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.  In the coming weeks, 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:

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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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07/08/2015

There have been 2 recent changes to the MLS:
1) Gated Community is now an optional selection in the Complex/Subdiv Amenities field for Residential and Res Rental
2) Late last week there was a change to make Seller Concession a required field. As of 6/30/15, this change has been temporarily disabled.

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06/26/2015

The MLS Committee completed a review of the Residential MLS reports in April in response to complaints that the Residential full report was too crowded and often spilled onto a second page when printing.

The following modifications/additions have been made to the Residential MLS Reports:
1) CR Full (1-Page) Report – Several modifications made to make the report fit on one page. These include:
– The name is the same in the print dialog box “CR Full Report”, but reads “CR Full 1-Page Report” at the top of the report itself.
– Move MLS number to the top of the report
– Address moved to the top of the report
– Contingency Reason field moved to top directly below Status field (when property is in Contingent Status)
– CDOM and DOM moved to the top
– Style moved to the top
– Approximate Complete Date field moved to right side below New Construction
– Complex/Subdiv Amenities field moved up to left of HOA/COA fields
– Listing Agreement Type, Addl Parcel Numbers, VT link, Windows, Interior Flooring all moved to CR Full 2-Page Report
– Sold Info will appear at bottom only for Sold properties. Otherwise it will be hidden.
– New fields added in the future will always be added to CR Full 2-Page Report.
2) Side by Side with Remarks – New 3-up style columnar report (Released earlier this month)
3) CR Full 2-Page Report – New report with designed to print to two pages.
– larger font size
– additional space between sections
– full A2A Remarks (CR Full 1-Page is limited to only 25% of the A2A remarks for space limitation)
– All additional fields will appear on the CR Full 2-Page report

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Realist service has been restored.

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this caused.

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06/16/2015

MLS Technical Support has seen that Realist is completely unavailable at this time.  This outage is unexpected and not planned maintenance.  Auto-population of tax data for new listings is included in this outage.

We will update this post when Realist is restored or when more information is available.

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A new report is now available in the MLS.  “Side by Side with Remarks” is a 3-up columnar report.  It will allow any 3 selected listings to be displayed “side-by-side” for easy review and comparison.  This report is now available for display, print, and email for all Residential listings.  Since this report is primarily intended for print (and PDF), it will sometimes display only 1 property on the Detail screen and when sent by email.  You can still print preview the report (as can the client) and the report will show 3 properties at a time.

To use the new report, simply select the report in the print or email window or even the drop-down list on the Detail tab.  If more than 1 property is selected, the report will automatically display and print 3 listings at a time.

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06/08/2015

Images appearing in the MLS may not be reused without written permission from the copyright holder. This applies to re-use on another MLS property or for other purposes such as display on external websites. The sole exception is MLS images provided for authorized IDX solutions where the data and connected images are authorized for display by the listing Broker’s active participation in IDX.  If you did not personally take an image, you must have written permission to reuse that image. If you paid an individual to take the image, you still need to verify from the copyright holder that your contract allows you to reuse the image. There can be serious legal and financial concerns when image copyright is violated. There may also be fines from the MLS for improper use of images without proper authorization from the copyright holder. If you have questions about photo usage, please contact your Broker, legal counsel or MLS staff.

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06/03/2015

Realist experienced an unexpected outage as of 5/28/15, 3:00am EDT that lasted until approximately Noon, May 31, 2015. The service has been indicated as being fully restored.

We apologize for the inconvenience. If you see any issues, please notify us at techsupport@columbusrealtors.com

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06/01/2015

On May 11, Auto E-mails will be able to see a View Count and Last Viewed Timestamp when viewing Atomatic E-mails on the My Sent E-mails page.

To view the screen, go to the Contacts tab and click My Sent E-mails, then select Automatic. From here there will be two new columns of information. The View Count will show how many times a user has clicked to view their newsfeed for the automatic e-mail and the Timestamp will show the last time that newsfeed has been viewed.

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05/07/2015

On May 11, FBS will release several improvements relating to the News Feed in automatic e-mails and portals.

Viewing Automatic E-Mails – News Feed Menu
Just as before, when a user clicks on a link in an automatic e-mail, the link opens to that listing highlighted in the News Feed. A News Feed icon will now be shown on the left side of the screen. The number next to the icon indicates how many listings have not been read by the user. By default, the News Feed shows all listings with unread listings in white and read listings in grey. Listings become marked as read when the user views the listing report on the Detail tab, or when they click the Mark All as Read button.

If the user has portal access, when they click to view listings from an auto e-mail, they will have an expanded menu available underneath the News Feed and they will be able to rate listings and view their Favorites, Likes, and No Interest listing collections.

Regardless of whether the user has Portal access, they will have access to your contact information by clicking on your photo at the top of the News Feed menu.

Portal Changes – News Feed
When using the portal, the Inbox has been relabeled as the News Feed to make moving between automatic e-mails and the portal a seamless process. When a user logs into the portal, the landing page will be the News Feed. If the user is not associated with an automatic e-mail, they will go to the search results page for the search that appears at the top of their Saved Searches.

Although the default page that users see after logging in has been changed, they can still access the original My Account page at any time by clicking on the My Account link in the upper right corner.

New Setting for News Feeds – Allow Statuses that No Longer Match Search Criteria
Since the News Feed shows a record of all the listings the user has received, it is now possible to allow listings to stay in the News Feed even if the listing has changed status to no longer match the original search criteria. This applies to the News Feed when accessed from either an auto e-mail or from the portal. By default, all statuses allowed by the MLS will be allowed in to stay in the News Feed.

If you want to change the default statuses allowed in Auto E-Mails and the Portal, go to the Preferences Menu and select Portal Preferences. Under the Portal Preferences section, you have access to the setting called Allow these statuses in the portal news feed for listings that no longer match.

If you would like to exclude statuses for appearing for a specific portal contact, go to the Contacts Menu and select Contact Management. Select the user, click on their Portal tab, and select Change Settings.

You can then select which statuses appear for that specific contact when they view the News Feed.

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