Compliance Courtesy Notice

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.

The History of Fair Housing

On April 11, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1968, which was meant as a follow-up to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The 1968 act expanded on previous acts and prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin, sex, (and as amended) handicap and family status. Title VIII of the Act is also known as the Fair Housing Act (of 1968).

The enactment of the federal Fair Housing Act on came only after a long and difficult journey. From 1966 to 1967, Congress regularly considered the fair housing bill, but failed to garner a strong enough majority for its passage. However, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, President Lyndon Johnson utilized this national tragedy to urge for the bill’s speedy Congressional approval. Since the 1966 open housing marches in Chicago, Dr. King’s name had been closely associated with the fair housing legislation. President Johnson viewed the Act as a fitting memorial to the man’s life work, and wished to have the Act passed prior to Dr. King’s funeral in Atlanta.

Another significant issue during this time period was the growing casualty list from Vietnam. The deaths in Vietnam fell heaviest upon young, poor African-American and Hispanic infantrymen. However, on the home front, these men’s families could not purchase or rent homes in certain residential developments on account of their race or national origin. Specialized organizations like the NAACP, the GI Forum and the National Committee Against Discrimination In Housing lobbied hard for the Senate to pass the Fair Housing Act and remedy this inequity. Senators Edward Brooke and Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts argued deeply for the passage of this legislation. In particular, Senator Brooke, the first African-American ever to be elected to the Senate by popular vote, spoke personally of his return from World War II and his inability to provide a home of his choice for his new family because of his race.

With the cities rioting after Dr. King’s assassination, and destruction mounting in every part of the United States, the words of President Johnson and Congressional leaders rang the Bell of Reason for the House of Representatives, who subsequently passed the Fair Housing Act. Without debate, the Senate followed the House in its passage of the Act, which President Johnson then signed into law in April 1968.

In subsequent years, the tradition of celebrating Fair Housing Month grew larger and larger. Governors began to issue proclamations that designated April as “Fair Housing Month,” and schools across the country sponsored poster and essay contests that focused upon fair housing issues. Regional winners from these contests often enjoyed trips to Washington, DC for events with HUD and their Congressional representatives.

With the cooperation of the National Association of Home Builders, National Association of Realtors, and the American Advertising Council these groups adopted fair housing as their theme and provided “free” billboard space throughout the nation. These large 20-foot by 14-foot billboards placed the fair housing message in neighborhoods, industrial centers, agrarian regions and urban cores. Every region also had its own celebrations, meetings, dinners, contests and radio-television shows that featured HUD, state and private fair housing experts and officials. These celebrations continue the spirit behind the original passage of the Act, and are remembered fondly by those who were there from the beginning.

Accurate Listings = More Money

RMLS Compliance Care

What is so important about making sure sales are entered accurately in the MLS within 2 days of closing? Time saved when putting deals together, quicker lender approval and better information to market South Florida around the world.

RMLS has three compliance rules that have an impact on every residential transaction. Violations for status change, incorrect sales information and failure to report sales, affect both the individual listing it pertains to and the larger marketplace as well.

Status Change: Entering the proper status on listings identifies how many listings are on the market at any one time. Knowing the supply available in a particular neighborhood, condominium complex or type of listing is important when negotiating a contract. It is part of the matrix that enables buyers or sellers to have a proper perspective when evaluating offers and counter offers.

In addition, entering the correct status helps maintain the good will of real estate professionals working together by saving them time.

Incorrect Sales Data: The sales date and final selling price should match the date reflected in public records, which is the date the HUD-1 was signed and the deal closed by the last party.

Accurate financial data is important to help evaluate the market and the typical buyer in the sub market. Any seller’s concessions (cash paid by the seller, such as Points, repairs made as condition of the sale, or proportional separation of personal property included in the transaction) should be disclosed in the remarks section. While not required by RMLS, it is recommended that the broker remarks or addendum be edited at the time the sale is posted to disclose such concessions. This will minimize contact from appraisers and agents trying to make sense of the numbers.

Failure to Report Sales: All sales of listings are required to be entered within 2 business days of the sale. This includes properties that are Temporary Off Market (TMP), Contingent (CTG) or Pending (PND) prior to the expiration date entered. The MLS data is updated more frequently than sales are reported in Public Records, so it is often a better comparable for the marketplace.

Why do these Rules Matter?

Appraisals: Currently, every residential appraisal prepared for federal financing is required to include a market analysis. This form, the 1004mc, identifies the quantified changes for the market area (neighborhood) of the subject property. A time period of 3, 6, and 12 months is analyzed, including the number of active listings, days on market, sales prices and list price to sales price ratios. Customarily appraisers pull this information from the MLS database. When the data is inaccurate then the report is flawed, causing the appraised value to be skewed, rejection by a lender and denial of the buyers loan.

Automated Value Model (AVMs): Similarly, the Automated Value Model is a service that uses mathematical modeling to value properties. The majority of AVMs compare the values of similar properties at the same point in time. Many lenders use this type of model to value residential properties in lieu of an appraisal. While these models are quick and cheap, they do not factor in the condition of the property to determine its value. The accuracy of the AVM is dependent on the accuracy of the data it pulls from.

Market Statistics: Finally, the Housing Market Statistics available in local and national publications identifies the health of the real estate market. These statistics compare housing units sold this month to a year ago, and determine a variety of one line statistics, i.e. which value range of homes are selling the fastest and which are stagnant, how big an influence foreclosures are having on a market area, and overall volume of real estate sold. All these reports depend on data collected by the MLS. So if you want to demonstrate that real estate is a good risk in South Florida and is not still declining, then you need to enter your sales into the MLS accurately. Buyers, Sellers, Investors and Lenders make decisions based on the numbers. So when the numbers are right we all win!

Playing old games in a new market

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.

Is Your Web Site Lead Working With Another Agent?

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.

Is Counter-Offering Counter Productive?

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.

Remarkable Listing Tips!

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.

Punch Less Counter Offers

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.

Playing the Name Game with Google

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.

How to Purchase REO Properties for FHA Buyers

A few months ago I received a referral from an agent in New Mexico who attended one of my past WyldFyre workshops. Having lost a job there, the family relocated to Arizona to start over. After exhausting their savings on a $1,200 month apartment, the family realized that with help from relatives and an FHA loan, they could buy a Real Estate Owned (REO) home in the Phoenix area for under $80,000, producing a more manageable payment in the range of $600 a month.

Despite having many REO homes in this price range, we discovered that this process wasn’t going to be easy because these homes were selling fast. And FHA buyers are a distant third to cash and conventional buyers in the bank’s eyes. When we finally got a bank to accept our offer on one house, they changed their mind and sent the home to auction! After six weeks we were starting to get discouraged. We needed a new strategy and this is what we did:

Stop Looking at Homes Up Front This was a new paradigm for me. We were wasting our time (and gas) looking at a these REO homes in the traditional way, only to find out they were sold while we were standing in them. Instead, we relied on MLS photos and descriptions to make offers, and we toured the home only after the bank expressed interest in our offer and countered us with their contracts.

Make Multiple Offers Making an offer on one home, waiting for a bank response, then starting over wasn’t working. In the REO world it is common for the bank to collect offers and make multiple counter offers to several buyers at once. So we decided to fight fire with fire by making offers on multiple homes the minute they hit the market. To make these offers we needed a loan pre-qualification letter from the lender with the address and loan amount left blank. With this necessary letter we could fill in the home information over and over and not have to wait for a new letter each time. Our strategy was to keep at least 3 to 5 offers going at all times, including weekends.

Make Good Offers This part of our strategy really paid off! How do you compete with a cash offer? You have to out bid it. In our market, out bidding cash investors was easy; we offered at least the list price! Even though REO homes in Arizona have already been severely discounted, the typical cash investor has a garage sale mentality. The garage sale shopper sees a lamp for .25 cents and says “will you take a dime?” Cash investors are the same. Offer list price or be willing to offer a little more and you beat the low-balling investors. Now the bank is interested in your FHA buyer.

The new strategy worked. We received bank counters on 5 different homes (due to good offers) and had the luxury of picking the one we really wanted. We are currently in escrow for a lovely 3 bedroom home purchased for $75,000. In the future I’ll know what to do with an FHA buyer looking for a home in the most competitive segment of the market.

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.