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Privacy 101: Risk Management Made Easy

June 17, 2011 By fsarabia

by Darity Wesley

"Most of us would rather risk catastrophe than read the directions." Mignon McLaughlin

Privacy and information security rules and regulations are changing monthly. Do you know what your legal obligations are to your customers, prospects, associates, vendors, and employees? Have you fully covered your assets?

Today’s maze of enacted laws, pending legislation and best management practices related to privacy and information security issues is enough to make even the most savvy business person’s head spin. Did you know that there are different laws being proposed nationwide and in Congress on these subjects almost daily? Are you tracking them to make sure you know if and how they will affect your business and adapting your business model accordingly? Do you know what you need to do to comply with the ones that have been recently enacted to reduce your legal exposure and risk?

To help take the complexities out of fair information practices and data compliance issues and let your business focus on your business, not pages upon pages of compliance and regulatory drafts that may or may not apply to your business process, here is a handy dandy risk management checklist.

On the physical risk management side, do you have?

· Computers backed-up regularly

· Disaster Recovery program

· Archival record storage

On the legal side, do you have?

· Disclaimers

· Website Privacy Policy and Terms of Use

· All printed and digital materials like articles, newsletters

· Opt-in and opt-outs for electronic newsletters and email notification services

· Data breach incident recovery plan

· Privacy insurance

As always, your Privacy Gurus® are here to help. If you haven’t checked all of the items above and have any questions, please feel free to contact Cristina@PrivacyGurus.com for more information.

Darity Wesley is CEO and Legal Counsel for Privacy Solutions, Inc. a San Diego based consulting firm. Her team of Privacy Gurus® work with you to create policies and procedures to establish the expectation of privacy for your members, clients, customers, prospects, affiliates, associates, employees and vendors. You can reach her at 619-670-9462 or Darity@privacygurus.com, Visit our website at www.privacygurus.com ©2011 Privacy Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. www.PrivacyGurus.com

Filed Under: Privacy Rights and Solutions Tagged With:

Compliance Courtesy Notice

June 17, 2011 By fsarabia

Dear MLS Manners,

Recently, I signed a great listing agreement. I was so excited that I rushed back to my office to enter the listing into the system. In my excitement I skipped past a few of the required fields. A few days later I received a Compliance Courtesy Notice and wasn’t sure what it meant. I assumed because the system accepted my entry everything was fine. Then, about a week after the courtesy notice, which I previously disregarded, I received a Fine Notice.

I want to make sure that this never happens to me again. Why was I fined and how does the process work?

Yours Truly,

Ibin Phyned

Dear Mr. Phyned,

It is vital that the listing data, provided by you and maintained by RMLS is accurate, from both a legal and reliability prospective. Without accurate data, subscribers cannot effectively search for listings. Furthermore, accuracy improves the odds of another subscriber finding and selling your listing.

Listing errors are found three ways: They are reported by RMLS staff, anonymously by other subscribers, and with the MLS Data Checker, an automated program that finds obvious errors such as missing pictures.

The reported errors are individually and thoroughly reviewed by RMLS personnel. If the error is found to be a violation of the RMLS Rules and Regulations, a notice is emailed to the listing agent and copied to the office’s broker and any registered administrators. The notice details why there is a violation (See Sample Notice Below) and provides a grace period ending date by which the correction must be made. The correction must be made BEFORE the grace period ending date.

It is the sole responsibility of those notified to correct the listing within the grace period. If you don’t understand the violation, reply to the warning by asking for guidance or call the RMLS Help Desk. Once understood, correct the issue. There is NO NEED to reply to the notice stating that you have made the necessary corrections. The system automatically picks up the correction.

If the listing violation is not corrected within the grace period, the appropriate fine will be charged to the listing Broker’s account. Fine notices will continue to be e-mailed to you and copied to your broker and any office administrators as long as the listing remains out of compliance. The amount of the fine compounds for each notice that is sent. Fines are due upon receipt.

The Compliance Guidelines located under the compliance link on the RMLS website, www.rmlsfl.com, outlines most violations, the amount of the fine and the petition process.

Thank you,

Mr. MLS Manner

To Report MLS Listing Violations:

While in the details screen in MLXChange, click on report data error on the left side. It will automatically insert the Compliance email address and the listing information; just type in your comments regarding the violation. For questions regarding listing compliance, please email compliance@rmlsfl.com.

Filed Under: MLS Manners Tagged With:

Privacy 101: It’s Up to You

June 17, 2011 By fsarabia

Privacy 101: It’s Up to You

by Darity Wesley

"The happiest people in the world are those who feel absolutely terrific about themselves, and this is the natural outgrowth of accepting total responsibility for every part of their life." – Brain Tracy

Every day in the privacy world there is breaking news. From new legislation being introduced to new scams being exposed to data security breaches being announced, we are immersed in a world I envisioned when I started Privacy Solutions 10 years ago – a world in which privacy matters to everyone.

Over the years I have made numerous trips to Capitol Hill to educate our elected representatives on all things privacy like social security number protection and safeguarding the lifeblood of business – the free flow of data. Now there is a new Senate Judiciary Subcommittee for Privacy, Technology and the Law, which will oversee laws and policies governing the collection, protection, use and dissemination of commercial information by the private sector. It is news like this that makes me feel like all of my hard work is paying off now.

The bottom line for consumers as well as businesses is the same as it ever was – privacy is situational. We are all just more aware of it than we were a decade ago. What we are more concerned about now than before is the amount of control we have over our information and its security. We want to know our personally identifiable information is safe and that it cannot be used against us out of context.

The number one way to make sure your information is protected is to be selective in what you reveal. By now everyone ought to know that anything that is on the Internet, including email is not private. It can be dredged up at any future point. You probably also know what expectation of privacy you have in your workplace – most likely none. Check your employee handbook to confirm the policies. If there is no policy there, be sure to inquire.

No matter how much business self-regulation and government legislation we end up with in this flurry of proposed privacy compliance solutions, privacy is ultimately up to you. It is much better if your business takes responsibility for doing the right things as far as website policies and disclaimers and information security. As a person, it is up to you to take responsibility for what you reveal, to whom and on what media. Don’t just expect ‘them’ to take care of everything – be proactive. If you have an opinion on how these privacy discussions should turn out, join the conversation. Now more than ever, we have the opportunity to have our voices heard and become a part of an active democracy. The only way you lose is by not taking personal and professional responsibility for your privacy.

Like this newsletter? Darity offers another newsletter from her new Lotus Law Center published on the 3rd Thursday of each month. To subscribe, please email Lindsay@LotusLawCenter.com with Lotus in the subject line.

Darity Wesley is CEO and Legal Counsel for Privacy Solutions, Inc. a San Diego based consulting firm. Her team of Privacy Gurus® work with you to create policies and procedures to establish the expectation of privacy for your members, clients, customers, prospects, affiliates, associates, employees and vendors. You can reach her at 619-670-9462 or Darity@privacygurus.com, Visit our website at www.privacygurus.com ©2011 Privacy Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. www.PrivacyGurus.com

Filed Under: Privacy Rights and Solutions

MLS Manners: Listing Photographs

June 17, 2011 By fsarabia

Dear MLS Manners,

What’s the big deal with listing photos? If I don’t upload at least one photo my listing is in NPH status, whatever that is, and agents outside of my office can’t view the listing. To make matters worse, if I don’t upload a photo within 5 days I get threatened with a fine!

Isn’t this business hard enough without this picture bother? Don’t you people have better things to do?

Sincerely, Cameron Shutter

Dear Cameron,

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but in the real estate business it may be worth a commission!

Entering photos in your listing is probably one of the most important things you can do to get it sold. MLS subscribers searching for properties to show rely on pictures to help them make their selection. Individual home buyers searching web sites like www.Realtor.com will altogether ignore listings that show no pictures. As long as you have no pictures in your listing you are cheating yourself and your client out of a sale! TIP: Be prepared for success. Bring your camera with you when you go on the listing appointment. Take a picture or two of the front exterior before you ring the doorbell. You may also want to bring a tape measure to get the room dimensions while you are there!

The RMLS requires every single family residential, multi-dwelling, commercial, business and rental property listed with the Participant and entered into the RMLS database to have at least one (1) photo of the front exterior of the subject property attached to the listing within five (5) business days of the entry of the listing into the RMLS database.

Land listings do not require a photo, but we encourage you to use any photo that would help you market the property. Plat maps and or aerial photos are particularly helpful.

If you are getting close to the end of the five day grace period and still don’t have a photo, one option would be to obtain written permission from the listing agent of a previous listing. Be sure to keep a copy of the authorization to use the photo in your file. Photos in the RMLS database are not fair game. The person who took the photo and/or loaded the photo has the copyrights to the photo. This is why written permission should be obtained prior to using any photo.

Another option would be to have RMLS scan and upload the photos for you if you have actual photographs printed on photographic paper. The fee for this is $5.00 per photo.

You can also use a professional photographer to take the photos for you, but beware that you are still personally responsible for getting the photos uploaded within the 5 day period.

If your new listing is in St. Lucie or Indian River County, the county property appraiser’s web sites have pictures of properties which you may copy and use in your listing. Caution! These pictures may be rather dated.

My final suggestion regarding photos: taking high resolution photos will not be of any benefit to your listing. This is because the MLXchange program automatically resizes your pictures to 640 X 480 pixels before saving them. It is suggested that you set your camera to take pictures at 640 X 480 (1 MB or less) before you take the photos. This step will save you the trouble of having to resize the images before uploading them.

I can’t over emphasize the importance of entering quality pictures on a timely basis. Be prepared to upload photos at the time you enter the listing.

I hope that helps you Cameron.

Sincerely,

MLS Manner

To Report MLS Listing Violations:

While in the details screen in MLXChange, click on ‘Report Data Error’ on the left side. It automatically inserts the Compliance email address and the listing information; just type in your comments regarding the violation. For questions regarding listing compliance, email compliance@rmlsfl.com.

Filed Under: MLS Manners

Playing old games in a new market

June 3, 2011 By fsarabia

Recently a neighbor wanted help deciding whether to sell or rent her home. I showed her recently sold comparables and currently listed rentals. The reality of her situation dictated that she should sell, and the list I gave her contained over 20 good comps from four surrounding neighborhoods. Even though her home was in good condition and backed up to a golf course, the comps clearly showed that the market could probably bring $265,000.

Not long after our meeting, I received a polite email from her saying that “my daughter knows another agent, and I don’t think I could live by your rules.” Although ‘rules’ were never mentioned, I did advise her about the importance of maintaining a clean and clutter-free environment during the selling process. Chances are that the real issue was price.

Sure enough the house was listed by another agent at $300,000! That’s $35,000 over what the comps revealed as a generous market spot. So the other agent played the tired old game of “buying” the listing and it will be interesting to watch how that goes.

Anyone who has ever attended my workshops, knows how important is is to price a home correctly from the beginning. In a recent Active Rain blog article “Every Seller Needs To Know, What Sells a House,” Carra Riley, an AZ REALTOR® laid the argument out beautifully. She says there are four variables that sell a home: Price, Terms, Condition, and Location. Ms. Riley further states that: “Price fixes everything! When a buyer perceives there is a value because of the price, they will buy the home. The other three variables can always affect the price.”

Great terms might fetch a little higher price over similar homes. Certainly a home’s good condition puts it on a buyer’s short list. You can’t change the location of a home, so only price and terms will help that situation.

It’s hard to imagine the real estate market turning around when sellers who are not distressed continue to overprice their homes, sometimes at the urging of a real estate agent.

How can an agent honestly look at the same comparables and add $35,000 to the price just to get the listing? These old games have never been good business, and in this market it amounts to malpractice.

I’ll leave you with this great quote from Ms. Riley: “Sellers should take all the emotion out of the business of selling a home and treat the transaction as an investment decision. If the goal is to get the home sold then listen to the professionals and let them do their job. As Donald Trump would say, It’s only business."

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.
Filed Under: Brett Wooley Tagged With: , , , ,

Is Your Web Site Lead Working With Another Agent?

June 3, 2011 By fsarabia

Like most agents, I get very excited when I get a lead from my agent Web site. But what do you do when you try to contact the lead and get no response? In my case, I use an IDX product that requires registration once the visitor decides to mark listings as favorites. Since a password is sent to the visitor via the email address entered, I have a high degree of certainty that the email address is valid. Once the visitor is registered on my site, I can monitor the searching activity of the prospect.

So, here I am watching this particular prospect log into my Web site several times a day. I can see all of the properties marked as favorite, want to see, etc. I started to make contact using a friendly, easy going approach. I simply sent a message saying “Welcome to my site." or "Hope you are enjoying searching for properties here.” After a day or two with no response, I called the phone number provided by the prospect, but again, no response!

Now I start getting suspicious. The phone number seemed to be valid, but after several tries, there was still no response. Then it occurred to me that this person may be already working with another agent. If the prospect was working with another agent, then I had to decide how to approach this. My IDX technology gave me several options: 1. Delete the contact; 2. Change the contacts password, preventing them from seeing their saved searches. 3. Change the property information view so the contact can only see the street name.

However, before doing anything drastic, I made one more attempt to make contact with a direct e-mail explaining that I had left messages but had yet to get a response. I asked point blank if she was working with another agent and framed the question this way: “I need to know if you are working with another agent. If you are, I do not want to violate the Code of Ethics by providing you information from my Web site. If I don’t hear from you within 24 hours, I will assume you are working with another agent.”

This straightforward approach worked! I received an email from the contact with an apology for not responding, and an explanation that she didn’t know what to do because she was working with another agent, but was not happy. She already had a contract on a short sale but it was going nowhere. She said she wanted to work with me but had to wait another week or so to see about the short sale. I e-mailed her saying that when she is no longer working with the other agent, then we can talk. It’s wise to not be offended just because a person doesn’t respond. Who knows if this person will reconnect, but at least I made a good impression by being understanding and communicating directly.

NOTE: RMLS offers several options for IDX web sites. Please contact either the help desk or data exports for more information.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

Filed Under: Brett Wooley Tagged With: , , , ,

Is Counter-Offering Counter Productive?

May 27, 2011 By fsarabia

Many real estate agents believe that counter offering is not only expected, but it’s actually their strategy when counseling buyers and sellers on offers. Often when pressed to reveal the truth, the story does not turn out well for either side when counter-offering gets out of control. So why do so many agents do this? Partly because it’s the way real estate has been conducted for decades; like haggling over a Persian rug in some middle-eastern marketplace . . . It’s expected!

The agent who helped me purchase my first home would say “the best offer to make is the lowest offer that a seller will take without countering.” Over the years I have repeatedly witnessed the wisdom of that philosophy. Consider the logic here: First, you counsel your buyers not to low-ball, but to make a good offer. Second, the very dynamic of the offer/counter offer tends to pull people apart rather than bring them together.

A friend recently experienced this scenario. At first he was excited about buying the home and made what he thought was a fair market offer. The sellers countered with a price that was no where near the buyer’s price. So the buyer countered again, and came up $10,000. The sellers responded with yet another counter offer, reducing only $2,000, leaving a gap of over $20,000 between the two parties. The buyer countered a third time and reluctantly came up another $10,000, and this time the sellers took it after a weekend of no competing offers.

After all of the haggling, the buyer was exhausted and ultimately canceled the contract when termites and other problems were found during the contingency period. Why didn’t he ask the seller for repairs and try to keep the deal alive? The buyer didn’t want to buy that house anymore. The whole transaction had soured.

It’s important to make good offers and back them up with an “Offer Rationale Addendum” to support the facts and explain the offer. Sellers can use the same strategy with equal effectiveness. Make only one counter offer and back it up with some facts. Many agents never explain how they arrived at their price. Most believe in the haggling process, and whoever lasts longest wins. Yet, in a large number of cases, the counter offer process is counter productive and both sides lose.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

Filed Under: Brett Wooley Tagged With: , , , ,

Remarkable Listing Tips!

May 25, 2011 By fsarabia

Many agents are aware of the power of the Internet, however, you wouldn’t know it by reading the Remarks section of most listings. Why are Remarks important? Because when the listing is blasted all over the Internet, what part of the listing is being read by Google, Yahoo, and other search engines? The Remarks of course!

The “typical” Remarks are written in ways that haven’t changed in 30 years, but now you have to think differently. Do you want your listing to come up higher in the search engine when a buyer is looking? Of course you do, so remember that your Remarks are being read by search engines before a buyer has a chance. Here’s an example of actual Remarks from my market:

“FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO LIVE IN AN EXCELLENT GILBERT COMMUNITY. CLOSE TO EVERYTHING, SHOPPING, MAJOR ROADS, HOSPITALS, GREAT SCHOOLS…”

Now what’s wrong with that? The answer is that it is not search engine friendly, and it certainly is not what buyers are searching for. Lets take it a section at a time and show how Remarks in today’s world should be written for better exposure. Bold green reflect the enhancements.

Fantastic opportunity to live in an excellent Gilbert Community.

Fantastic opportunity to live in the excellent Gilbert community of Whitewing.

The first statement is too vague; buyers searching for Whitewing properties would never find it.

Close to everything, shopping, major roads.

Close to the Superstition Springs Mall and easy access to the 60 Freeway.

What shopping, what major roads? Spell them out for search engines to see!

Hospitals, great schools.

Minutes from the brand new Banner Regional Hospital, and located within the highly ranked Gilbert Public School District featuring Highland High School!

Again, what hospitals, and what schools? You need to be specific as that is what buyers are keying into the search engines as they look online for homes to buy.

With a little thought about who is actually reading your listings, you can see that describing your Remarks more clearly is to your benefit. Whatever you write will be read by the search engines, so think like a buyer searching the Internet. You’ll get much more exposure for your listings.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

Filed Under: Brett Wooley Tagged With: , , ,

Punch Less Counter Offers

May 25, 2011 By fsarabia

A recent client shared their efforts to sell their other home. They received a low offer and chose to counter. The counter offer was a standard two-page form with all of the legal verbiage, but the language filled in by the listing agent was terse at best: ‘The purchase price is to be $_____’. That short sentence sounded more like a declaration than an offer, with nothing persuasive or compelling in it. It’s no wonder why so many counter offers turn into power plays that end up in the deal collapsing.

When working with buyers, it’s always recommended to attach an addendum to the Purchase Agreement called the Offer Rationale. In it, an agent can explain how they arrived at the offer using real data. If a seller needs to counter a low offer, why not use the same approach? Add empirical data to your offer when countering on price. If the buyer is sincere, then you need to show them why accepting your counter offer makes sense (assuming the house is priced based on recently sold comparables).

Here’s a fast and easy way to add a one page addendum to your counter offer—use the eNeighborhoods CMA program!

Click on the Comps tab and remove all comparables except for the SOLD’s.

Skip to the Publish page and select the Quickie Report.

Click on the EDIT button and uncheck all of the pages except for “Sold Analysis.”

SAVE the new report and name it Sold Analysis.

You now have a ready-made one page addendum to use for your Counter Offer Rationale. This single page shows each sold comparable, what it sold for, it calculates the change from List Price to Sold price, and the Sold Price per Square Foot.

Imagine your next counter offer using language like this: “Thank you for your offer on our property. Looking at recent Sold comparables it appears your offer is well below market. We are presenting a counter offer of $_____ which is less than our current List Price, but is still in line with market fundamentals. Please review the attached addendum and see if you will agree that our counter offer reflects the current market based on recently Sold properties.”

You can even use this new addendum page when dealing with banks in Short Sale or Foreclosure situations. Don’t just toss your counter offer out there; back it up with real data! By doing this, you put the burden of reasonableness on the other party while you stand on solid ground. Hopefully you’ll cut to the chase and will rarely have to make more than one counter offer.

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, National Trainer, eNeighborhoods has worked in the MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. He currently conducts software workshops for approximately 5,000 real estate professionals a year. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® himself, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ with groups and helping agents and brokers actually solve their real estate problems using eNeighborhoods software products.

Filed Under: Brett Wooley Tagged With: , , ,

Playing the Name Game with Google

May 25, 2011 By fsarabia

Recently I attended an interesting event in Arizona known as “Bar Camp.” What makes Bar Camp unique from a typical real estate conference is that there are no pre-determined agendas, courses, or speakers! Everyone gathers around a big white board, and all those who want to “lead” a discussion simply writes their name and a topic in a time slot and room number. Attendees can go to any discussion they want. It sounds very chaotic but it actually works and is a lot of fun.

What fascinated me at Bar Camp was the strong level of interest, and anxiety, over “SEO” (Search Engine Optimization) or getting a high ranking on Google. We’ve all heard stories about agents with high ranking, and therefore high traffic Web sites. The majority of agents I meet have a template-driven Agent Web site, often with a personal domain name like “Agent’s Name.com.” They are disappointed that their Web sites do not get any traffic. It’s true that not everyone can be ranked on page one of Google for their desired search phrase. However if you change your strategy, you don’t have to change your agent Web site. Just change the name!

You can spend a lot of time and money trying all of the various techniques to get ranked by search engines. There is one method that can be very useful in getting “organically” ranked pretty high. I call it the Search Phrase/Domain Name method.

It is very simple yet not many agents use it. The idea is to name your Web site after the search phrase you want to attract. You can get a high ranking because when someone enters the search phrase, it is almost as if they were typing in the name of your Web site. And here’s the real secret: Use Dashes!

Here’s an example: First do some research on Google Key Word Estimator (https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal). You can enter a search phrase like “Jupiter Homes” to see how many people a month search for that phrase. The Estimator will also show dozens of related phrases and their estimates as well. Then choose a few names and go to a domain name registration site to check for availability. TIP: —use a dash in your domain name. Google reads a dash to actually separate words in a phrase.

I just helped a new agent buy a domain name (I’m such a nice guy). The key search phrase was “Mesa Homes,” a phrase generating 200,000 searches per month. The domain name purchased by the new agent was “Mesa-Homes.com.” That was a great name for someone just starting out in real estate, and it was available.

Don’t stress out over Google and SEO; just change the domain name of your Web site. It’s fairly easy and doesn’t cost much. Good luck!

Brett Woolley, REALTOR®, MBA, ABR, has worked in the real estate and MLS information industry since the early 90’s where he was instrumental in bringing programs such as WyldFyre software to the market. A licensed and practicing REALTOR® with Boulter Properties in Phoenix, AZ, Brett enjoys sharing ‘war stories’ and helping agents and brokers solve real estate problems.

Filed Under: Brett Wooley Tagged With: , , , ,
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