HIS Digest – July 27, 2007

MLS Enhancements – Releasing this week…..
Access to BOC Document Images

On Friday, July 27, 2007, all MLS subscribers with TMK service will be able to view and print documents recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances (BOC) through their TMK or public records service. The documents accessible will be those that have been recorded with the BOC since December 2003 and up through the latest data provided to HIS by the BOC.

All you have to do to see the BOC documents is…..

In REsearch, under Report Format

• Select “TMK Full” or “TMK Short”
• Select “Loans” also if you want to see Loan documents.
• Enter the Tax Key number or the MLS number of the property for which you are searching for documents in the Taxkey field.
• Click on “Search Now”

The search results will show a link “BOC”, next to every TMK or Loan activity for which there is a BOC document available. When you click on the BOC link, the document will pop up in a separate window for your review or for printing.

This new feature has been undergoing rigorous testing and very few problems have been reported by our testing team. However, should you encounter any problems with accessing the BOC documents, please do not hesitate to contact our Tech Support staff for assistance.

If you have any suggestions or comments about this enhancement, you may send them to us by clicking on the Contact HIS button and select “Suggestion or comment” on the drop down menu in the Purpose field. Just type in your suggestions or comment and send it to us.

The access to the BOC documents is not available at this time to non-MLS subscribers and MLS subscribers that do not currently have TMK service. We anticipate that these customers will be able to sign up for this service within the next 60 to 90 days. Updates will be provided as information becomes available. Should you have any questions, please contact our Sales & Marketing department.

Form Updates…..
Exclusive Right to Sell Form

The most current version of the Exclusive Right to Sell form is now available in REsearch Forms.

Still squashing the bugs…..
Purchase Contract

The fields under item C-25 have been expanded to allow more text. Previously, entries like “within 10 days of acceptance” did not fit.

Please let us know if you encounter any problems with or have any questions about
the forms available in REsearch.

Rules Highlight…..
MLS Photo Requirements & Restrictions

There have been several reports regarding photo rule violations recently. This is the most reported violation, second only to having contact information in the public remarks. The MLS rules regarding listing record photos is as follows:

Section 3.05 (b) Photographic images submitted on listing records may contain only depictions of the listed property and its vicinities. Inclusion of marketing and promotional messages on behalf of participants, subscriber, or seller, including images of “for-sale” signs and pictures of persons, is expressly prohibited.

Further the HIS Board of Directors approved the following amendments to supplement these rules on May 25, 2006.

Section 3.07. Time of submission. A photograph must be submitted for any listing record, except for vacant land, within 7 days after the listing record is submitted to the service.

Previously, the time of submission was 14 days.

Processing fees for the failure to provide a photo within 7 days will be $50 per listing, and $50 per week per listing thereafter until a photo is submitted.

Also,

• You will not be able to report a sale of a listed property without a photo.
• There can be no contact information showing in the photos. This would be the same as having contact information in the Public Remarks. Buyers’ agents do not want to include remarks, photos and video/virtual tours containing the listor or seller contact information in the information they share with their clients. Further this information should not be accessible to visitors to the HIS public website.

Should you wish to see the current MLS Rules, click here, or visit http://www.hawaiiinformation.com and click on the “…..and more…..” link under the MLS Members Corner on the login page. You will then be taken to a page where you can access forms and the rules.

Use of HIS service’s communication channels

We have an enhancement request in the development queue to allow customers to opt-out of being included on the email or mailing lists, but until we are able to fulfill it, we ask that you give thought to what you send out using the mailing or distribution lists available from the service.

There are restrictions on what can be sent through the services communication channels. Use of these channels should be strictly limited to promoting the sale of properties listed in the service. “Junk Mail” and other solicitation is prohibited.

Membership Reminder…..
Participants Manage Your Rosters Please!

Whenever there is a change in your office roster you must report it to HIS within 24 hours of the effective time of the change. We have calls daily from agents that do not know that they have to complete a Change Form, have his/her PB/DR/BIC sign off on them, and submit it to DCCA whenever they join, leave or transfer offices. HIS requires that a copy of this form before we can execute a termination, commencement or transfer of service without this form.

Some agents while remembering that they have to complete a Change Form for DCCA, assume that DCCA will supply HIS a copy. HIS is not part of the DCCA, so they will not supply us with a copy of this form. We’ve even had agents ask us to follow up on the status of pocket cards and other licensing matters handled by the DCCA.

We encourage the Participants, the PBs/DRs/BICs of their offices, to generate these Change Forms whenever an agent joins or leaves their offices. The entity that benefits the most from doing this in a diligent fashion is the Participant. Unless HIS is informed, a Participant may continue to be responsible for the subscription fees
for an agent that has left his/her office as well as for any activity that the agent participates in until the Participant formally signs him/her off his roster. Change Forms can be obtained from the DCCA website.

We are planning to develop a “Manage My Roster” function within the next year. This will allow Participants to make their changes to their office rosters on their own. We will send out updates on the development of this project as they are available.

Accounting Reminder…..
Changes in Payment Plan

Please let us know in Advance!

Please let us know by three (3) business days prior to the end of the month if you would like to make changes to your payment schedule or method of payment for the following month by completing a Pre-Authorized Payment Agreement (aka Exhibit C for short). Payment schedules can be set up for billing quarterly, semi-annually
or annually for payment by credit/debit card or by check. At the present time, we accept Visa and MasterCard. You may arrange to have a credit or debit card on file with us, so that all regular scheduled payments can be automatically debited to it based on the payment schedule you select. Check payments should be made payable
to Hawaii Information Service and mailed by the invoice due date to the our office located at:

Hawaii Information Service
680 Iwilei Road #777
Honolulu, HI 96817

If you request changes after a billing has been processed, and it is necessary to make adjustments, you will incur a processing fee of $25. You will also incur this $25 processing fee if you decide after the billing has been done that you want to:

• Reverse a charge or debit to one credit/debit card, and have it charged to another, or
• Cancel the charges for services or products that you have not informed us of in advance.

The $25 processing fee on returned checks and credit/debit card declines will continue to be assessed.

Click here if you need a Pre-Authorized Payment Agreement form. Upon completion, it can be faxed to our office at 1-888-628-3121 if faxing from the neighbor islands, or 536-6499 if faxing from Oahu. You may also mail it to our office address shown above. Should you have any questions, please feel free to call 1-800-628-3121, or send an email to Accounting@HawaiiInformation.com.

Know a fellow member missing out on the news?

Just forward her this email and tell her to click here [mailto:diana@hiinfo.net] to send us an email to let us know she wants to be added our email list.

HIS Digest – July 16, 2007

Just Released…
Form Enhancements

Purchase Contract: For your convenience….”Save” Button at the bottom of the form

Wasn’t it a pain that after you completed the long 12 page Purchase Agreement, that you had to scroll back all the way up to the first page to save it? Well, now there’sa “Save to REsearch” button at the bottom of the form.

Rental Agreement: Extension of field size

There was a limitation on the amount of text that could be entered on Page 2, Item 14. “Disclosure of Real Estate Licensing Status”. Although it appears that the field was long enough, it accepted text only in about a third of the total line allowed for this entry. The field has been expanded to accept more characters.

All of the forms that required revisions as a result of the use of the new Purchase Contract should now be available on-line. In the event you encounter a problem with any of them, or if we’re missing a form that you need, please do not hesitate to let us know.

Changes…
Subdivision Names Acronym’d

Please use these in your searches and and Prospect set-up

HOVE = Hawaiian Ocean View Estates
HOVR = Hawaiian Ocean View Ranchos

Due to field size limitations, we find it necessary sometimes to reduce subdivision names to their acronyms. The names Hawaiian Ocean View Estates and Hawaiian Ocean View Ranchos are so long that it did not allow the inclusion of the lot number in the field provided for this information. These have been shortened to their acronyms HOVE and HOVR respectively. Please use these acronyms when searching for properties in these subdivisions. If you have Prospects set up to search for properties in these subdivisions, and have used the full subdivision names in the search criteria, please check them. We have executed a program to search through the prospect searches and change all of the occurrences of the subdivision names to the acronyms so that you don’t have to go through them and change them manually. In the event that your prospect searches have not been corrected, please contact Tech Support and we’ll be able to help you revise them.

Notes on previously released announcements…
Update for Assessment and Building Detail Data

In our last bulletin, we announced that the assessment data was updated. The Data Status page did not reflect the correct year that the data had been updated to. We are in the process of updating that page to show that the assessment data for all islands have been updated to reflect 2007 data. The building detail data is current as of the last updates provided to us by each county.

Non-Participant & Reciprocal Agent ID #s

We missed mentioning that if you want to report the sale of a property that the seller is not represented, and you are the Sold Agent, you should list the property under your ID number and report the sale immediately. Contact us and we can change the listor ID to the proper ID number. Members do not have the ability to list properties under any other ID number than their own. Just contact our Tech Support staff, they’ll be happy to assist you.

Coming soon…
ACCESS TO BOC DOCUMENTS

We know you’re waiting for this! We’re on the verge of providing you access to the documents recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances. We are in the final stages of completing this project. This service will be made available to all our regular MLS subscribers at no additional charge. It will also be available to our other customers at an additional monthly fee or at a charge per document basis. Information on this and as to when the service will be available will be sent to you very soon.

Rules Highlight…
Delinquent Changes of Status

One of the things that really upsets members is the late reporting of changes of status. According to the MLS Rules, all status changes, except to status “S” (sold) must be reported to the service within 48 hours of the time they become effective. Changes to status “S” must be reported within 5 days of the date of recordation. Failure to do so, subjects the member to processing fee charges initially of $50 per listing, and $100 per listing per day thereafter until the status change is submitted.

Many a member and his/her client has been inconvenienced by other members who fail to change the status of an active listing to under contract (“U”) or contingent (“C”) status. One of the worst scenarios, is when a prospective buyer incurs air travel and hotel expenses to come and see a property, only to find out that an offer has already been accepted for it.

We know that there are many members who do not report the status changes to C and U, because their sellers request or demand that their listings remain active for the purpose of collecting back-up offers. We understand the dilemma that the member is confronted with. However, if the member decides to acquiesce to the seller’s request, he/she is still subject to the MLS rules. This means that if he/she decides not to submit the status change, he/she will incur the processing fees for not doing so. The service has no choice but to enforce the rules and charge the fees.

If you are faced with this situation you should inform the seller that you are required by the MLS rules to report the status change. Under status “C”, the property can still be shown for the purpose of obtaining back-up offers. If the seller still insists that you keep the listing active, you should let him/her know that if you don’t change the status, you will incur the processing fees.

To see the MLS Rules, click here, and then select “Rules and Regulations” or you can go to our website and click on the ”and more….” link at the bottom right portion of the log in page under “MLS MEMBER CORNER” and you’ll be taken to a page where you can access forms and the rules.

To All PARTICIPANTS, PBs, DRs & BICs…..

We need your help! Please share this bulletin with all of your agents!

We are finding that we may not have a current email address for many of them. Please have your agents check to make sure that they have a current email address with us, or if they prefer that we send our bulletins and notices to them through the mail or by fax. Otherwise, they will not receive important notices or announcements from us. Notices and announcements are considered delivered if they are addressed to the email addresses last provided to us by the members and customers.

Mahalo!

HIS Digest – July 9, 2007

New Purchase Contract Form

Since we’ve made the new Purchase Contract form available online, members have encountered some bugs that we’ve since fixed. There were fields that were not auto-filling or were auto-filling with the wrong information, and areas that should be editable, did not allow edits. We believe that all of the problems have been addressed. However, should you come across any problems with using the online form, please feel free to bring them to our attention by contacting our Tech Support staff.

Cooperating Brokerage Firm’s Separate Agreement

RE: Member Board ID

Members have been calling to ask what ID number should be entered on the Member Board ID line. The ID number should be the broker/agent’s local board ID number. This ID number has to be manually entered. This field cannot be auto-filled since these ID numbers are not stored in the HIS database. This form is called “Cooperating Broker’s Separate Agreement” in REsearch and is available under the Forms tab.

Call us! We may have a fix for you for the dreaded ….. “One Moment Please …..” Message

It was frustrating and perplexing! It seems that some of our members were encountering this message whenever we made updates. You may want to share this information with your IT Support personnel or vendor if you experience this problem.

Some firewalls or security settings/systems in place for some networks prevent certain types of files from being downloaded to a client machine. Such is the case for those members who have encountered the “One Moment Please” problem.

To fix the problem, we ask that the agents empty their Temporary Internet Files which should force them to download the new version of the required file, but the firewall or security, whatever is in place, prevents this download.

Should you have any problems with the red “One Moment Please …..” message, please call us for assistance. We can provide you with configuration instructions that may resolve your problem. Send an email to TechSupport@HawaiiInformation.com or call (800) 628-3121.

ASSESSMENT AND BUILDING DETAIL DATA UPDATED

The most current assessment data and building details that the counties have made available to us have been loaded into our system. To see how current the data is in REsearch just click on “and more ……” under “MLS MEMBER CORNER” located at the right bottom corner on the login screen. A window will then appear with links to member forms and other information. If you click on “Data Status” you will see the following information.

REsearchTM 4.1 Data Status Updated 7/3/2007
All Islands assessed values reflect year 2006.
Land Court Conveyance are current as of 6/26/2007.
Regular System Conveyance are current as of 6/25/2007.

Some transactions may require further verification and may not appear in the database. Taxes are calculated using 2006 tax rates and are subject to change if the tax rates change. Please call our Customer Service number with inquiries: 808-599-4224. ALL assessed values reflect tax year 2006. Oahu assessed values reflect tax year 2007. (3/2007)

The DCAA data is automatically updated as follows: BREGS (Business Registrations) – daily and PVL (Private Vocational Licenses) – weekly. Data is provided by the Hawaii State Government.

If you come across data discrepancies or have questions regarding the data, please click on the Contact HIS button in REsearch . When the email template appears, click on the Purpose field and a drop down menu will appear. Select Data Discrepancy and type a brief message describing the discrepancy. When click on Send, the email will be directed to our Data Quality & Control department.

Need to submit sold information on properties you’ve worked on with non-Participants/Subscribers?

Non-Participant & Reciprocal Agent ID #s

Working on a transaction with a non-participant/subscriber? Working directly with a seller or buyer not represented by an agent? Want to report a developer sale that was not listed before by a member/subscriber?

We have a set of Agent ID #’s available for you to use to list or report the sales of properties under these circumstances.

• 1792 – To report the sale of a property that was not listed by a subscriber, where the buyer was represented by a subscriber. You’ll need to list the property using ID # 1792 for the listor. Use your ID# as the sold agent.
• 1799 – To report a sale that was listed by a subscriber where the buyer was not represented by a subscriber, us ID # 1799 for the sold agent.
• 2309 – To report an original developer sale that was not listed by a subscriber where the buyer was represented by a subscriber, use ID # 2309 to list the property. Use your ID# as the sold agent.
• 2311 – To report the sale of a property where either the listing agent or the buyer’s agent is not a subscriber but is an agent on Kauai or the Big Island, use ID # 2311 that identifies the non-subscriber agent as a non-participant, respectively for whichever side is represented by him/her.

If you are working with a non-member/subscriber (reciprocal agent) located on Maui, Oahu or on the mainland, use:

• 9033 – If working with a reciprocal agent from Oahu.
• 9035 – If working with a reciprocal agent from Maui.
• 9036 – If working with a reciprocal agent from the Mainland USA.

This information is available in REsearch Help. Just click on the ? Help button, and click on Reciprocal Agent Codes under Quick Links.

Should you run into any problems and need to report a sale in order to be in compliance with the MLS Rules, you may use your ID number to submit the information. Just contact Tech Support and they can walk you through the necessary steps to make sure that the sale is reported properly.

NO ADVERTISING PLEASE! in Photos, Video or Virtual Tours

Just a reminder. There should be no advertising or promotional content in photos, video and virtual tours attached to MLS listing records.

• Contact information and marketing and promotional messages on behalf of participants, subscribers, sellers or any entities affiliated with them are strictly prohibited.
• Links to other web pages, websites or documents that contains listor or seller information and marketing or promotional messages on behalf of participants, subscribers, sellers or any other entities affiliated with them are not permitted. If the virtual or video tour is hosted on a publicly hosted tour service like Google, YouTube, etc., the tour viewer or video player must be embedded into a web page with no contact information, related links, or links to other websites or documents containing listor, seller to affiliated entities’ contact information.
• Listor or listor’s office information and contact information are not permitted in the title tags and meta data where embedded videos and tours are hosted.

Also as in photos, the tours cannot show “for sale” signs or signs that display listor or listor’s office information, nor may they show persons.

If you plan to have a tour produced for submittal to a listing record, many of the companies that put together these tours are familiar with the MLS rules. They must produce for you an “unbranded” version of the tour.

Should you have a questions in regards to virtual or video tours acceptable for submission to the service,or need help in putting one together, please contact our Sales & Marketing department.

Also…

URL and Website Addresses in the Public Remarks — No Contact, Advertising or Promotional Messages. URL and Website addresses may not be entered in the Public Remarks area if the website contains contact information, or links to contact information. They also cannot contain or link to marketing, advertising or promotional messages on behalf of listor, seller or any other entity associated with them.