Monthly Archives: January 2020

HIS Marketing Admin 3:07 am on January 30, 2020  

February 2020 Training Schedule

gotomeeting-logo-orangeThis is the schedule of 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. We recommend registering for classes even if you cannot attend live, as many are recorded and made available the next day.

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® Vista or newer
    • Macintosh®-based attendees – Required: Mac OS® X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or newer
    • Mobile attendees – Required: Apple iOS 10 or newer, Google Android 4.4 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 7:12 pm on January 28, 2020  

REsearch Update: Leasehold Disclosure in Public Remarks

To reduce consumer confusion, and to better meet the requirements of state law, we have implemented a new feature in the REsearch listing input form that will increase the visibility of the leasehold disclosure for affected listings.

Background

Hawaii Administrative Rules §16-99-11(d) requires that “a leasehold property advertised for sale in any medium shall be identified by the word “leasehold.”

Although separating leasehold listings from fee simple listings within the MLS is straightforward, the distinction is less clear on third-party listing sites like Zillow or Realtor.com. In most cases, the “leasehold” designation is relegated to fine print, or not displayed at all.

As a result, leasehold properties are often displayed prominently on external sites due to prices that may be drastically lower than fee simple properties. This can lead to consumer confusion and require additional broker and agent resources to address.

What’s New

Third-party sites are not bound to comply with HAR§16-99-11(d). The HIS Board of Directors has decided to ensure appropriate disclosure across data publishers by having REsearch automatically prepend the public remarks for leasehold properties with the phrase, “This is a leasehold property.”

When you select “Leasehold” for the required “Land Tenure” field, you will see a notification that “This is a leasehold property.” has been added to the listing’s public remarks:

If the length of the existing public remarks prevent the addition of the phrase, you will be asked to edit them to accommodate it.

The phrase is being added to the beginning of the public remarks because different third-party publishers have different character limits for the remarks field, and thus may truncate them and inadvertently remove this disclosure should it appear at the end.

What’s Next

We hope this small change increases awareness of the leasehold status of listings, and encourages consumers to educate themselves on the distinction between leasehold and fee simple properties.

At this time, this disclosure can be edited and removed. However, in the next update to the MLS Rules & Regulations, including this disclosure in the public remarks will be made a requirement.

Did You Know?

Hawaii Information Service was among the first MLSs in the nation to introduce control of listing data distribution with the introduction of the REsearch Syndication Dashboard in 2015.

Principal brokers can control whether their listings are distributed to sites like Zillow or Realtor.com, or listing syndication services like Listhub, by clicking on “Settings” in the main left-side REsearch menu, then click “Syndication” in the list of options.

 

Questions? Suggestions? Feedback? We’re always happy to hear from you!

HIS Marketing Admin 7:01 pm on January 21, 2020  

REsearch Update: New Primary Property Type Field

We have made a small change to the listing input form in REsearch that will give you greater control over how your listings are displayed and marketed on external websites like Realtor.com and Zillow!

Background

While REsearch allows listings to fall under more than one property type, other systems that work with your data often allow only one.

For listings that fall under only a single property type — only residential, or only vacant land — nothing will change:

What’s New

In the less common scenario where you would like to classify a single listing under several Property Types, such as both business and residential, selecting more than one Property Type will reveal a new field labeled “Primary Property Type”:

By allowing you to set a primary property type, you can decide whether, for example, a commercial farm with a cabin should be treated as a commercial or residential listing on external sites.

The “Primary Property Type” field is not required, and if you do not make a selection, your listing data will continue to be syndicated (and displayed by external sites) as they have always been.

Behind the scenes, this small change meanwhile allows Hawaii Information Service to continue to improve the technology you rely on every day, particularly as they relate to national real estate data standards.

Did You Know?

Hawaii Information Service was among the first MLSs in the nation to introduce broker-level control of listing data distribution with the introduction of the REsearch Syndication Dashboard in 2015.

To control whether your listings are distributed to sites like Zillow or Realtor.com, or listing syndication services like Listhub, click on “Settings” in the main left-side REsearch menu, then click “Syndication” in the list of options.

Questions? Suggestions? Feedback? We’re always happy to hear from you!

HIS Marketing Admin 2:52 am on January 17, 2020  

January 2020 Training Schedule

gotomeeting-logo-orangeThis is the schedule of online training classes for the month of January. 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. We recommend registering for classes even if you cannot attend live, as many are recorded and made available the next day.

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® Vista or newer
    • Macintosh®-based attendees – Required: Mac OS® X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) or newer
    • Mobile attendees – Required: Apple iOS 10 or newer, Google Android 4.4 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.