing updates to that subscription whenever they login to the portal.

If a recipient never clicks on a subscription link via email and never signs into the Portal, the email notifications and the subscription will expire after 90 days. The email address will show as Inactive on the Contact Management screen and and no updates will be added to the News Feed.

Note: Because your contacts opt-in to receiving subscriptions, you will no longer be able to extend the notification emails by 90 days. When you go to the Contacts menu and select Subscriptions (the option formerly known as Automatic E-mails), there will be no option on the Subscriptions screen to extend the email notifications; if the contact has not clicked on any email notifications for 90 days, they will no longer receive listing updates at that email address.

Subscription Emails: A New Look
Although subscription email notifications sent to your contacts will function the same as automatic emails currently do, the emails will have a new, updated look. The name of the search will appear at the top of the email, functioning as a title. Additionally, the notification email will have a standardized business card attached containing your contact information, it will no longer use the business card selected in your portal preferences. This will ensure a clean, easy to read look whether your contact is viewing the email on a computer or mobile device.

Subscriptions at a Glance
As noted above, you can go to the Subscriptions page under the Contacts menu to view all of your Subscriptions.

In addition, the first tab of the Contact Management screen also shows each email address associated with the contact and a summary of subscription notifications for that address. A bell next to the email address indicates that it is set to receive subscription notifications. The ‘Last Subscription E-mail Activity’ column indicates the last time the contact clicked to view their subscription. The ‘Status’ column shows whether that email address has been Opted-in (i.e. Confirmed), Opted-out, or is Inactive due to lack of use. Finally, the ‘Action’ column allows you to manually send an opt-in request. Remember, you can only click to manually send the opt-in request once, so it is best to contact the user personally before re-sending the opt-in request.

This article was originally posted September 17, 2015 @ 12:54:17.

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09/17/2015

CoreLogic will be performing system patching and reboots on systems which with Realist interacts this Saturday, September 12, 2015 beginning at 11:00 PM through 7:00 AM Sunday morning. Realist will be available, however users may experience issues while printing, saving or emailing reports during portions this maintenance window.

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09/11/2015

Today’s e-Notes included notification of a policy change to require that the Office Exclusive Waiver form must now include a copy of the Office Exclusive Listing Agreement. This was done to strengthen compliance with MLS rules.

However, upon reflection it was determined that singling out a certain type of listing agreement to audit (such as the Office Exclusive)  would be improper.

Therefore, although we still require the Office Exclusive Waiver form to be filed with MLS within 48 hours, we do not require a copy of the related listing agreement.

We apologize for the confusion.

If you have further questions, please contact MLS Director Bryan Dean (614) 498-1012.

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09/04/2015

CoreLogic will be performing system maintenance on Realist Saturday, September 5, 2015.  The maintenance will begin at 11:00 PM  and continue through approximately 11:00 AM Sunday morning.  Realist will be unavailable during portions of this maintenance period.

– Originally Posted on 08/27/15

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We have received reports that members could be seeing suspicious emails that appear to originate from Centralized Showing. As always, please take caution with any email that you do not recognize or the email is asking for information that you do not feel safe in providing.

If you have specific questions regarding these Centralized Showing Service emails, please contact Centralized Showing Service at (913) 754-3080, or by email kchelpdesk@showings.com

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09/03/2015

The Office Exclusive Waiver Form must now include a copy of the Listing Agreement.  In addition, signatures of the listing agent, broker, and seller are required.  The Office Exclusive Form will not be processed until all required signatures AND the listing agreement are received by the MLS.

This policy change is effective immediately.  The Office Exclusive Waiver Form has been updated to reflect this change (Dated 8/15). The Office Exclusive Waiver Form and the Listing Agreement will be kept on file by the MLS.

If you have any questions about this policy please contact Bryan Dean at bdean@columbusrealtors.com.

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08/27/2015

Providing your MLS password to anyone is a violation of MLS policy.

MLS Policy specifically forbids providing your password to any other user.  There is NOT an exception for vendors.  Do not provide your password to a vendor who will then log in as you to run searches or reports in the MLS.  This is a $500 fine.  Vendors are not permitted to login as you.

In addition to vendors, no one else is permitted to login as you either.  Other agents, members of your team, assistants, and all other users must have their own login. They must login as themself, then “superuse” (do business) as you.  Password sharing is not permitted.

MLS POLICY:

1.08.01 – Providing Login Name/Password to Non-Member $ 500 Violation Fee

Your login name and password is highly confidential and is not to be shared with other agents, unauthorized technology vendors or customers or clients. Your login name and password shall not be shared, disclosed or knowingly allowed to come into the possession of any other person except your broker, manager and/or office administrator in your real estate company. REALTOR® will be assessed an immediate violation fee.

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