Monthly Archives: September 2016

HIS Marketing Admin 7:03 pm on September 16, 2016  

Broker Notice: Feature Your Listings on Island Homes TV

New Channel Now on Kauai, Coming Soon to Hawaii Island:

Island Homes TV Brings Real Estate Listings to Television and the Web

IslandHomeTV_logoThe newest distribution partner on the MLS listing syndication dashboard in REsearch brings your listings to a brand new audience! Video listings are broadcast locally throughout the week, with a new website and YouTube Channel taking them global!

Introducing the Island Homes TV Website!

Sellers want to showcase their homes to as many potential buyers as possible. In a tightening and competitive real estate market, the more diversified your marketing platform, the more likely you are to attract sellers and buyers. Island Homes TV is the only dedicated real estate television show in Hawaii!

  • IHTV airs 50+ times a week on Channel 6 on Kauai (coming soon to Hawaii Island)
  • IHTV reaches both local viewers as well as the powerful visitor market
  • IHTV episodes and neighborhood segments can also be watched on YouTube
  • Now REALTORS® who advertise on the show will also be featured on a first-class website

Now, with the help of Hawaii Information Service, the show and website will work in tandem, along with the YouTube Channel, to help you capture leads wherever viewers find the show!

Learn More »

Buyers Can Now Search for Your Listings On-line!

Island Homes TV already puts your listings inside hundreds of homes, hotels and vacation rentals dozens of times per week! But now, viewers will be directed to the website to view featured listing and get further information about agents and properties. Viewers can search by location, MLS number, agent name or any other criteria, making it easy for them to find your listings that they just saw on TV.

Island Homes TV videos include a slideshow of listing photos with strong narration describing highlights of each property, and with agent and brokerage headshots and branding and contact information prominently shown throughout, it’s easy to find properties on the website!

island-homes-screenshot.png

Listings are organized by district, featuring specific neighborhoods. You can watch this week’s Island Homes TV shows for the North Shore, East Side, Central District, South Shore, and West Side of Kauai. And Island Homes TV is coming soon to Hawaii Island!

Learn More & Call (808) 720-6075 Today! »

How To Opt-In to the Island Homes TV Website:

Island Homes TV is the latest partner to be added to our REsearch Syndication control panel. This dashboard, found under “Settings,” allows brokers to control where listings are distributed, including to IHTV!

  1. In order for your listings to appear on Island Homes TV, you will need to sign up.Learn more online, or just call (808) 720-6075!
  2. Then, all you need to do is to opt-in to IHTV on the Syndication dashboard in REsearch. Watch how to do this in this quick video!

More syndication partners to come… stay tuned!

HIS Marketing Admin 1:52 pm on September 14, 2016  

Clarifying Revisions to the SLAA

As our On-Line Subscriber License and Access Agreement (SLAA) Acceptance Program continues, we’ve received several questions regarding the copyright options that it presents. We’d like to take this opportunity to provide further context and address these concerns.

This acceptance program is similar to the one we conducted back in 2013, which also asked members to agree to the SLAA to continue to use the service. The current SLAA revisions were driven primarily by updates that the National Association of Realtors made to its own model guidance for MLSes, with which HIS endeavors to remain in alignment.

NAR MLS Policy Statement 7.85 emphasizes that participants minimally obtain proper licenses so that they can, in turn, grant the MLS a license to use the photos that they contribute to the service.

However, some members have raised concerns that the SLAA turns over the rights to, or provides a license for, all of their content (including photos) to HIS, allowing HIS to do whatever it wishes with it.

We want to assure our members that HIS’ use of its participants’ photos are ultimately subject to restrictions under NAR’s Policy Statement 7.85.  Under this policy, HIS’ use is limited to “storage, reproduction, compiling and distribution of listing and listing information to the extent necessary to fulfill the defined purposes of MLS.”

In the event that HIS would seek to use its participants’ photos for any unrelated purpose, it must provide the listing brokers adequate prior notice of its intended use and give them the opportunity to affirmatively withhold their consent for that use.  There are no plans currently for any such use.

HIS has always been in compliance with this policy, and it is not its intention to deviate from it.

HIS prides itself on giving its brokers better control over their listing information. For example, we introduced the Syndication Dashboard last year, an industry-leading initiative that allows brokers to choose which specific third-party sites should receive their listings.

We understand that many of our members incur a lot of expense for their listing photos and that they entrust HIS with their care and handling that we greatly respect and appreciate.

For Principal Broker Subscribers (PBS) who have not yet accepted the SLAA on-line  and have not yet selected an option governing their contributed content: If you do not make a selection by September 15, 2016, acceptance of the SLAA and Option II will be automatic. To reiterate, Option II means that you wish to grant a license to HIS for the use of your content, and not assign ownership of the content to HIS. Note that under Option II, HIS will not include your content in its copyright filings.

Please note that PBSs are able to change their option selection at any time.  It will just involve the completion of a new SLAA form.

If you have questions about this policy or how we are using your photos, please do not hesitate to contact Diana Haraguchi, VP of Administration by calling 1-800-628-3121 ext 172, by email to Diana@HiInfo.com

Mahalo!

HIS Marketing Admin 3:54 pm on September 6, 2016  

September 2016 Training Schedule

Go To MeetingBelow is the schedule of upcoming online training classes for the month of September. Even if you’ve participated in a session before, it’s often a good idea to get a refresher. Our live trainers can answer your questions and help you get the most out of REsearch. Descriptions of each HIS webinar can can be found here.

To sign up immediately, simply click on the links below. If you are going to attend online classes as a group, only one person needs to sign up.

Sept. 6-9, 2016

Sept. 12-16, 2016

Sept. 19-23, 2016

Sept. 26-30, 2016

Instructions on how to register for online classes:

  • To register, please click on the applicable link located below the class. This will take you to the Citrix GoToMeeting/GoToWebinar registration site.
  • Please complete all the required fields marked by a red asterisk (First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone, and Organization or office name).
  • Click “Register Now” to complete the registration process. Once registered a confirmation email will be sent to your email address to confirm your registration along with a unique web ID number and instructions on how to login to the session on that day.
  • If you need login assistance, please feel free to contact our Customer/Technical Support team at 800-628-3121, press # and then 457.

Remember, after you have participated, please make sure to fill out the survey or e-mail us your feedback so we can continue to improve upon our training efforts!

System requirements for online classes:

  • PC-based attendees – Required: Microsoft Windows® XP or newer
  • Macintosh®-based attendees – Required: Mac OS® X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or newer
  • Mobile attendees – Required: Apple iOS 8 or newer, Google Android 4.0 or newer System requirements apply only to the GoToMeeting webinar service, not to the REsearch system.

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to contact us via support@hiinfo.com or call (808) 599-4224 or (800) 628-3121

HIS Marketing Admin 1:00 pm on September 1, 2016  

MLS Number Series Change

odometer-mls-600000

As you may know, MLS numbers are assigned sequentially as they are entered into the system. In REsearch, listings are currently in the 299,000-range.

In order to minimize confusion among the three MLS systems in Hawaii, the HIS Board of Directors has decided to advance MLS number assignments in REsearch to restart at 600000 once we have reached MLS number 299999. As the Realtors Association of Maui is currently assigning MLS numbers in the 300000 range, this “jump forward” will avoid having duplicate MLS numbers in use, and thus prevent confusion among our respective members, clients, and consumers that may look up listings on MLS websites and other real estate services.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Diana Haraguchi, VP-Administration, by calling 1-800-628-3121 ext. 172 if calling from the neighbor islands, or 599-4224 ext. 172 if calling from Oahu. You may also send an email to Diana@HiInfo.com.

Mahalo!