REsearch Update

Our first REsearch update for 2021 includes several small enhancements to improve your user experience!

Price Per Square Foot in Summary Format

Last year, we set the “Summary” format as the default format for CMAs. At your suggestion, we are now adding a row for “price per square foot” to the “Summary” format as well.

Adjusted PITT Codes

To accommodate Maui County’s new PITT Code alignment (which includes two separate ‘Residential’ categories for owner occupied and non-owner occupied), we’ve reorganized the PITT Code search selector to separate those new options from the original ‘Residential’ category for the other three counties.

Permit Data & Permit Format Updates

We are making changes to how permit data is displayed in REsearch, to ensure that we provide the most complete information available.

As part of these improvements, we will be removing permit information from the TMK Full format. However, viewing permit data is as simple as adding the “Permits” format to your searches.

Going forward, we will be displaying permit information from county permitting offices, and no longer displaying a subset of permit data from county property tax offices. This will eliminate duplicate or incomplete data caused by differing update schedules and datasets.

Coming soon, a redesigned “Permit” format to make permit information easier to understand!

One-Click Condo Guide Downloads

In some versions of the Google Chrome browser, downloading ‘Condo Guide’ documents required a right-click or did not work reliably. All browsers should now correctly prompt a download when the ‘Condo Guide’ icon is clicked.

Mahalo!

The real estate market proved its resilience in 2020, and we look forward to continuing to support your ongoing success in the new year. Stay tuned for more enhancements and improvements coming to REsearch. Have a suggestion? Please contact us!

Street Name Updates on Hawaii Island

As part of ongoing updates to the expansive public records data in REsearch, we have begun to update street names in several subdivisions in East Hawaii, starting with Hawaiian Acres, Fern Acres, and Fern Forest Vacation Estates.

These updates also include standardizing street suffixes, such as using “RD” for “ROAD”.

As these updates affect thousands of parcels, they are being made gradually, with care, street by street. Work will then continue for other subdivisions, including Hawaiian Ocean View Estates (HOVE) in Kaʻu.

Better Searches, Better Listings

The benefits of this comprehensive data normalization effort are clear. With complete and consistent street names in our TMK public records data, you will be able to search for properties and listings in REsearch with greater confidence. With fewer variations in street names, it will take fewer steps and searches to find what you’re looking for.

On the MLS side, this improved TMK data will make it easier to enter complete listings for parcels in these subdivisions. Street names will autopopulate for new listings, at the same time preventing manual entry of potentially incorrect information.

Hawaiian Acres Street Names

In the Hawaiian Acres subdivision, streets have both ‘alias names,’ named in sequence by letter or number (like “ROAD G”) and Hawaiian language names (like “WAO KELE RD”). For this subdivision, we are retaining both street names, which will now be displayed as follows:

WAO KELE RD (ROAD G)

This will allow you to search for properties and listings using either street name.

How to Search Using the * Wildcard

REsearch allows you to use asterisks (*) to allow wildcard searches in most fields. If, for example, you only know the ‘alias’ name of a street in Hawaiian Acres, you can enter *ROAD G* in the “Street” field.

This will display any street that matches that pattern, allowing you to select “WAO KELE RD (ROAD G)” from the list.

Updates Are Ongoing

These updates are well underway and will proceed subdivision by subdivision. We look forward to completing this data normalization effort for nearly all of Hawaii Island in the next few months. We hope you will agree that the work will be worthwhile and improve REsearch for everyone.

Our Data Quality department is dedicated to exactly that: quality data. And Hawaii Information Service is always looking for ways we can improve. If you have questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

New Virtual Open Houses in REsearch

Virtual real estate options are evolving rapidly to keep the market moving in the time of COVID-19, and so are we!

The REALTOR® toolkit is rapidly expanding, and one of the most important innovations in the industry is the Virtual Open House. You can now schedule and promote Virtual Open House events in REsearch, and continue to serve the needs of your clients remotely!

Entering a virtual open house starts the same way as entering a conventional open house at the property. From the REsearch dashboard, click the ‘Open Houses‘ tab, then click the ‘New Open House‘ link on the left.

For a virtual open house, simply select “Virtual Open House” after entering the MLS number:

Finally, enter your virtual open house details. In most cases, this will be a registration link to a scheduled video conference via a service like Zoom, GoToMeeting, or Google Hangouts. (Remember to follow best practices to ensure that your virtual event is secure!)

If you are using a different service that does not use a meeting or event URL, we also support the ability to enter instructions in the “Notes” field instead. Do interested attendees need to text you to be included in an Apple FaceTime call? Do they need to connect with you on Microsoft Skype? Explain here.

We’re very excited to deliver this enhancement to support your important work! Please contact us if you have questions or comments.

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How to host a Virtual Open House

Here are some resources to help you get started with Virtual Open Houses!

• Taking an Open House Fully Virtual (Inman News)
• Seven Steps to a Successful Virtual Open House (RISMedia)
• Where Should I Host a Virtual Open House? (Homespotter)
• How to Host a Virtual Open House (Katie Lance)

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A Quick Refresher…

What are the different virtual options?

Earlier this month, ShowingTime introduced the ability to set up virtual showings. A virtual showing is a private, live online video conference arranged between listing agents and buyer’s agents, similar to arranging a showing at the property.

We are now introducing the ability to schedule a virtual open house, which is the live, online video version of a conventional open house. It’s a scheduled event where the listing agent hosts multiple buyer’s agents and potential buyers to review, discuss, and ask questions about the property.

Finally, don’t forget virtual and video tours. These are recorded, static on-demand presentations of a property. A virtual or video tour can be a simple video slideshow, a produced walkthrough of the property, or even an interactive 3-D model (like Matterport). Here’s how to add them to your listings!

More to come from Hawaii Information Service!

We know doing business today is challenging, and we are committed to helping you accomplish your goals and keeping the real estate market moving. We are excited to let you know about this latest enhancement, and please stay tuned as we share more tips and tools that can help you work #safeathome.

Displaying Designations in REsearch

We have updated Research to change where designations are shown to limit the impact that extra-long lists of designations or other text have on the display and printing of formats.

Designations are still shown on the MLS Full, Brochure, and Brand formats, on emails sent from REsearch, on the Client Portal, and are displayed when agent names are clicked in REsearch. Your brokerage and license number will still be shown in one-line formats.

Background

The designations field is an open text field to allow agents to include their professional designations beyond the Salesperson Broker designations, such as GRI, ABR, CRS, etc., for display in REsearch.

On the one-liner, a long list of designations would often cause the display to span several lines, as shown below. In addition, the field’s prominent display within Research (such as in the one-liner format) prompted many agents to place marketing messages in this area.

This change allows more listings to be shown in one-line formats and improves display and printing on many agent formats.

Improved Display and Printing

You can continue to see your fellow agent’s designations when you click on their names:

And designations continue to appear in client-facing formats such as the MLS Full, Brochure, and Brand format (below), email signatures, and on the Client Portal:

Note: There has been no change to the distribution of designations outside Research, such as to third-party portals or IDX.

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!

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!

New & Updated Map Layers in REsearch

We’ve made a number of improvements to the maps in REsearch to provide you even more useful information about neighborhoods and properties in Hawaii!

Annual Rainfall

With the updated “Annual Rainfall” layer, you can display graduated border lines denoting ranges of rainfall in inches. Annual rainfall amounts are shown by default, but you can also select different months of the year, and see the rainfall for that month.

The rainfall information comes from the 2011 Rainfall Atlas of Hawaii, which uses a standard climatological averaging period of 30 years (1978-2007) across the state.

Federal Opportunity Zones

With the new “Opportunity Zones” layer, you can see the areas designated by the federal government as economically-distressed communities where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment. Opportunity zones exist on each of the main Hawaiian Islands.

For more information on Opportunity Zones, please visit this Frequently Asked Questions page on the IRS website.

Hawaii Island Wastewater Mains

Finally, for Hawaii Island, we have added a new “Wastewater” map layer showing wastewater infrastructure, and specifically the types of wastewater mains in a given area, such as whether they are state, county, or privately operated and whether they operate via force or gravity.

We have more map enhancements planned — stay tuned for more good news!

Changes to ‘Hold’ Listing Availability

Please note the following changes affecting listings in ‘Hold’ status.

Listings in ‘hold’ status are no longer accessible in zipForm.

Going forward, in order to import listing details into zipForm via MLS Connect, the listing will need to be in any other status.

This change is to address a security issue recently brought to our attention. zipLogix, the provider of zipForm, is unable to prevent the ‘hold’ listings of one agent from being viewed by another agent through their service. Therefore, zipLogix recommended that ‘hold’ listings be removed from the data provided to them.

We realize that this change presents an inconvenience to many agents that used the ‘hold’ listing status as a means to prepare zipForm documents in advance, but we hope you understand that the security and privacy of your ‘hold’ listing details takes precedence.

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Listings in ‘hold’ status will expire and be deleted after 12 months unless action is taken.

Presently, listings in ‘hold’ status are retained indefinitely in REsearch. As part of new database maintenance procedures, listings that have been in ‘hold’ status for more than 12 months will be flagged for deletion.

We will provide seven days’ notice prior to deletion, and you will be able to request that these listings be retained in ‘hold’ status for an additional three months. This request must be made in writing via email to support@hiinfo.com. You will receive confirmation that your request has been received.

We encourage you to review your current ‘hold’ listings now to determine whether you will be affected. We will provide ample warning via email and login page notices prior to beginning this process.

Thank you very much for your understanding!

Listing Photo Licensing & Ownership Reminder

This is a periodic reminder to members that photo ownership and licensing are important considerations when listing a property in the MLS.

Too busy to read? We recommend that you watch this video from the National Association of REALTORS® covering “Copyright Best Practices for Listing Photos.”

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Here’s a resolution that’s easy to keep: make sure that you own or properly license the photos used in your listings.

Copying photos from other listings, or taking them from the web, could lead to copyright claims and payment demands from the entities that own them. There were a few disputes last year, and while they were resolved amicably, you can avoid the hassle by taking extra care at the outset!

To ensure that you’re in the clear, you can hire a professional photographer. In fact, photographers that specialize in real estate will be more likely to understand your needs, as well as the practical and legal aspects of photo ownership, licensing, and use in the MLS and elsewhere. And if you engage a photographer that is new to the industry, NAR even provides sample agreements that you can use with them.

(Taking your own original photos, of course, is another way to ensure ownership and copyright is clear.)

It’s important to note that these issues extend beyond listing photos in the MLS. They apply to photos used on agent and broker websites, in promotional materials, and elsewhere. A simple rule of thumb? “If you don’t know where the photo came from, don’t use it.”

Licensing and Copyright in the MLS Rules:

As subscribers to the MLS and users of the REsearch system, you are bound by the MLS Rules and Regulations. Article VII covers licensing and copyright, indemnifying HIS from claims of copyright infringement. This section also includes sample language that you can use when engaging a photographer to take listing photos.

Our rules document was last reviewed and updated by the HIS Board of Directors in October 2018, and is worth reviewing periodically:

http://hawaiiinformation.com/REsearch/IDX/mlshawaii/forms/MLSRules.pdf

Additional Reading:

• Who Owns Your Property Photos? (NAR)
• Focus on Listing Photo Copyright (REALTOR® AE Magazine)
• Copyright Essentials (Getty Images)
• Take Your Own Photos and Avoid Legal Action (TREND)

We hope this periodic reminder helps you steer clear of the potential pitfalls of listing photo ownership and licensing. If you still have questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

Check Out the New Cloud CMA!

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:

Want to take a closer look at the new Cloud CMA? Check out the blog post announcing the upgrade or check out the library of Cloud CMA how-to videos.

We also offer live training webinars every month, which includes classes on REsearch CMA and Cloud CMA!