Wording from the ‘Brokerage Exclusive Waiver’ form has been added to the MLS ‘Exclusive Right to Sell (ERS) Listing Contract.’  This includes changes to brokerage exclusive workflow (for purposes of Clear Cooperation).

Notable changes to the Contract and Policy Requirements:

• Brokerages using the MLS ‘Exclusive Right to Sell (ERS) Listing Contract’ with the new wording will not be required to submit the ‘Brokerage Exclusive Waiver’ form.
• Brokerages using their own listing contracts that do not mirror that of the MLS, will be required to complete the ‘Brokerage Exclusive Waiver’ form.
• Neither form will be required for submission to the MLS unless specifically requested by the MLS.
• In addition to the wording from the Brokerage Exclusive Waiver form, spaces for the agents’ phone numbers will be added to the bottom of the listing contract.

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09/07/2023

Below is a message from FBS, Makers of Flexmls regarding cybersecurity measures they have in place to protect Columbus and Central Ohio Regional MLS’ data.

With the recent, unfortunate ransomware attacks on real estate software, you’re likely wondering what FBS does to protect and prevent malware/ransomware attacks on our software and systems. While cyber attacks and attackers are constantly evolving and becoming more sophisticated, we want to assure you that system security and proactive attack-prevention are utmost priorities. This email is intended to review with you both the general security practices FBS follows and to provide details regarding the software and services we use to provide protection of our server and cloud network against attacks.

General Security Practices:

Most malware/ransomware attacks are the result of unpatched or outdated software or from employees clicking on untrusted links or attachments. In general, to mitigate these elements:

• FBS performs scheduled updates on server operating systems to keep them up to date. Installed package versions are monitored and cross referenced with databases of known vulnerabilities. Critical security updates are performed quickly (usually within 24 hours) for systems that might be impacted by a critical bug.
• All FBS employees are trained and tested on various approaches used in inbound email attacks using a service called KnowBe4.
• Inbound emails are scanned for malware to prevent them appearing in inboxes.
• All employees run Endpoint Detection and Response software by SentinelOne. This software combines static and behavioral detections to neutralize known and unknown threats.
• There is a firewall at the edge of the network filtering in and out traffic. This ensures that the outside world can only send traffic to servers specifically intended to handle that traffic.
• Traffic that is allowed through the firewall is analyzed by an intrusion prevention filter that looks for common attack methods and filters them out.
• FBS has a service that monitors traffic patterns and will mitigate traffic that corresponds to a denial of service event related to Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

FBS Uses CrowdStrike to Protect, Prevent, and Remediate Attacks:
Regular antivirus software doesn’t offer protection against “unknown threats,” it usually has a database of virus signatures and it scans the hard drive for known viruses, quarantining them when detected or executed. That will only protect against what is known or has been seen before. For more proactive protection, all FBS servers run CrowdStrike’s Endpoint Detection and Response software and service. Similar to the SentinelOne product used on workstations, CrowdStrike protects our server network using a combination of known signatures and behavioral data (e.g., snooping the network, phoning home, encrypting files, etc.) to identify threats on the server endpoints. This software detects, understands, and ejects malicious intrusions in under 60 minutes (less than the average ransomware breakout time of 84 minutes). If a threat or suspicious activity is detected, CrowdStrike has 24/7/365 security experts to immediately investigate and remediate the threat. 

In the Event of A Successful Attack, What Would Happen?
With the ever-changing nature of cybercrime, there is no 100% protection or guarantee available and it isn’t possible to predict solution times without context of the specific threat. What we can say is that FBS’s contracts all promise 99.9% uptime, which only allows less than 45 minutes of downtime per month. To meet this obligation, FBS has all customer data backed-up locally and to the Cloud. Depending on the severity of the threat, customer traffic may be routed to the cloud or restored from backup to provide continued service to our customers. If the solution is to failover to the backup site, capacity can be increased in the cloud in minutes to accommodate the increased workload of handling production traffic. If the type of threat requires restoring from backup, that likely would take hours but not days.  

In sum, the key to avoiding long downtimes from a security incident is preventing an attack in the first place and FBS follows security best practices and uses best-of-breed security software and services to do that. FBS knows how critical our software and service is to you and your members and we take that responsibility very seriously. Though no system can be made 100% secure, FBS is confident in the solutions and services we’ve deployed to protect your MLS system. We hope this email answers your questions but please let us know if any remain.

The FBS Team

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08/16/2023

At 3:14pm May 11th CoreLogic alerted us that Realist is currently experiencing an outage.

This will impact your ability to access Realist and use the “Load Tax Record” option in the MLS.

CoreLogic Provided the following:
“Realist is currently experiencing intermittent user access connectivity issues.  This is being treated as a critical priority.  The technical teams have been gathered and are working to resolve this as soon as possible.”

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05/11/2023

At 2:41pm May 3rd CoreLogic alerted us that Realist is currently experiencing an outage.

This will impact your ability to access Realist and use the “Load Tax Record” option in the MLS.

CoreLogic Provided the following:
“Realist is currently experiencing intermittent user access connectivity issues.  This is being treated as a critical priority.  The technical teams have been gathered and are working to resolve this as soon as possible.”

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05/03/2023

Two new columns will be added to the One Line CMA on April 14, 2023.

• Original List Price (OLP)
• Sale Price to Original List Price Ratio (SP$/OSP$)

The Full Bath (FB) and Half Bath (HB) fields have been abbreviated to make room for the additional fields. The Parking field width was also narrowed slightly.

This change will be made first to Residential CMA, then to all other property types.

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04/11/2023

Changes to your MLS contact information, such as email or phone number, will now be handled within the Member Portal.

Previously, you would make those changes in Flexmls by going to the “My Profile” page. This page still exists. However, you must click the button at the bottom labeled Click Here to be redirected to the Member Portal profile page.

Click the Columbus MLS button under Subscriptions.

On the Subscription Details page for Columbus MLS, click the Edit button at the bottom right. Be sure to click Save when done.

You Association Membership profile (association specifically, not MLS) is a separate page. To update your membership profile , click Profile on the left hand side below My Association (closer to the top).

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02/13/2023

The default field for CMA Statistical Average calculations in Flexmls is SqFt Documented. This has not changed. Additional options have been added on the “Create CMA” screen.

SqFt ATFLS and Acreage have been added to the drop-down list for the Statistical Average field.

Changing this selection will determine the field used for the Statistical Average displayed on the CMA reports.

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01/25/2023

CoreLogic has scheduled system maintenance this weekend and next, Sunday, December 10, from 1:00am to 6:00am and Sunday, December 17, from 1:00am to 4:00am.  During this time, Realist and autopop may be intermittently unavailable.

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12/09/2022

You can now download the latest revision of the MLS Policy Violation Manual.  The manual has been updated for changes effective December 1, 2022.

Changes include the following:

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12/02/2022

MLS policy 1.02.08 has been modified. The previous policy allowed only Res Rental and Business Opportunity listings to be entered simultaneously in other Property types for single parcel. The policy has been modified to expand the multiple entry ability to better serve the seller and buyer.

Members should use caution when entering listings in multiple property types. If listings are entered incorrectly, fines apply to each listing. More listings equals more potential for errors and fines. Also, members must be knowledgeable about each type of property in order to properly and professionally represent their client.

Updated Policy as of December 1, 2022:

1.02.08 – Multiple Entry of the Same Property Fine with Warning
Warning, $100, $200, $500
Each listing entered with a single parcel number in the MLS may be submitted in multiple property types as long as the following conditions are met. However, separate parcels with options to sell as a package or individually and property for sale or for lease may each be entered separately.
• All must have the same list price .
• All must have the same data wherever possible
• Must include all MLS numbers in A2A remarks
• Must close all MLS numbers simultaneously with same sold price
• The Alternate Use field must be used to select all property types where the listing also appears
Business Opportunity and Res Rental are excluded from the “same price” requirement.

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