by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Not only does it frustrate other Realtors when information is incorrect or left out on the Northeast Florida Multiple Listing Service, it can also cost you big bucks depending on the violation.
“What we are trying to do is educate them,” said Ron Stephan, executive vice president and general manager of NEFMLS. “Last year, we kicked off the MLS orientation program. Every new member who comes into the MLS goes through this program. We go through and highlight the key things they should or should not be doing in the system. When they walk out that door after orientation, they should know what the rules are.”
In 2005, all brokers received a handbook outlining the rules and regulations of using the MLS since brokers are responsible for the integrity of their agent’s and their input into the system.
“Traditionally, we never fined when there were violations, we just took care of them,” said Stephan, “When we got complaints, we either called the Realtor to fix it or we fixed them ourselves. Now that we are pushing 6,500 members, it’s kind of hard to do that on a friendly basis. Now, pretty much everyone has the opportunity to report a violation of some type and they can do that right on the system. They can e-mail that right to us and the staff picks it up.”
The complaint then goes to the broker or the agent. The complaints were anonymous, but recently the MLS turned on a feature so only they know who sent the complaint in case the sender wanted a response.
After a complaint is made and it is an easy one to fix, the staff calls the agent and asks them to correct the problem.
“That is considered a warning,” he said. “We follow that call up with an e-mail and a fax of the warning. Next time on the same violation, they will get fined. That fine is automatically generated and an invoice is sent to the broker. The broker is responsible for the fines. What they are going to do is either hand it over to the agent or deduct it from their compensation.”
Brokers are responsible for the integrity of the data so that everyone can get the same information and make it accurate and effective to use the MLS system.
Stephan outlined a few of the violations that will get an agent fined.
“If you go in looking for a listing and it is in the wrong area because they think it should be up here so they’ll get better visibility, that’s a violation,” he said. “If they put the wrong listing type on there, that’s a violation. The top violation seems to be in the public remarks section. They like to put their phone number in the public remarks section and that is a violation. It is already on the website, so they don’t need to do that. They think they will get more advertising by putting their number in. What that does is keep the other broker from e-mailing it to a prospect because they don’t want to e-mail the listing broker’s contact information to a prospect.”
Citations are issued for minor offenses which are easily corrected. Major penalties are more serious and carry a much higher fine.
“Major penalties are not only MLS violations, they are code of ethics violations or legal violations,” said Stephan. “For those things, both the broker and the licensee should know better. These are things that are false and misleading information and could get the agent into a situation where they lose their license.”
Penalties for a first offense within three years for a citation is a $50 fine. The fine for a first offense of a major penalty is $200. On a second offense, the fine is raised to $100 for a citation and $400 on a major penalty. On a third offense, the fine is raised to $150 for a citation and up to $1,000 for a major penalty. Providing name and password to a non-member is an automatic $1,000 fine.
Stephan said they really haven’t issued that many fines and that the intention of the whole program is to warn and educate agents.
“We want to educate the members of how to make the listing information accurate and correct so that other people can look at it and help the Realtor sell that listing,” said Stephan. “It’s not to punish people.”
The money collected from the fines goes to pay for the staff that reacts to the MLS complaints.
Although they do not actively monitor the MLS for violations, Stephan says they are in the process of purchasing software that will apply the MLS rules to the system and search for information that is incorrect.
“It will formulate the emails to the members and the staff and it will automatically generate the fines,” he said. “So we are going to step this up a notch. The software looks pretty good. It’s a matter of making it comply with our rules and hopefully it will help clean up the database.”
When they have a member who continually has violations or refuses to pay, it could effectively go to the NFMLS board for a final resolution.
Stephan really wants to encourage agents to send in complaints so that the data can be corrected, thus making the MLS more accurate.
Not all complaints end up as a fine; some are just a request for more information or more thorough information.
From a recent poll of Realtors, a big complaint is that the listing is in the wrong region or area. Stephan said that won’t be a complaint any longer.
“We now have an automated process for region and area,” said Stephan. “When a person adds a listing now, they don’t even have to enter the region and area; it automatically does it for them. That eliminates a big portion of the complaints.”
Another complaint is about the lack of photos. MLS has a photographer that takes a photo of every listing as long as it is in the area. They charge a fee to take photos out of the area.
Realtors feel that everyone should put as many photos as possible in the MLS, but Stephan said they have never had a requirement to do so. Realtors should, he says, because that is what attracts buyers.
Another Realtor complained how certain areas are sometimes left blank and suggested a stop-gap system to help prevent empty fields.
Stephan explained that it might work with some fields but, with numeric fields, users could bypass a required field by just putting in zeros.
Directions to the property in the MLS are also an important field to fill in. If not done correctly, this can get the agent fined.
“We want them to put how to get to the property from a major thoroughfare in the directions section,” he said. “Many agents will say ‘See the map.’ That doesn’t get it. They will get fined for not putting in the directions from a major thoroughfare.”
Other complaints involved the status of the listing not being entered correctly or in a timely manner, which can result in a citation.
Stephan said Realtors have 24 hours to update the listing, not including weekends and holidays.
Subdivision names are included in the MLS drop box, so it is easy for agents to choose the subdivision the listing is in. If the specific subdivision is not in the drop box, Stephan said they can call the MLS office and they will add it to the list.
“If it is off hours, on weekends or holidays, they have a selection called ‘Metes and Bounds’ where they can put the name in temporarily and call us on Monday and we’ll add the new subdivision,” he said.
The lockbox location and pet information should always be given in the remarks section.
Agents really need to pay attention to the rules, regulations, bylaws and procedures of the MLS.
Stephan said agents need to read and understand the orientation manuals and the list on the residential profile sheet where it defines what needs to be entered in each of those fields.
“Brokers need to do training in the offices,” said Stephan. “We will come out to offices or companies and repeat the information for them. When they enter a listing, there is help for everything they are entering. They don’t have to do a lot of searching for information.”
The MLS also offers classes at the Northeast Florida Association of Realtors office for those who want to brush up on their MLS skills.
They also hold an open MLS lab where agents can come in, sit down at a computer and ask the instructor questions about the MLS.
Stephan said they are going to start a broker orientation program soon to refresh their memory on the rules and regulations of the MLS, since they are ultimately responsible for their agent’s input. They will also have “Lunch and learn” sessions in the auditorium during their lunch time. The instructor will go through various parts of the MLS program and the agents can ask questions or get clarification of the rules.
Stephan said that the ones that are being warned or fined usually are new people who are stepping over the edge a little bit.
“They are trying to do what they think is best and what they end of doing is not doing it correctly,” he said. “With 6,500 members we need to ramp up the education and we are doing that. If they put in the right information, enough information that listing will get sold a lot quicker if they do it the right way.”