By Matt Warren
Interim MLS Director, Columbus REALTORS®
Virtual Open Houses
Your Columbus REALTORS® MLS staff has been working hard to bring you innovative options to keep our central Ohio housing market strong. We are happy to announce that our MLS vendor has responded to industry needs with a new option: Virtual Open House.
How is a Virtual Open House different than a Virtual Tour?
Simple. Virtual Open Houses are streaming live. They are not pre-recorded, stored on the internet, and viewed by anyone, anytime. “Canned” video or pictures and sound is a Virtual Tour.
Virtual Open Houses are the live, online equivalent to an in-person open house. They are conducted to a live “audience” at a scheduled time. Only the live, online attendees see the information at the specified time.
Caution: Get written permission from the seller before you start streaming!
Show that home virtually instead of in-person
Flexmls has a brand new option for Virtual Open Houses. The new option is in the Scheduled Marketing Activities section.
As an alternative to in-person open houses, you can now enter a link to a streaming Virtual Open House using a variety of online communication services such as Facebook Live, GoToMeeting, or Microsoft Teams. Homebuyers or agents can join your Virtual Open Houses/Tour of Homes. The live attendees can view video streamed from your phone and ask questions during the “virtual walkthrough”.
There is help text right on the Add/Edit screen to remind agents that only online streaming sources can be entered in the URL address field.
If you enter a URL that is not recognized as a live streaming/conferencing service, Flexmls will pop-up a warning. There is a link to the list of recognized URL addresses for known web conferencing services (ie GoToMeeting, Facebook Live, etc.) right on the warning bubble.
There will certainly be a few “bumps in the road” and definitely some “growing pains”, but the new Virtual Open House is here now, and here to stay.
For additional information and the full details on this new feature in Flexmls, visit flexmls.com/flexmls-academy/product-news/introducing-virtual-open-houses-tours-of-homes/.
MLS Clear Cooperation Policy — May 1
On 3/23/20, the Columbus & Central Ohio MLS Board of Directors voted to add NAR’s mandated MLS Clear Cooperation Policy to Columbus REALTORS® MLS Rules & Regulations, effective 5/1/20.
Section 1.01 Clear Cooperation
“Within one (1) business day of marketing a property to the public, the listing broker must submit the listing to the MLS for cooperation with other MLS participants. Public marketing includes, but is not limited to, flyers displayed in windows, yard signs, digital marketing on public facing websites, brokerage website displays (including IDX and VOW), digital communications marketing (email blasts), multi-brokerage listing sharing networks, and applications available to the general public.” (Adopted by NAR 11/19)
Clear Cooperation Policy and Office Exclusive Listings
Although the new Clear Cooperation Policy does not prohibit Office Exclusive listings, the definition has changed as Office Exclusives will now be ‘office only’ listings.
An Office Exclusive listing still allows direct promotion within the listing brokerage, and one-to-one promotion between these licensees and their clients. These “within the brokerage” promotions are not considered public advertising.
However, if that listing is displayed or advertised to the general public (as defined in the policy), then the listing must be placed in the MLS within 1 business day.
To address questions and concerns, we have a recorded webinar, Q&A video and FAQ available. All can be found atColumbusRealtors.com/Policy8.
MLS Board of Directors Actions -- 3/23/20
For residential property types only, added “Income Restricted” to the Additional Acceptance Conditions field and added the Sub-Type “Leasehold”. Added NAR’s mandated MLS Clear Cooperation Policy to Columbus REALTORS® MLS Rules & Regulations, effective 5/1/20.
Fewer Password Changes in MLS!
Password reset requirement extended to 180 Days
These are trying times. There is plenty of stress without having to change your MLS password 4 times every year. What if password changes only happened every 180 days instead of the current 90 days? Would that really hurt anything? No, probably not. Let’s do it.
Recent studies in the technology and data security sector have pointed to a couple of recommendations regarding passwords. The first recommendation is that passwords be more difficult to hack. A short password consisting of a few letters and numbers is not enough. A longer password of nonsensical words is harder to guess or hack. The second is that frequent password changes don’t really help that much. In fact, they lead to simple passwords that are easier to remember and easier to steal.
Your MLS login will no longer force-change your password every 90 days. You will still have to change your password, but only twice a year. Please make your new password longer and more secure as described below. This will make your password safer as you take advantage of the “less password changes per year”.
What does an insecure, weak password look like?
happy123 – Too short. Too easy to guess. michelle1 – Too short. Easy to guess.
What about stronger, more “secure” passwords?
hippojumpMoonbeamshark1970 – Longer, upper case letters and numbers. You can even make a jingle to remember it! Y0uCAn!tHackTh1s!Hamm3rPaNtz – Longer, special characters, numbers, non-words. Did we mention LONGER?
Takeaways:
Change your password to something secure like the example above! Make it LONGER. Enjoy not changing your password as often!
