Plea from a fellow JLBOR member regarding double wide trailers:

I'm seeing many dbl wide trailers being listed as modulars online. Can you please ask agents to stop this practice? Many people do not want a trailer and its a waste of time to view, plus it makes the selling agent seem ill equipped.

It has come to our attention that there are descriptions in listings that include words like "call the listing agent today." This may infer that only the listing agent can show the property. If you have this in the description, please either delete it or it can be changed to something like, "call an agent today."

The language below is from the MLS Rules:
Section 1.2 Detail on Listings Filed With the Service
A listing agreement, when filed with the Multiple Listing Service by the Listing Participant, shall be complete in every detail Listings must be submitted in legible form or typewritten. Names, phone numbers, web site addresses, company slogans or any language that infers identification of a company or individual shall no longer appear in the "description" section or on photos of listings. Further, all data fields are to be populated with requested information only. The description section of listings shall contain only property specific information regarding the property listed for sale. MLS photos must reflect real property for sale as the prominent subject matter.

JUST A REMINDER

One of our REALTORS® shared this experience:

I was showing property this morning and found copies of the FULL summary left on the counter in the home listed in the MLS. ONLY SHORT summary forms are to be given out to buyers and/or general public. Everyone should be aware of this as it has been on the message board before.

Can I change the list date on a listing at the direction of my client?

The Board Office recently received a client request that a listing be "refreshed" with a new MLS # and the Days on Market rolled back to 0. After some research, we found the following ethical and legal reasons why this can not be done (in addition to our MLS rules which ban the practice in Section 6.0, part d).

Starting with the Code of Ethics, Article 12 states:

"REALTORS® shall be honest and truthful in their real estate communications and shall present a true picture in their advertising, marketing, and other representations. REALTORS® shall ensure that their status as real estate professionals is readily apparent in their advertising, marketing, and other representations, and that the recipients of all real estate communications are, or have been, notified that those communications are from a real estate professional." (Amended 1/08) (emphasis added)

Even more surprising was New York State license law which bans this type of change in §441-c. Revocation and suspension of licenses:

"1. Powers of department.
(a) The Department of State may revoke the license of a real estate broker or salesperson or suspend the same, for such period as the department may deem proper, or in lieu thereof may impose a fine not exceeding $1,000 payable to the Department of State, or a reprimand upon conviction of the licensee of a violation of any provision of this article, or for a material misstatement in the application for such license, or if such licensee has been guilty of fraud or fraudulent practices, or for dishonest or misleading advertising, or has demonstrated untrustworthiness or incompetency to act as a real estate broker or salesperson, as the case may be. In the case of a real estate broker engaged in the business of a tenant relocator, untrustworthiness or incompetency shall include engaging in any course of conduct including, but not limited to, the interruption or discontinuance of essential building service, that interferes with or disturbs the peace, comfort, repose and quiet enjoyment of a tenant."(emphasis added)

Changing the list date on a listing, which in turn adjusts days on the market could be thought of as akin to adjusting the odometer on a car. Not only does the Code of Ethics speak against it, but so does license law. Based on the above, a letter from a client can not be used to do this.

PROBLEMS WITH TAX MAPS

In response to frequent questions about difficulty downloading tax map viewer and poor print quality, here is the response Lance had from PropertyInfo (the Tax Info vendor):

"We have identified this as a problem and are close to a fix. It has to do with the fact that the maps from each county are in different types of file formats. So when we fix the contrast issue for one county, it hinders it for another.

"We are looking at providing some flexibility for the user... it looks like it will work, but we are going through testing right now, and should have this out in a couple days."


TO DOWNLOAD MAP VIEWER:

PropertyInfo, our tax information provider, has improved the way the tax map viewer works on their site which should eliminate the problems you have experienced.

You will need to download the new map viewer. Instructions are in the Printable Forms section of the website or click here.

Michael Steelman (VP, Enterprise Customer Care/PropertyInfo Customer Care) sent the following message with the instructions:

"We have used these notes on several machines and had little to no problems on most. However, every computer is different. We will be glad to work with any user that needs help getting their computer updated. The user will simply need to contact us by calling 877-800-3132. We have not run into any major situations updating client computers by following these notes, but if something does get corrupt in the Registry or in the Windows Operating System, PropertyInfo cannot accept responsibility. As you are probably aware, sometimes a computer will run into issues that no other computer has had doing the exact same steps. When that happens, sometimes the only fix is to reload the computer."

Read on if you want to SAVE MONEY... NEW Rules & Fines
The following amendment has been put into effect by the MLS Committee. It is no longer and recommendation, but a rule. The bold indicates an addition while a word that is struck out is a deletion. The amendment will go into force immediately.

Service Fees and Charges
Section 6.0: Service Fees and Charges

The following service charges for operation of the MLS, to defray the costs of the
Service, as such fees and charges may be established by the Board of Directors of the
Corporation from time to time, are as follows:

D. Restore Fee: A Participant shall not pay for filing a restore of a listing to active status with the Service. A listing is considered "restorable" if it expired in the last forty-five (45) 90 days. Restores are not to be done without the signature of the seller(s). A listing may be restored from pending or a listing may be restored to close without signature. All other restores are required to have the signature of the seller.

If a Participant, or anyone in his/her firm, creates a listing as new that was
restorable, the following will occur:

1) The Board Office will change the listing date back to the original date, and
2) The Participant will be warned for the first offense for the firm. For the second
and subsequent offenses fines will be assessed at $100 (second offense in firm), $250 (third offense in firm), and $500 (fourth and every subsequent offense).

A. Photos:
1. Photos required: All listings (active, expired, closed, withdrawn, released, pending, and pending show, even if for comp purposes only) are required to have quality photos that have not been altered or defaced, in the primary or #1 position. Photos must be in the MLS system within 5 (five) calendar days of the signing of the listing contract (or insertion into MLS for other reasons) or a fine of $5.00 (five dollars) per day will be assessed after the 5 (five) day period has lapsed. All photos submitted become the property of the Jefferson-Lewis Board of REALTORS® and MLS. All listing photos must be taken by the listing agent, or his/her representative, have a copy right release from the photographer, or a photo
FYI 1 Under "Definitions" on page 1:
IX "RESIDENTIAL" - This is a single family residence or a multifamily or commercial that can be converted
back. It is not raw land or acreage.
from the seller.

2. Company/Agent Branding In Picture: If there is a photo accompanying a listing that contains branding by a company or listing broker or agent (e.g. sign clearly showing agency name, automobile with agency name, distinctive image/sign for a real estate company, etc), the Board Office will do at least two of the following:
call, fax , and/or e-mail the broker and the listing agent. The broker and/or listing
agent will have 24 hours to replace the picture or turn it off. The broker will be fined $50.00 if the picture remains after the 24 hour period has elapsed. [Please note - if the picture turned off is the #1 picture, then the provisions in section 1 of letter G may apply.]

3. Photos will conform to the shape of the standard for the MLS. They will not
be framed, the shape changed in any way, or have any other distinguishing features or characteristics that may distinguish them from other photos in the MLS.

I. Proper Identification of Property Type: It is imperative that the property type be correctly identified based on the reasonable and customary definitions of each
property type. Failure to do so will result in the following actions:
a) The Participant will be warned for the first offense for the firm.
b) The second time by the firm, the Participant will be assessed at $100.
c) For the third offense by the firm, the fine will be $250.
d) For the fourth and every subsequent offense for the firm, the fine will be $500.
--------------------------

Also, the Committee recommended, and the BOD approved, adding the Street Address to the public side and IDX feed. This has been turned on by the Board Office.

Pending Show (6/11/2008)
We have made an "editorial" change the "pending show" category. In listing searches, etc. "pending show" will display as "SHO" in the summary list. "Pending" will continue to show as "PEN."

-Lance

Are you having trouble sending items out of the MLS?
Some members have mentioned that they are having trouble sending listings and summary sheets from the MLS. If you are having difficulty, please send as much of the following information as you can to me at levans@nnymls.com with "Problem" in the subject line.
-Lance

Specific E-mail Address

What is being sent (Single sheet, CMA/Prospect Summary)

Time of Day sent

What is system saying? (e.g. Sent successfully or error message. If the latter, what is message)?

How do you know it wasn't received? How long after you send are they waiting? Did recipient check spam or junk folder? Are they set to receive HTML documents?

From SoftMLS
If you suspect your emails of listings are not being received by your prospects, please read the information below BEFORE reporting delivery failures to SoftMLS. Use the checklist below, if all items listed are correct and working properly, please report the delivery failures to SoftMLS as soon as possible.
SoftMLS Email Checklist
1. Ensure recipient's web mail is set to receive HTML documents.
2. Ensure you (REALTOR) have a valid email address set in the MLS database.
3. Make sure recipient's email address is spelled correctly and valid.
4. Recipient should check Junk mail - if email was received in Junk mark as "Safe".
5. Ensure recipient does not have a full email box.
6. Make sure your email address has not been blocked from recipient's web mail.
7. Be patient, sometimes it can take up to 24 hours for an email to be delivered to a server.


Last month Saul Klein, President of Internet Crusade posted a very informative article about blocked email. Please review it; hopefully it will shed some light on a very dark subject…
WHY IS EMAIL BLOCKED?
In two words: spam and viruses.

We know that viruses are disruptive, and potentially disastrous, but what's the problem with spam? Unsolicited, junk e-mail chews up bandwidth, steals the time of those who must sort through it, and creates storage problems for Internet service providers (ISPs).
As horrendous as the spam problem has been in recent years, it is getting noticeably worse. This is partly because some solutions prescribed to fix the problem are actually making it worse.
At first glance, the "junk" button is a great solution to the spam problem. A new feature on many programs, it puts the e-mail recipient in charge of determining what's spam and what's not. Recipients can simultaneously delete an e-mail and report it as spam to their Internet service provider. Problem solved, right? Not exactly. Many recipients are using this button as a way of opting out of e-mail they had once subscribed to, or are simply using it as a catch-all delete key. This is where legitimate e-mail gets labeled as spam. For example, if 10 members who use AOL decide to delete your association's weekly newsletter from their in-box using the junk button, AOL blacklists you. That means that any e-mail coming from your association to any AOL subscriber is now blocked. It's that easy.
The only way to prevent this is to educate your members on how to use the junk button judiciously. Also, provide them with a clear and easy way to opt out of your communications.
Of course, ISPs block e-mail for many other reasons, and there's no industry standard that defines what gets blocked. ISPs set up filters and gateways to block anything they think has the slightest appearance of spam. These filters mutate daily to keep up with new viruses and spam, so e-mail that makes it through today may be blocked tomorrow.
Although an ISP won't tell consumers what sets off their filters, if your e-mail fits any of the criteria below your message is very likely to be blocked as spam.
E-mail usually gets blocked if:
• The message being sent exceeds size-limits set by the recipients' ISP.
• The message being sent has too many addressees in the address fields (To, Cc, Bcc). [Tip: use a program that automatically sends out your mass e-mails to small groups at a time.]
• The message being sent includes filter-triggering words and phrases such as: "for free," "winner," "bonus," "satisfaction guarantee," and "removal instructions."
• The message being sent contains words in all caps or uses exclamation points.
Of course, the content that triggers spam filters is not always obvious, a fact that has spawned a market for content analyzing. These companies, such as lyris.com, test your e-mail for filter triggers and provide suggestions for rewording or restructuring.
Yet, even if your e-mail is perfectly composed, certain ISPs accept e-mail only from servers that comply with certain standards.
These ISPs and mail handlers are using new tests to attempt to verify e-mail senders. One test is a reverse lookup of the sender's e-mail server to see if it matches the e-mail. This stops spammers from spoofing senders' addresses, which is what most of them attempt to do. The hurdle of this test is that your e-mail server setup has to be very accurately programmed, and many associations who are their own ISPs do not know how to do that.
Thanks,
Saul Klein
President, InternetCrusade

With the change in the agency disclosure laws, we have asked SoftMLS to change/add the Commission types on listings as follows (the explanation from the NYS Agency Disclosure is below):

Sub Agent Commission (Seller's Agent)(replacing "Selling Office Commission")

Broker Agent Commission (added)*

Buyer Agent Commission (replacing "Buy Broker Commission")

This has been done as of now. We are also getting new Listing Contracts printed up to reflect this change.

*SoftMLS has populated the field with "0" in all existing listings.

Seller's Agent
A seller's agent is an agent who is engaged by a seller to represent the seller's interest. The seller's agent does this by securing a buyer for the seller's home at a price and on terms acceptable to the seller. A seller's agent has, without limitation, the following fiduciary duties to the seller: reasonable care, undivided loyalty, confidentiality, full disclosure, obedience and duty to account. A seller's agent does not represent the interests of the buyer. The obligations of a seller's agent are also subject to any specific provisions set forth in an agreement between the agent and the seller. In dealings with the buyer, a seller's agent should (a) exercise reasonable skill and care in performance of the agent's duties; (b) deal honestly, fairly and in good faith; and (c) disclose all facts known to the agent materially affecting the value or desirability of property, except as otherwise provided by law.

Broker's Agents
As part of your (the seller's) negotiations with a real estate agent, you (the seller) may authorize your agent to engage other agents whether you are a buyer or seller. As a general rule, those agents owe fiduciary duties to your agent and to you. You (the seller) are not vicariously liable for their conduct.

Buyer's Agent
A buyer's agent is an agent who is engaged by a buyer to represent the buyer's interest. The buyer's agent does this by negotiating the purchase of a home at a price and on terms acceptable to the buyer. A buyer's agent has, without limitation, the following fiduciary duties to the buyer: reasonable care, undivided loyalty, confidentiality, full disclosure, obedience and duty to account. A buyer's agent
does not represent the interest of the seller. The obligations of a buyer's agent are also subject to any specific provisions set forth in an agreement between the agent and the buyer.
In dealings with the seller, a buyer's agent should (a) exercise reasonable skill and care in performance of the agent's duties; (b) deal honestly, fairly and in good faith; and (c) disclose all facts known to the agent materially affecting the buyer's ability and/or willingness to perform a contract to acquire seller's property that are not inconsistent with the agent's fiduciary duties to the buyer.

8/27/2007-I have noticed a few times recently where agents have put personal and/or company information in the "description" box on a listing. Please note that Section 1.2 (below) of the MLS Rules and Regulations prohibit this.

Section 1.2 Detail on Listings Filed With the Service
A listing agreement, when filed with the Multiple Listing Service by the Listing Participant, shall be complete in every detail. Listings must be submitted in legible form or typewritten. Names, phone numbers, web site addresses, company slogans or any language that infers identification of a company or individual shall no longer appear in the "description" section or on photos of listings. Further, all data fields are to be populated with requested information only. The description section of listings shall contain only property specific information regarding the property listed for sale. MLS photos must reflect real property for sale as the prominent subject matter.

**ATTENTION**
Crossover does NOT give you permission to add your listings to the St. Lawrence MLS Site; it is a viewing option only. If your company would like to join the St. Lawrence MLS, and list properties, please contact the board office.

It has been brought to the Board Office's attention land and acreage listings are showing up with a generic or "clip art" picture. THIS IS NOT ALLOWED.
Below I have reproduced section 1.2 of the MLS Rules. Please note the last sentence that I have highlighted.

-Lance

Section 1.2 Detail on Listings Filed With the Service

A listing agreement, when filed with the Multiple Listing Service by the Listing Participant, shall be complete in every detail Listings must be submitted in legible form or typewritten. Names, phone numbers, web site addresses, company slogans or any language that infers identification of a company or individual shall no longer appear in the "description" section or on photos of listings. Further, all data fields are to be populated with requested information only. The description section of listings shall contain only property specific information regarding the property listed for sale. MLS photos must reflect real property for sale as the prominent subject matter.

Note: A full copy of the MLS Rules and Regulations (rev 12/2006) are available in the printable forms section.

I received the following question:

I am curious as to why descriptions and pictures are deleted after a listing expires... I am sure the agents reason is so that nobody uses those pictures in future mls listings, but what about when we are running comparables for other listings? I have run into it twice this week while completing broker price opinions for banks. If the mls is built on cooperation, then are they allowed to remove the descriptions and pictures after the listings expire?

My response is:
This is NOT allowed under MLS Rules. The listings (no matter the status) are for all MLS members to see. The same is true with defacing photos on the MLS. Please note: this does not give permission to brokers in other firms to reuse photos, descriptions, etc. from another firm's listing.