Monthly Archives: January 2018

HIS Marketing Admin 7:43 pm on January 22, 2018  

February 2018 Training Schedule

Go To Meeting LogoThis is the schedule of upcoming online training classes for the month of February. 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 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.

Next Week

February 5-9, 2018

February 12-16, 2018

February 19-23, 2018

February 26-28, 2018

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 11:54 pm on January 17, 2018  

Copyright Click-Through Required in REsearch

Read below for all the details on our updated copyright notice. Or, watch these three-minute videos, which explain the basics!

VIDEO: 8 Questions on the Copyright Update

VIDEO: Copyright Program Follow-Up

Copyright Update Details

Each quarter, Hawaii Information Service submits a copyright application to the U.S. Copyright Office to protect your MLS data. In order to continue to copyright MLS data on your behalf, we will be asking you to confirm the inclusion of your listing information in this “compilation copyright.”

It’s important to note that HIS is not acquiring rights to listing content itself via this click-through. HIS is simply ensuring that changes to the compilation (the selection, coordination, and arrangement of content) vest in HIS, and that per HIS rules, HIS is the owner of the compilation (See Rules Section 7.04). By taking this step, HIS is putting itself in a better position to register the copyright with the US Copyright office.

Similar to when we made changes in 2013 to our Subscriber License and Access Agreement, you will be presented with a one-time “click-through” notice when you log into REsearch for the first time after Tuesday, January 30, 2018. You will be able to review the terms of this “compilation copyright,” select “I Agree,” and then continue into the system.

You will only need to click “I Agree” once.  You will be able to defer this action until Thursday, March 1, 2018, after which point clicking ‘I’ll Do This Later’ will redirect you back to the REsearch login page.

IllDoThisLater2You must agree to this notice in order to continue using REsearch. If you have questions about MLS copyrights or this notice, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

MLS Data and Copyrights

The U.S. Copyright Office (“Office”) has recently asked hundreds of MLSes to clarify their copyright registration applications. The Office now asserts that the applications do not demonstrate sufficient creativity in the selection, coordination, and arrangement of compiled listing data. This despite decades of MLSes successfully obtaining copyright registrations from the Office for their databases. This development has stalled the copyrighting process that has historically protected the content that is submitted to MLSes from infringement.

NAR’s legal counsel has been in contact with the Office on behalf of MLSes to clarify what is required to address the concerns of the Office, and they are recommending that MLSes position themselves as the author of the “selection, coordination and arrangement” of the content that their subscribers and participants submit to MLS databases. This terminology should be sufficient to satisfy the Office that MLS databases are still subject to copyright protection.

To strengthen HIS’ position as the copyright owner of the compilation of the listing database, and increase the chance that the Office will approve its copyright applications, we are asking all of our subscribers who may enter listing data into the service to acknowledge this arrangement before being able to enter or change listing data.

Beginning after Tuesday, January 30, 2018, an acknowledgment screen will appear upon logging into REsearch. You will be required to click-through it just one time. The text of this acknowledgement is included below.

Updated Copyright Acknowledgement

Selection, coordination, and arrangement as work for hire

IllDoThisLater2This “click-through” changes your legal rights. Consult a lawyer if you have questions.

When you put listing and related information into the MLS Hawaii, Inc. (HIS) System you choose, classify, categorize, order, and group material or data. In copyright-law terms, you are “selecting,” “coordinating,” and “arranging” this information, and these acts are components of a “compilation copyright.” Pursuant to HIS’s policies, HIS owns the compilation copyright in the HIS databases. Consequently, as a condition of accessing the HIS System, you must agree that your provision of selection, coordination, and arrangement to the HIS System is a work made for hire under the Copyright Act of 1976. Your agreement that selection, coordination, and arrangement is a work for hire does not change ownership of the original text (like public remarks), photographs, or videos that you create for your listings.

By proceeding I AGREE and assert that the selection, coordination, and arrangement I contribute to HIS’s database compilation is a work made for hire on behalf of HIS and that HIS is author of those works for purposes of copyright. If, I DO NOT AGREE that the selection, coordination, and arrangement I contribute to be a work made for hire, I understand I will not be permitted further access to the HIS System.

Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Diana Haraguchi, Membership Director, by emailing diana@hiinfo.com or by calling 1-800-628-3121 extension 172 if calling from the neighbor islands or 599-4224 extension 172 if calling from Oahu.

Mahalo!

HIS Marketing Admin 7:17 pm on January 10, 2018
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Broker Offer: Big Savings on a Branded App

Exclusive combined savings available! Offer expires March 9, 2018.

SmarterAgentBanner

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  • Help your agents engage their sphere of influence with an app they can easily share by email, text or social media
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How to take advantage of this offer:

Call Smarter Agent at (856) 481-2153 today and mention coupon code SAVE50 to save $50 per month!

plus

For this exclusive offer, save another $50 off the setup fee for the HIS Mobile IDX that powers your new app!

Act now before this offer expires on March 9, 2018!

This New Year’s special offer from Smarter Agent is not just a one-time discount, but includes $50 off every month. In addition, get $50 off the setup for Mobile IDX service from HIS!

How to learn more:

You can also download a one-page flyer!

HIS Marketing Admin 11:26 pm on January 1, 2018  

Happy New Year! 2017 in Review

As we head into a brand new year, Hawaii Information Service invites you to take a look back at highlights from your MLS for 2017… and get a quick preview of things to come!

We were able to save agents hundreds of extra clicks this year with our first set of enhancements in 2017, part of an ongoing effort to improve the usability and efficiency of REsearch. Whether simplifying the REsearch action menu, removing unused buttons, or saving a step during photo uploads, your feedback helped us find places where we could save everyone valuable time.

This was also a big year behind the scenes, with the completion of our comprehensive infrastructure upgrade. Improvements were made at every level: hardware, software, services and networking. This not only means better performance and reliability for the systems you rely on today, but also sets a strong foundation for a new generation of applications and tools.

Our REsearch development team was firing on all cylinders in 2017, and March brought an unprecedented series of enhancements to your MLS system! More loan information, more permits and searchable fields, plus search history, and market statistics improvements.

But wait, there’s more! On March 30 we released five more enhancements: Google Street View, map search and Market IQ upgrades, contact importing, and a new tool for appraisers! And once again, many of these upgrades came from suggestions and feedback from members like you. Thank you!

The REsearch enhancements kept flowing into the summer, and one of our bigger hits of 2017 was the addition of direct links to county websites!

Entering listings got easier, too, with a link to look up flood zones with the state FHAT tool, and new fields for residential and condo listings. Other updates included better visibility for open houses, a new mortgage estimator, downloadable building sketches, an improved External Maps format, and — last but not least — a self-service password reset tool!

This year also brought the debut of The HIS Singers, led by none other than CEO Faith Geronimo!

Price drops are always good news, and 2017 was the fourth year in a row inwhich HIS was able to provide an Annual MLS Special! It was our most popular promotion yet, with over 500 members taking advantage of the deal this year.

June also brought the annual Hawaii Business magazine “Top 100 Realtors” awards, in which HIS members were again well represented. Congratulations!

Following our comprehensive infrastructure upgrade, HIS kicked off its next behind-the-scenes project: upgrading our accounting, billing, and CRM systems. While this work is still underway, the first clear benefit for you came in July, when we were able to accept American Express and Discover Card payments in addition to Visa and Mastercard!

The big news over the summer was bigger photos in REsearch. With our upgraded infrastructure we were able to support listing photos with four times the resolution as before, meaning your properties look better than ever!

August also brought the addition of tax history to REsearch. Now you can see up to five years of historic tax information (including tax assessment values and historic exemptions) as part of the property basics shown in our TMK formats.

This year we announced that HIS would be partnering with Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®) to provide its real estate platform to our members. Created by NAR, RPR is 100% owned by Realtors®, providing data, analytics, and client-friendly reports exclusively for Realtors®.

This is a good time to remind you that the official RPR launch is coming up quick! There are special training sessions just for you during the week of January 8… click here to RSVP today!

The key REsearch enhancements delivered this fall focused on our maps, including the addition of a statewide satellite imagery base layer. This complements the aerial imagery layer, providing better overall coverage at all map zoom levels. As a bonus, we also made it possible to open an interactive map when clicking on the map in the MLS Mid format!

We also added a new collection of helpful links inside REsearch to make it even easier to find frequently-used resources on the web. Just click the “Links” entry on the main REsearch sidebar!

HIS became the first Hawaii MLS to partner with Remine, which provides real estate agents with a powerful property intelligence platform. When launched next year, you’ll be able to harness predictive analytics to identify new opportunities!

And this year‘s season of “Aloha Giving” kicked off with a community service project benefiting the Institute for Human Services, Hawaii’s largest homeless service agency in Iwilei on Oahu. Our staff contributed time, talent and funds to build “Welcome Home Baskets” to help IHS clients moving into a new home. The company also donated more than $1,200 to help advance the institute’s important mission to prevent and end homelessness in Hawaii.

Another behind-the-scenes achievement came toward the end of 2017, with HIS achieving Platinum level certification from the Real Estate Standards Organization (RESO). RESO Certification provides independent validation that your MLS system’s functions meet or exceed professional industry-wide standards. HIS is among only about 100 MLSes of more than 700 nationwide to achieve this highest level!

Meanwhile, we further embraced the giving spirit of the holidays by donating to the U.S Marine Corps Reserve “Toys for Tots” program! We joined forces with our friends at Toshiba Business Solutions for a combined drive that provided more than 150 new toys to Hawaii keiki in need.

This was just some of the good news that we were proud to share with you this year, and all of us at Hawaii Information Service are grateful for the opportunity that we had to serve you in 2017!

The Hawaii Information Services ohana! Top row, left to right: Novena, Faith, Ryan. Front row, left to right: Diana, Jeff, Gordon, Jasen, Kielan, Leslie, Michelle, Raun, Gay, Gail, Sam, Colleen, and Mike. And in case you missed it, check out our video Christmas card, “Mele Kalikimaka.”

We are very excited to leap into the new year, where we have even more great things planned. Coming soon from HIS, a new client portal!

It’s just one of a number of new and improved tools coming in 2018, including RPR, Showing Time, and Remine. We will continue to ensure REsearch remains the best MLS system for Hawaii, while designing and building new ways to support you and your business. And you can always count on us to provide service with aloha!