It’s a brand new day for the MLS in Phoenix…
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Category: General Information
Welcome! This weblog exists to document, explore, explain and alleviate any fears ARMLS members may have about the pending transition from the Tempo MLS system to FBS Systems' flexmls system. The contributors are among the most tech-savvy real estate professionals in Phoenix. In consequence, we're totally stoked about the change, first because some of us have come to hate Tempo over the years, and second because FBS is run by people who are deeply connected to the Web 2.0 on-line world.
But: You may not feel the same eager anticipation. We are not directly affiliated with either ARMLS or FBS Systems, but, working with those two organizations, we're going to do everything we can to make this transition not just painless but fun and profitable for you.
Your job? Read, learn, mark and inwardly digest. Don't be shy about asking questions in the comments to weblog Posts or Pages. or subscribe to it by RSS feed or email notification.
You heard it here first: This is going to be wicked cool...
Check your ZipForms templates: They’re probably obsolete
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Monday, May 26th, 2008, 8:08 am MST
Category: General Information
Here’s a cute bug I just discovered last week:
When AAR updates a form, as it does with wanton abandon, you are obliged to download that revised form into ZipForms.
Hurray! Everything is always up to date!
With one exception….
Any standing templates you have prepared in ZipForms are not updated with the new forms.
You read that right. If you made the effort to build templates in ZipForms, your templates are almost certainly obsolete — containing one or more older versions of forms that have since been supplanted by newer versions — one or more times.
What, you may find yourself asking, is the benefit of using templates, if you have to go through and manually update them every time the AAR (or ARMLS) revises a form?
Good question.
Here’s the real answer:
1. ZipForms sucks. It is so kludgey and buggy that it makes the ordinary run of kludgey, buggy Windows software look good.
2. AAR is not a software company, and shoving a monopoly vendor down our throats — leaving us no opportunity to deploy competitive pressure to get optimal results from our technology vendors — is a very poor idea.
3. If the AAR and other associations would get out of the software business, decent, responsible technology vendors would put ZipForms out of business in no time.
4. Ergo, AAR is not only not helping agents by anointing monopoly technology vendors, the inevitable ineptitude of decision-making by committees of non-end-users is actually hurting working Realtors.
And so the best question is this: Why are we paying good money to frustrate our own interests?
Good grief!
FlexMLS Beta Testing Underway
By: Dru Bloomfield,
AtHomeInScottsdale.com
Posted: Friday, May 9th, 2008, 4:00 pm MST
Category: flexmls Web
A group of us in the land of ARMLS have been testing away with an early version of our new MLS system.
I used to write code for Bell Labs and others, but never made a living as a system tester, so it’s been fun to change seats and try to break the code. It is a totally different mindset.
What I’m finding is that the more I play with Flex, the more ready I am for the system cut over to be here, and be here now. Yes, there are a few bugs, but for the most part, the system is almost ready for prime time. Completing my MLS work double over the past week, both in Marketlinx and in FlexMLS, I’m finding that I just want to stick with Flex.
As one of the agents who has (had) over 900 Gateway reports, I was focusing on all the problems that the transition was going to cause me. With the early notice that we’ve had to prepare for the cut over, I’ve personally made provisions to move to an interim system, so that my prospects and clients do not experience an interruption in service. I’ve had a few complaints about dead links, but for the most part, it just gives me another opportunity to have conversation with someone looking to purchase a home.
….and, I’m focusing on the improvements that will be available to us after the system cuts in late July.
Time Saver #1 - Routing and driving directions
1. Select houses to show.
2. Click on Directions button.
3. Wha-la!
The Foreclosure Blackhole So Dark Not Even Light Can Escape
By: Robert Nield,
HomeSearchByMap.com
Posted: Thursday, April 17th, 2008, 3:23 pm MST
Category: General Information
I’m a stats guy. I love crunching numbers, but sometimes it is difficult to comprehend what the numbers truly mean without a good visual representation . For the last couple of weeks I have been developing a foreclosure site using Google Maps. I’ve discovered some interesting things about the foreclosure market in Phoenix. This picture represents just the lender owned properties (not even short sales) on the MLS in the Phoenix area. Even with my neighborhood near the “eye” of the black hole I cheer myself up every morning by telling myself MOST if not ALL of these homes will need to be sold this year. In the mean time, “Welcome to Countrywide Arizona”.
Now that ARMLS has its own weblog for the flexmls transition, how should The Phoenix Real Estate Technology Exchange refocus its efforts?
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Wednesday, April 16th, 2008, 7:36 am MST
Category: ARMLS, Conversion, General Information, flexmls Web
When we started this weblog last October, my own objective was to have a place where tech-savvy Phoenix-area Realtors could discuss technology issues, sharing that information with our less tech-obsessed brethren. The expedient impetus was the ARMLS transition to flexmls, but at the time we also discussed the deplorable state of ZipForms and the advent of transaction management software at AAR, among other issues.
Almost immediately, ARMLS asked to be involved. This struck me as being uncharacteristically wise on its part, but it entailed compromises that are not completely satisfying for a weblog. There’s a bright line distinction between organizations that must speak with one voice and looser associations that welcome multiple points of view. ARMLS seemed to be so hamstrung by what it could not say, that, as is obvious in retrospect, what began as an egg in an apple blossom could not become anything other than a worm in the apple.
From my point of view, both ARMLS and FBS Systems have been amazingly niggardly with information. Possibly this is baked in the cake: The information is simply unavailable. But I had anticipated that we would have had quite a bit more to talk about around here — not just by now but months ago.
And turning the tables, it is plausible to me that the kind of wide-open discussion that is so avidly desired in the weblogging world is anathema to ARMLS, to FBS or to both. That much is alien to me. We stand to learn a lot more from people who oppose our positions than from those who echo them, but it’s hard to fault hierarchical organizations for being hierarchical.
In any case, ARMLS, at least, has pulled out. You will have had spam earlier this week announcing the creation of newarmls.com, a static web site with an integrated weblog devoted to the dissemination of information about the flexmls transition.
Okayfine. That’s their business, and they’re welcome to it. The topmost post in the weblog, as I write this, is a patented ARMLS scolding, and, speaking for myself, I like that sort of thing much better there than here.
And that’s as may be. The question before the house is a simple one: What now?
I have attempted with what one might describe as marginal success to pin this down de jure, but it becomes obvious that whatever alliance we had forged with ARMLS is now defunct de facto. In effect, ARMLS has taken its bat and ball and gone home. This is perfectly fine, and they wouldn’t have done it if it didn’t make sense to them strategically.
The question is: What makes sense for us as strategy?
We are back to square one in the sense that we are free to discuss whatever we choose about real estate technology, without any fear of stepping on ARMLS’ toes. Is this something that people here want to do?
Perhaps naively, I had expected us to attract more attention from the 30,000 members of ARMLS. And, while we do have quite a few subscribers, the blog itself has been all but moribund.
It’s plausible to me that this is the result of our having focused on ARMLS and flexmls, despite the dearth of information emerging from them. For example, no one has written anything about the new AAR transaction management system.
But it’s also plausible to me that The Phoenix Real Estate Technology Exchange is a solution in search of a problem — that, as much as Realtors’ lives might depend on technology, they would rather focus their attention on other issues.
For my own part, I already have a much bigger rostrum from which to express myself. My own involvement with this weblog was to promote a better understanding of real estate technology among agents who don’t live and breathe technology.
What about you? We’re free to do what we want, but do we actually want to do anything at all? It’s perfectly okay with me if we don’t — my own bread will be buttered even if no one else’s is. But we have managed to accumulate an interesting group of people, and there is that lingering problem of the tech revolution in real estate.
If you want to proceed with this project: Proceed. We’re divorced from what seemed to be a potentially-fruitful alliance but may have turned out to be a conspiracy of silence.
So: What next?
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, blogging, disintermediation, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
See FlexMLS Live and in Person
By: Dru Bloomfield,
AtHomeInScottsdale.com
Posted: Monday, March 31st, 2008, 8:29 am MST
Category: flexmls Web
I’m involved with the Scottsdale Area Association of REALTORS® and helping to organize a Technology Symposium schedule for the morning of April 25th.
In addition to guest speaker Keith T. Garner, Managing Director at the Center for REALTOR® Technology, the symposium will feature four breakout sessions, one of which is dedicated to a live demonstration of FlexMLS by Sheila Strunk. Sheila was on the selection committee for the new MLS system and has a significant amount of hands-on experience with FlexMLS. She’ll give you a very good sense of the system’s capabilities, and you will be able to ask questions.
Mark your calendar and consider attending the symposium, so you can see a live preview of FlexMLS. Getting a jump on the possibilities of FlexMLS will make the transition just that much easier.
flexmls Web Preview
By: Michael Wurzer,
flexmls.com
Posted: Friday, March 28th, 2008, 3:17 pm MST
Category: Video, flexmls Web
Here’s another video previewing flexmls Web. The video provided earlier wasn’t loading well for IE users, so we’re tying this one out. Let me know if you have any trouble viewing it.
Single Property websites in Realtor Remarks
By: Cathleen Collins,
DistinctivePhoenix.com
Posted: Friday, March 28th, 2008, 11:41 am MST
Category: General Information
As Greg has already pointed out, we were perplexed with the new MLS rule against promoting single property websites in the MLS. One of BloodhoundRealty.com’s value propositions is our transparency… We are anti-hoarders of information. So moves like this new MLS rule seem antiquated, backwards to us. Give people as much information as they can stand and allow them to draw their own conclusions, make informed decisions. Oh well. If we want to work in the residential resale business in the Phoenix market, we have to abide with this stogy old institution that does its best to make sure its members don’t aspire beyond status quo.
So, I reread the rules when I input my listing for 1322 East Vermont Ave. this morning. I want to give my clients as broad an opportunity as possible to sell their home. It became clear to me that our MLS isn’t afraid of Realtors giving information to Realtors. This being the case, I told buyers’ agents about the single property website. I reason that if I were the buyer’s agent I would give this information to my client, so she would have as much information as she could stand to make a better informed decision.
Roll call of Third Party IDX providers
By: Craig Frooninckx,
Posted: Monday, March 24th, 2008, 3:02 pm MST
Category: Wish List
Okay, so I’m curious about the third-party IDX companies everyone is using. I’d like to know who you use, who you’ve used? What you like and don’t like about them. I’d also be curious about those that you would like to use, but are not currently partnered with ARMLS.
No more web sites in the remarks section? ARMLS drops the hammer on the one little bit of the 21st century it was getting right
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Thursday, March 6th, 2008, 12:41 pm MST
Category: General Information
I read about the outlawing of web site URLs in listings on the “Welcome to Tempo” page of the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Services (ARMLS), but I wasn’t certain it meant what it seemed to mean. Since I have been a Realtor, we have promoted our single-property websites in the remarks section of the listing, as have many other agents. It seemed odd to me, given how anal ARMLS had been about contact information in virtual tours, but I thought it was a laudable concession to real life in the third millennium.
We talk in web sites — Bloodhound Realty does, particularly. We live in webbed-wide world. This is news to no one. The appropriate way to talk about houses is in web sites. Hurray for ARMLS! It doesn’t really “get it,” but it gets at least some of it.
Not so.
Comes today this email:
Thursday, March 06, 2008Gregory Swann ABR CRS GRI,
Our new iCheck program identified the following Error. The Error and any related verbiage was removed on Thursday, March 6, 2008.
MLS#: 0000000 TEMPORARILY OFF MARKET/RES
Error: MLS Rule Error (000)
Description: Prohibited URLNo further action is required by you at this time.
Thank you for complying with the ARMLS Rules and Regulations.
I know, I know, you don’t have to tell me. I understand, I just don’t approve.
First, this is an artifact of the co-broke, the archaic practice of buyer’s representatives being paid by the listing agent. If commissions were divorced, all of the Top Secrets of the MLS system — every one of which is a violation of the buyer’s agent’s fiduciary duty to put the buyer’s interests ahead of all others (which most certainly includes the seller and the listing agent) — would be swept away like the dusty relics of the anti-capitalist era that they are.
Second, the specific purpose of forbidding web site URLs in listings is to impose an artificial chokepoint on the free market. Buyer’s agent’s seek to hold their own clients hostage in the transaction. In order to secure their own compensation, they will withhold the fact of the buyer’s existence and identity from the seller or the listing agent, at the same time that they are withholding information about the existence and identity of the seller or listing agent from their own buyers — toward whom they owe an unlimited fiduciary duty. I think this is an agency violation in se — a complete betrayal of the buyer’s true interests — and ARMLS makes itself a party to it by deliberately withholding material facts from buyers.
I don’t like lawyers and lawsuits, but I cannot imagine how the MLS system, nationwide, could be any more exposed to a massive class-action lawsuit. Buyer’s agency is a farce as long as these rules are in place. It is simply sub-agency in camouflage. The first attorney to figure that out is going to retire rich.
Technorati Tags: arizona, arizona real estate, blogging, disintermediation, phoenix, phoenix real estate, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Custom Reports and Gateway
By: Dru Bloomfield,
AtHomeInScottsdale.com
Posted: Tuesday, February 26th, 2008, 4:40 am MST
Category: Wish List
I learned something at last week’s ARMLS Committee meeting that is slowing sinking into my consciousness.
This I knew: Custom reports will not be ported over, and will need to be re-created.
This was the “oh-no”: FlexMLS does not have a Gateway equivalent web portal.
The good news: ARMLS has opened the third party vendor door, and I’m expecting some exciting announcements as agreements are crafted. (Thank you!)
The Challenge: A replacement product for those of us who are Gateway users. Clients who use it love it. I’ve found it to be an especially great tool for sharing housing info with buyers who are geographically separated while house shopping.
Michael and Bob, I’d love to be wrong here. Readers, any recommendations for third part solutions?
Wow, people still don’t know FlexMLS is coming to ARMLS
By: Craig Frooninckx,
Posted: Wednesday, February 13th, 2008, 12:07 pm MST
Category: Conversion
At the end of last week, I found myself in conversation with some members of the ARMLS user community and as I usually do, I talk about the things that are happening in my world, which includes real estate, new status as a father, politics and my role on the ARMLS committee. I mentioned that we’re moving along and that we’ve since a delay in the rollout of FlexMLS, nothing that sent up a red flag or anything. Their response was, “What’s FlexMLS?” Okay, then I realized that until I get really deep into ARMLS, I didn’t know we were switching either.
So being a good ARMLS committee member I started explaining the situation to them and the benefits of the new system and I even explained that the transition would be a bit challenging. I referred them to this site for threads and discussion on the matter.
Later as I was reflecting on the discussion and realized that I really didn’t give them that much to work with. I think that we missing a nice project page (blog) that gives updates as to how the transition is progressing and a FAQ, what to expect type page. I for one would like to know how I can prepare my website to work with the new system (if there is anything that I will have to do).
What do you think, do you have enough information or are you looking for more?
From the Outside Looking In
By: Dru Bloomfield,
AtHomeInScottsdale.com
Posted: Monday, February 4th, 2008, 10:10 pm MST
Category: ARMLS
Bob Bemis, ARMLS CEO, included me in his list of invites to the ARMLS Strategic Planning session the weekend before last. Never one to pass on the chance to look into and plan for the future, I jumped at the opportunity.
Strategy sessions often start with a top-down approach… define the mission, a set of core values, and then create an action plan that aligns. In this two-day exercise, we started with actions, created objectives, and the mission statement emerged as a result.
What was most striking to me throughout the time the 35-40 of us spent together was the quantity and quality of experience and dedication in the room, and how few younger members were involved. Participants were ARMLS board members, ARMLS staff, REALTOR Association Executives, and forward-looking members of the real estate community. Over the course of our time together, assumptions were made, dissected, and resolved as we questioned how ARMLS is to serve its subscribers base, and the consumer.
I’ll leave it to Bob and his team to present the results of our significant efforts, but I will share that from a 10,000 foot level, the group was cohesive in the need for ARMLS to enhance the professionalism of its subscriber base, to provide superior data integrity, and to protect the personal privacy of all parties. From the subscriber perspective, it was very clear that ARMLS must be nimble to move quickly with market changes and be aggressively in-tune to the ever-expanding technologies that consumers use and expect their professionals to utilize proficiently.
As the conference room staffed reminded us that our time was up, the facilitator worked feverishly to get us wrapped up, to put all the myriad of thoughts, actions, and objectives into a single mission statement…. definitely the most challenging exercise of our time together.
A couple days later, I spoke with Bob about the challenge of pulling all of our thoughts together into a single mission statement. Basically, he said that the words we put together in those two days were not the most important part of the exercise, that it will be the actions that ARMLS takes (as a result of the directions set) that make the difference at the end of the day. Wise words from someone who gets it.
Thanks for invite, Bob!
What do we really expect from our MLS?
By: Craig Frooninckx,
Posted: Sunday, February 3rd, 2008, 1:42 pm MST
Category: Bob Bemis, flexmls Web
I’ve given a lot of thought lately to what I would like our MLS to be able to do for me and for my clients. And you know what, the more I think, the less I want them to do for me. Sure, I would like it if they created RSS feeds for each of my clients or discussion boards for each house, neighborhood. How about connecting into a Forms application and auto populated the common fields of each property for a listing or offer? Wouldn’t it be great to have the SupraKey link to the MLS so we can see which listing are being shown by which agents and how often? How about a feedback system?
But let’s think about that, that’s a lot of work for one company to figure out and keep track off. And if they did provide all those nice services how would agents stand apart? That’s where those that are technical will program their own system and others will hire third party companies to do the work. That’s what we want, agents that are different and provide different services to clients that need different services.
So that leaves the question, what does MLS do? Exactly what they should do, provide the infrastructure of data storage and policy enforcement. When it comes down to it, I expect the MLS to have the data that I need to do my business (listings, history of sales, statistics). Having those services available in a method that allows us to do all the exciting things I mentioned above. I want the MLS to allow me to do just about anything I want (within in policy limits) in a timely manner.
A couple of years ago I became involved with Phoenix Real Estate, and I was disappointed with the technology that we used here, even ZipForms seemed to limiting to me. Last year I decided to get involved and that’s when I met Bob Bemis and started learning about FlexMLS. I’m more encouraged about the future than at any other time since my Phoenix Real Estate career began. Bob has a great vision of the future of MLS in Arizona and cares about what the users think and how to improve. FlexMLS is a forward thinking MLS provider lead by a man that wants to innovate the industry. I think we have some great things to look forward to, but of course, that will require that we get involved in developing our future.
Further Leveraging IDX Feeds
By: Jonathan Dalton,
DaltonsAZHomes.com
Posted: Wednesday, January 30th, 2008, 7:58 pm MST
Category: Wish List
As part of membership in the Arizona Regional MLS, each agent has access to an IDX feed for their website. It’s a basic search, based (painfully) in a frames format that can be dropped onto a page. The theory is someone can search for homes and if they like what they see from the rudimentary information provided, they can back out and e-mail you for additional information.
Some of us have taken the additional step of using the services of an IDX repackaging company that adds a couple of what I consider crucial features:
- Agent branding. Every listing that comes up on my site has my name and contact information (phone number and e-mail address) prominently displayed. The actual listing brokerage also is displayed, but at the bottom of the listing under the photo.
- Filtered searches. I’m able to create a number of different filtered searches; rather than the client entering their own search, I can create standing searches - particular cities, subdivisions, property types, etc.
This afternoon I discovered there are two criteria glaringly absent from the filter menu - Lender Owned homes and homes where Lender Approval is Required (read: short sales.)
I want the latter filter to help eliminate properties from the search, saving both me and my buyers hours of agony pursuing homes that likely can’t be sold. But I want the former filter so I can produce lists of REO properties in whatever city or area I happen to choose.
Unfortunately, it’s not currently possible. According to the folks with IDX, ARMLS currently is looking at adding this field to the IDX data that flows forth from the main database but it’s still in the discussion phase.
Moving the addition of this from the discussion phase to reality is one of the items I have on my wish list. The only objection I can see is from those who still want to protect the data in hopes of receiving a call from someone confused by a list price.
But that’s so 1978.
May the gods rain down their every blessing upon the head of Bob Bemis: ARMLS goes proactive instead of being endlessly reactive
By: Greg Swann,
BloodhoundBlog.com
Posted: Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008, 8:42 am MST
Category: General Information
I saw this on the announcements page on ARMLS, but having the reality of the idea in my email inbox is much more powerful. Instead of dealing with the inevitable follow-up calls about listings that didn’t really close or expire, ARMLS is reminding Realtors to clean up their messes before they make them:
Wednesday, January 23, 2008Gregory Swann ABR CRS GRI,
This notice is being sent to you as a reminder that listing 2808380 located at [street address redacted] is going to close escrow in the MLS system and reflect Sold status in 2 days.
If there has been no change in the status of the listing and all of the sale data is still correct, no action is required by you and your listing will close on your indicated closing date.
If the listing’s closing date, status, or any of the sales information is incorrect, please correct the listing before it goes into Sold status. If the listing should no longer be in Pending or AWC status, please change the listing to reflect the correct status.
We hope this reminder will provide you the opportunity to review your upcoming closing and make any necessary adjustments to the listing.
If you believe you received this courtesy notice in error, please notify ARMLS immediately by replying to this e-mail or calling the Compliance Department at the number provided below.
The instant reaction to such an obvious idea might be, “Well, duh!” But consider that ARMLS has been around forever, while the mail just started coming now. Obvious is easy. It’s follow through that takes effort. Truly, it’s a what-have-you-done-for-me-lately kind of world, but what Bob Bemis did for me today buys him a lot of credit in my bank.
