Category: MLS
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.
Effective January 24, CloudMLX, which allowed you to search MLS data from Paragon and neighboring MLSs and set up email notifications, and CloudStream, which allowed you to text listings to your clients, will no longer be provided due to limited use of these products. Data from neighboring MLSs is now available in the Paragon MLS. As an alternative to Cloud MLX and Cloud Streams, automatic email notifications, setting up your clients to search data within the Collaboration Center, and texting listing information may now all be done via Paragon MLS. Bay East has quick videos about using the Collaboration Center and sending listings by text under the Grab n Go page.
CLOUD CMA will continue to remain a member benefit.
- Residential and Lease Rental property classes: A new feature category named 2nd Upper-Level has been added to accommodate listings that have more than two stories.
- Number of listing pictures: The number of listing photos has been increased from 40 to 60. Increasing the number of photos gives agents the ability to highlight more of their listing and bring additional photos from another MLS within Paragon.
- Renaming a feature in Style: Based on recommendation by C.A.R’s legal counsel; “Fixer-Handyman Special” within the Style feature category has been renamed to “Fixer Upper.”
Our MLS Vendor has notified us that due to low usage, the current Neighborhood map layer in Paragon will be disabled on Monday, December 27th, 2021. To learn how to use the Map feature to search for listings or if you know the boundary of a particular neighborhood and want to draw the shape on the Map yourself, click here: http://bayeast.org/video/how-to-search-active-listings-using-map/.
You may be seeing broken photo images within listings. There is an intermittent issue that seems to affect some networks/devices. It is affecting a significant number of Paragon MLSs/Boards. Our MLS vendor has multiple departments working on this; with this issue being a high priority.
- Price Analysis Widget: The release of the Price Analysis feature 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 menu bar of the Listing Input Form for a current Full, Partial or Subject Property Listing
- Updated Contacts and Saved Searches user-interface: Removal of some extra space in the Activity table and unnecessary scrollbar in the Comments table.
- Paragon Connect – Contact List: It has been upgraded to support several new features, such as adding a search bar, upgraded filters, streamlining in adding a new contact, the ability to delete multiple contacts, and more.
- Paragon Connect – Compose Email: Contacts can sometimes have more than one email address. The new contact viewer allows you to choose one or more email addresses at a time before you compose the message. You will also find that the email module has been updated. A new layout has been applied to make composing an email easier and more standard
- Paragon Connect – Texting: While using a mobile device, clicking on the phone icon will not only display all available phone numbers, but it will also provide you with a SMS option. Clicking this icon will launch your default native texting app. This will allow you to instantly text your contact without having to switch to your texting app
Review all of the enhancements here. Questions, please call our MLS Tech Support at 925.730.7100.
Several updates to the CA Residential Purchase Agreement are being introduced in December. Get ahead of the curve and familiarize yourself with the upcoming changes made to the RPA form while learning how to complete the form step-by-step including all of the current forms attached to the RPA.
The guide contains:
- The upcoming changes made to the redesigned agreement (12/21)
- Information about how to create, modify, cancel, or close a transaction
- Information about how to identify, explain, understand, and remove contingencies
- Details about how to complete all mandatory and recommended disclosures
- Information about how to ensure all commissions are paid in full and on time
- Important terms of the contract
Read the full quick guide.