We wanted a design that honors our past, embraces our Hawaii roots, and carries us into the future.
We found inspiration in the natural beauty of our islands, and created a color palette that evoked the earth, sea, and sky across all the Hawaiian Islands.
These colors, and our new logos, illustrate the different but complementary facets of our business: serving our REALTOR® members on the islands of Hawaii and Kauai, supporting businesses statewide, or connecting consumers anywhere in the world.
Our look may change, but our vision remains the same: to empower our Hawaii members and customers with quality data and world-class service.
Local roots, island values, innovative technology delivered with aloha.
Convenient and reliable access to public records is a key to my success as an investigative reporter. And that’s why I consider Hawaii Information Service an essential tool.
The robust REsearch TMK system makes it simple to comb through real property records, state business registration records, and professional and vocational licenses while researching a story. It’s a tool I always keep on the ready when I’m writing.
Yes, these are public records, and there are free public systems to access them. But REsearch TMK takes searching and presenting the data to a whole different level, enabling me to put the pieces together in ways that can’t be done through any of the public systems.
HIS allows me to tell stories that would otherwise go unreported, and that’s the bottom line for me.
No business tool has seen the explosive popularity that Zoom has seen, with shelter-in-place orders keeping millions of Americans working from home. We’ve embraced it at HIS, from internal meetings to member events and training.
Zoom is incredibly easy to use, compared to traditional videoconferencing applications, and since its basic features are free, it’s a compelling option, for work and for play!
Unfortunately, any popular piece of software will be the target of hackers and scammers, be it an operating system, game, or web service.
If you choose to use Zoom, there are some steps you can take to ensure that you’re as protected as possible while using the software.
What is Zoom Doing?
Zoom has moved quickly to fix these problems, from changing default settings to creating a dedicated web page for Zoom security information. For event organizers, there is also a new, dedicated ‘Security’ control panel to put all related settings in one place:
What can you do to ensure security?
1. Keep your Zoom software up to date.
To take advantage of improvements and bugfixes, you need to make sure you’re running the latest version of Zoom. In the past week alone, there have been four updates.
When you launch Zoom, you should be prompted to upgrade if there’s an update available. If you’re unsure or feel you’ve missed a prompt, you can always download the latest version directly from Zoom.
2. Use a meeting password.
This is now the default setting for Zoom, but it’s still a good idea to check that it’s in place for your events. “Zoombombing” was the result of pranksters being able to find meeting numbers generated by Zoom. and joining any active meeting.
Fortunately, your attendees will most likely not need to know or enter your meeting password. It is encrypted automatically into the “Join” link they receive from Zoom, so all they need to do is click the link. A password simply adds a second factor that would be much harder to guess than a meeting number alone.
3. Use a ‘Waiting Room’
Zoom allows you to set up a ‘Waiting Room’ where people joining your event are held until you approve their entry. This is a great feature for small meetings of people you know personally, or for meetings discussing sensitive information, because nobody can join your event by surprise. Learn more about this feature here!
4. Don’t re-use passwords.
You may have read that Zoom account passwords were being sold online. This was not the result of a data breach, but of a technique known as credential stuffing. Hackers take usernames (usually email addresses) and passwords from larger data breaches, and then systematically test them on other websites. If you re-use a password on multiple sites, all of your accounts are vulnerable, not just your Zoom account.
What are alternatives to Zoom?
If you don’t want to use Zoom, or your company has a policy specifically preventing its use, here are a few of the most commonly used alternatives.
Google Meet: If you and your colleagues are comfortable with Google products, Google Meet is the most widely used alternative to Zoom.
Microsoft Teams: Similarly, if your company uses Office 365, Microsoft Teams is a solid option. (A consumer version is coming soon.)
GoToMeeting: Part of the Citrix family of products, this is an extremely popular paid option among businesses, with a lot of robust options. We use GoToWebinar for our REsearch training classes each month.
Group Facetime: If everyone you meet with uses Apple hardware, Group Facetime is a solid, simple option.
Remember, no system is 100 percent secure, and there will always be tradeoffs between convenience, security, and price. But we hope this overview helps you feel more confident and safe as you work #safeathome!
More to come from Hawaii Information Service!
Hawaii Information Service is committed to keeping the market moving and supporting you in your work. We will be showcasing a variety of tips and tools to help you run your business virtually, setting the stage for success while #safeathome!
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!
The best Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) tool in the industry is getting even better!
Cloud CMA is built into REsearch and is provided as a free member benefit! Hawaii Information Service members have created more than 40,000 Cloud CMA reports since it was introduced in 2011. Next month, Cloud CMA is rolling out a new design, and several new features!
New Look & More!
The new Cloud CMA has been re-designed to help you give even better listing presentations.
Every page has been re-designed, including a new modern theme set for a fresh new look. A new larger map makes it easier to review listings and exclude comps. You can easily add a listing (and even add off-market properties). And the library of available report sections include new and updated content!
As always, Cloud CMA works on any device, meaning you can start a report on your phone, fine tune it on your laptop, and present it on your tablet!
Switch to the New Cloud CMA Today!
The new Cloud CMA design will go live on January 1, 2019, but you can switch over now! Just click the “New Cloud CMA” link at the top of any Cloud CMA screen:
ShowingTime is now available in REsearch! You now have access to an industry leading scheduling solution that will save you time and effort in requesting, confirming, and managing property showings.
ShowingTime also provides a mobile app and can send text messages to make, review, and approve requests while on the go!
Everything You Need to Know in 30 Minutes!
ShowingTime hosted several Quick-Start Training webinars just for HIS members, and you can watch a recorded session here:
You should also check out the ShowingTime Overview in our Knowledge Base help site.
Schedule Showings Anytime, From Anywhere!
ShowingTime makes it easy for members to show and sell listings, reducing scheduling issues by simplifying the showing request and confirmation process, enabling members to work efficiently while on the go.
Benefits for Listing Agents and Offices:
Generate showing requests 24/7
Eliminate repetitive calls from agents checking availability
Automatically notify sellers about showings, feedback
Benefits for Showing Agents:
Point and click/tap to request showings 24/7
Control your showing schedule
Eliminate surprises by reviewing showing instructions
Communicate more efficiently with listing agents and offices
Use the ShowingTime App While On the Go!
In addition to managing ShowingTime appointments on the web via REsearch and via text message, you can also use the free ShowingTime mobile app! The app allows you to:
Schedule or confirm showings
See upcoming showing appointments
View showing instructions
Respond to showing feedback requests
Get push notifications of showing requests and confirmations
Search listings in your MLS
Add activities (open houses, etc.) to listing reports
With your free ShowingTime for the MLS account, there is no username and password to use the app. You only need to connect your account to the app through a special email sent to your smartphone! Click here to learn how to activate the ShowingTime mobile app.
Download the ShowingTime Quick-Start Guide
If you are already a customer of ShowingTime and use other services like ShowingTime Appointment Center, please contact ShowingTime to learn how to connect all your services and get the most out of ShowingTime’s integrated agent solutions!
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 enhancementsin2017, 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.
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 yearin 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 in2017!
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!
Hawaii Information Service is happy to announce that it has partnered with Realtors® Property Resource (RPR) to give you access to another great source of comprehensive data, powerful analytics, and client-friendly reports!
RPR is 100% owned by Realtors®, created by NAR exclusively for Realtors®. And this member benefit, which will soon incorporate listing data from your MLS, is being provided at no additional cost.
RPR gives you access to hundreds of datasets on over 160 million properties, including the largest database of foreclosure information by county in the U.S., as well as tax, mortgage, FEMA flood, and school zoning information – plus much more.
Listing data from Hawaii Information Service is scheduled to go live in RPR in October. To prepare for this, RPR is preparing to set up your RPR account now!
RPR Account Creation
On Tuesday, September 19, RPR sent emails to members with account information and instructions on how to access the system. Please note that if you already have an RPR account, you will not receive this account creation email. You can just continue to use your existing username and password, but you will soon be able to see information from Hawaii Information Service in the system.
If you did not find the email in your Inbox, please check your ‘Spam’ or ‘Junk’ mail folder. If no RPR email was received, and your NAR membership/NRDS account is current, please check out the Read the “New User Quick Start Guide” and create a new RPR account there.
If you still encounter an error, please contact the RPR support center at (877) 977-7576. It’s available 24/7.
Looking Ahead: The HIS RPR Rollout
With this week’s account creation process, the RPR soft launch gets underway! Here’s what you can look forward to:
Tuesday, September 19: Accounts created by RPR for HIS members, validated by NAR membership. You can begin to explore RPR and see what it has to offer.
Friday, September 29: HIS MLS listing data goes live in RPR, powering client-friendly reports specifically for your listings and local market.
October through December: Online webinars provided by RPR specifically for HIS members, covering all the benefits that RPR provides.
January 8-12, 2018: The official launch of RPR, with “Road Show” events on your island. Stay tuned for details!
Getting Started with RPR
Once your RPR account is setup, you can begin to explore RPR, even before listing data from HIS becomes available next month. To help you take full advantage of your NAR member benefit, a suite of webinars are coming up!
October 30, 2017:
Getting Started with RPR Set-up, navigate and research an unparalleled platform of dynamic data and persuasive reports, exclusively for REALTORS®.
November 13, 2017:
RPR Mobile: Anytime, Anywhere Data and Reports Use the RPR app to instantly view nearby properties; find listings, solds, schools, photos, maps, and market trends; create and send RPR reports; add photos, audio, and text to property profiles, and more.
December 4, 2017:
10 Ways to Earn More Business than Your Competition Improve prospecting and farming strategies; run accurate, insightful comp analyses; identify distressed properties and their impact on neighborhoods, and set industry standard values on home investments.
RPR also offers On-Demand Learning, allowing you to learn about RPR at your own pace and on your own schedule:
We wanted to set you up as soon as possible, but there is so much more you can do with RPR than can be covered here! Hawaii Information Service, RPR, and your local association is planning to bring a “RPR Road Show” to you in January to allow you to explore everything RPR has to offer and get your questions answered in person! Stay tuned for more information!
Behind the Scenes at Hawaii Information Service: This past weekend, Hawaii Information Service completed the last major phase of a comprehensive upgrade to its infrastructure, meaning faster, more reliable, locally hosted services for you!
While we are always excited to announce new REsearch features and other enhancements to our products and services, our latest upgrades are mostly invisible to you: we have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to complete a comprehensive refresh of our infrastructure.
Did you know…
REsearch is proudly hosted in Hawaii on a local, enterprise-class hybrid cloud system, which means it remained available to members despite yesterday’s nationwide web services outage that affected more than 140,000 sites. The outage did delay delivery of this email by our email marketing provider, however!
These improvements cover everything from servers to network connectivity — including hardware, software, and services — to achieve best-in-class system performance, reliability, security, and resiliency. And our infrastructure refresh comes after extensive research and proof-of-concept testing to ensure that we are deploying the best solutions for your specific needs.
We previewed some of these upgrades a while back. Late Friday night, the last phase of this major project (focused on real-world testing of our best-in-class backup and recovery system) was completed successfully.
We are constantly striving to provide you the very best MLS and real estate products and services. In addition to this latest technological milestone, we have much more planned for 2017… so please stay tuned for more good news from Hawaii Information Service!
ShowingTime is now available in REsearch! You now have access to an industry leading scheduling solution that will save you time and effort in requesting, confirming, and managing property showings.
Hawaii Information Service Bulletins 