Author: Aniston-Maylee Breslin

On December 6, when you log on to Paragon, you will be directed to accept the End-User License Agreement (EULA).

To accept the agreement, simply enter your name exactly as displayed on the EULA page. Be aware of any uppercase and lowercase letters as the signature is case-sensitive. Once you accept the EULA, you will be directed back to Paragon, and receive a copy of the agreement.

We are required to register the MLS Database annually with the U.S. Copyright Office to maintain all copyright protections for the property listings compilation. As part of that process, every MLS user must renew the End Users License Agreement each year.

If you have any questions, please contact MLS Support at 925.730.7100 or email mlsservices@bayeast.org.

Two new National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) multiple listing services (MLS) policies to increase transparency for consumers will mean changes for MLS users.

The NAR Board of Directors made these policies changes during their November 2021 meeting in San Diego.  Bay East announced the policies in the January 31, 2022 edition of the Bay East Insider email newsletter and implemented changes to the MLS on March 1, 2022.

Here are summaries of the policies and the related MLS changes:

Prohibition on filtering listings by compensation amount

New NAR policy:MLS Participants and Subscribers must not, and MLSs must not enable the ability to, filter out or restrict MLS listings that are searchable by and displayed to consumers based on the level of compensation offered to the cooperating broker or the name of a brokerage or agent.

According to NAR, this policy is in response to recent developments in real estate brokerage services, evolving broker business models, and the evolution of online marketing and listing searches.

To comply with this new NAR requirement to disclose Buyer Agent compensation public-facing MLS websites, agent and brokerage fields within the MLS have been temporarily disabled and any saved searches with these criteria have been removed. 

Bay East is working with its MLS vendor on an alternative for MLS participants and subscribers to search using these fields while also complying with the NAR policy.

Bay East hopes to enable the following search criteria as soon as possible:

• Comp to Selling Office
• Comp type
• Co-list agent DRE num
• Co agent email
• Co agent fax
• Entry agt ID
• Entry Agent First Name
• Entry Agent Last Name
• Entry Agent License ID
• List Agent DRE Num
• Listing Agent
• Listing Agt email
• Listing Agt Fax
• Listing Broker DRE Number
• Listing Office

Buyer Agency Compensation Disclosure

New NAR Policy: MLSs must include the listing broker’s offer of compensation for each active listing displayed on its consumer-facing website(s) and in MLS data feeds provided to participants and subscribers and must permit MLS participants or subscribers to share such information through IDX and VOW displays or through any other form or format provided to clients and consumers. The information about the offer of compensation must be accompanied by a disclaimer stating that the offer is made only to participants of the MLS where the listing is filed.

According to NAR, disclosure of the offer of compensation to buyer agents (including non-agency relationships defined by state law) will increase transparency for the clients and consumers working with MLS participants and subscribers in a real estate transaction.

Bay East has enabled the Buyer Agent Compensation fields along with this disclaimer within the IDX and VOW fields. 

Disclaimer: “The offer of compensation is made only to participants of the MLS where the listing is filed or where the listing is shared with other MLSs as part of a data-share agreement that extends the offer of compensation.”  

MLS subscribers who want to display the information within their consumer-facing websites, should contact their IDX Vendor or whoever integrates data within their consumer-facing website. 

The “Find a Home” page on the www.bayeast.org  website has also been updated with Buyer Agents Compensation / Disclaimer information. 

• Updated Colors on Contact Activity Widget

We updated the colors for Comments and Searches at the top of the Contact Activity widget on the Paragon Pro home screen to match the colors used in Paragon Connect.

• Enhanced Listing Congratulations Modal in Listing Input

The Listing Congratulations Modal has been enhanced to give your members more information about the property and the integrated services. This includes displaying the primary photo of the property, more space for the third-party vendor’s logo and up to 100 characters for the description or call-to-action text.

• Ability to delete a point in Polygon Map Drawing Tool

A new feature was added to the Polygon drawing tool to allow users to delete end points. Previously, if a user wanted to modify their polygon, they had to either move the respective points to reshape the drawing OR start over because moving all or some of the points was more work. With this enhancement, users can right-click on an endpoint and a “Delete” option will pop up. Selecting the option removes the point and the drawing updates based on the deleted point.

• Expanded Full Screen on Collaboration Center

The search feature in Collaboration Center was recently moved into one of the primary tabs on the dashboard.  A new expand option is now available for those who want to search in full screen mode.  Once in full screen mode, the expand icon changes to a reduce icon that when activated takes you back to the default layout.

• Price Analysis is now on Paragon Connect

The Price Analysis feature that was introduced in 5.86 to Paragon Professional, it is now available inside of Paragon Connect.  It can be used by agents to determine pricing by viewing the Potential Buyers and any available AVMs if enabled. The feature can be accessed from the overflow icon in the top app bar of the full listing edit.

• Contact Buyer Activity

The buyer section within the contact viewer is getting a major upgrade.  Prior to this release, the buyer activity would take you to four circles where you would find the total number of undecideds, favorites, possible, and rejected listings for a specific contact. Now you will see each search is broken down into its own card.  You can see the total number of listings, plus the different categories for each search. 

Review all of the enhancements here.  Questions, please call our MLS Tech Support at 925.730.7100.

• Upon saving a listing with ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) field set as “Yes”, a pop-up message will ask “Are you sure your listing ADU selection meets the ADU definition?”
• Co-listing Agent listing edit functionality is available. This is a popular request by listing agents.
• For Lease Rental listings, the ApplyLink field is renamed to ApplyNOW for easier understanding. This button assists lease rental agents to streamline the renters screening process.