regarding the new flex mls system that we are moving to

The Tucson Association of Realtors® has decided that we are to get a new MLS system. That is, we’re getting an entirely new operating system with a completely new interface for the main tool that we all use everyday to do our jobs.

And I’d like to get some feedback from Realtors® on what you think of the new flex mls system. Please, speak up, this is important.

Click Comments down below and tell it like it is. Thank you.

PS- I don’t like it and haven’t found anything about it to recommend it. Yet I’ve found quite a few things about it that don’t work and that I don’t like. Unfortunately, I don’t have any choice and neither do you. But maybe I’m missing something. I hope so.

So let’s hear from you Realtors® out there who, like it or not, will soon be using this new system come May 3rd.

Comments

[coach handbags]

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[Troy Feeken]

I would also like to note that classes are taking place next week and the week after with yours truly conducting half of them and a direct FBS employee who only teaches is conducting the other half. If you have yet to register, please do so. I'm sure many of you are frustrated due to the change and that's understandable, however please let us help you make this transition easier by attending a session. There are 5 classes available a day ranging from 9am to 2pm starting times so something is available for most everyone.

Not wanting to take anything away from what your companies have set up in regards to training you on flexmls, because they have all put in a lot of time and a lot of effort in learning the system, come see and listen to actual FBS employees who know the system inside and out and have been dealing with the entire conversion process and will know the comparisons between the systems.

Here's the link to the training registration site.
www.flexmls.com/registration/tar

[Troy Feeken]

Neil,
The Listing Activity Report can be found either from a search results screen by clicking the small gray triangle next to the MLS number and Listing Activity, or it is also found along the top of the Change/Edit Listing screen. We just released the customizable dashboard about a month ago so we'll add the possibility of programming an activity monitor to the gadgets list for future release.

The columns that are set by default in your contact manager represent how many manual and automatic emails either you've sent or have been generated on your behalf to that user. The Viewed is a count for how many times the contact has clicked a link you've provided them. Not all contacts have to have a portal set up for them, they could simply receive auto emails of listings. Of course the portal adds so many other benefits. The contact manager also allows you to customize what columns display in the list for each contact. So you could also add in a count column for Favorites, Possibilities or Rejects. You can also add a column for Last Login date and time. These columns can all also be added on the dashboard contacts gadget so you don't need to go into the contact manager to view that information.

With the Contacts gadget on your dashboard, you can include or exclude columns by using the triangle in the top right corner of the gadget and the Settings option within that drop down.

[Neil Harry]

Troy, Thank you for such a timely response. For starters; Please help me find Agent and Public hits. Are they up already? Wes Wiggins told me last week that they are under "Activity". From which screen do I view this? This information (in Rapp) was on our single line or multi-line with photos preference as we viewed our "active listings" accessed from our dashboard. In Rapp it is also right on our dashboard. Also, The most useful tool that many of us rely on is the Contact/Management system. In Rapp we have(had) 3 tabs in our clients folder that had new, saved and rejected listings. The 3 columns that you have are something to do with automatic and manual e-mails. I am still wondering how this is helpful. Admittedly I need to learn your system. I am registered for this class next week. It helps to know what will be improved on and what we are just losing. Over and out, Beta Tester, Neil

[Troy Feeken]

John,
Can you provide me with some list numbers so I can cross reference them and to see what our data and historical events are showing? If you could provide me with the MLS numbers for what shows in Rap and the ones that are showing in flex for each event that would be incredibly helpful. You can email me troy at fbsdata dot com

[john schneider]

Troy, Re; the hotsheet.
I'd heard a rumor that the updates were only once daily, but there's more to it.

I've done this before but did it again to make sure - I just ran a hot sheet search -
North, 4/11 - 4/13 12:01am - 11:59pm - all status changes, and I did it in flex & rappatoni back to back.
New listings - 19 flex/17 rap
Price - 25 flex/27 rap
contingent - 0 flex/7 rap
Pending - 0 flex/4 rap
expired - 1 flex/3 rap
sold(closed) - 0 flex/2 rap
back on mrkt - 0 flex/5 rap

there you have it.
JS

[Troy Feeken]

As an update, the ability to search in the status field by Contingent and Active CAPA along with the ability to search using the TRS functionality were both installed on Tuesday evening to the live system.

Regarding the links to the DOT and Pima County web site on each listing... Your comment and a follow up by Wes on Tuesday was the first either myself of my staff had learned about these links on each listing. We have identified this as a need to add and we'll try to get it into the system in a timely manor. Unfortunately until this discussion, that was completely unknown to our staff for a "need to have" feature.

John, regarding your Hot Sheet concern, the problem with this is, is that we're updating listings to flexmls Web from Rapattoni on a once daily basis so an up to date and fully functional hot sheet is very difficult unless the listings are going into it live causing the changes immediately and not upwards of 12 to 24 hrs after the change has already happened.

Neil, what functions are missing beyond the multiple search mechanics just installed? My staff is working over time to get things right coming out of the gate. Even though your users have been in the system for over a month now, these need to have items are now finally being brought to light. If you have specifics, please let us know so we can take care of them or inform you how that function is done in our system.

[john schneider]

Hey Neil, thanks. I'm with you 100%. Once I accepted that the change to flex was inevitable, I started trying to spend time online using the system.
But so often it's soo slow that I just walk away in frustration. + the HotSheet in flex - a feature that I use 5X/day in Rappatoni - is only picking up some of the changes that have occurred, so naturally I can't depend on it and end up back in Rappatoni. + the other bugaboos, ugh.
Along with a few other Realtors I participated in a meeting yesterday at TAR with Wes Wiggins to discuss what's not working with this transition and what can be done about it. At this point Wes is pursuing the issues we discussed, so we'll see.
JS

[Neil Harry]

Ok,Ok,Ok,,,I can not help but throw in my 2 cents. The management of this transition has been very poor. We as agents have been encouraged to go on line and start becoming familar with flex over a month ago. This system was not ready for user practice. It is barely ready now. Features that we use in our daily business practice are still beening added(hopefully). I find that many agents who are marvelling at what Flex has to offer didn't know how to drive our current system. I believe that much frustration, certainly on my part, could have been avoided if the system was introduced with the basic functions we use completed(or more intact). And if the designers don't know what the agent-in-the field uses, than we need a Realtor think-tank as intermediary.

[Jim Jacobs]

Hi Troy,
Thanks for your response. I am not talking about the link to the CRS system. I know where that is. I'm talking about the link to the County Links we currently have in Rappitoni, it is on the top right corner of each listing and it connect us to The DOT site among others. This is a valuble tool as it provide research that is not available in CRS. We have alway had this and I dont want to lose it. Your system has a link in the links section but it is general and does not link directly to the property that is currently being viewed specificly. Thanks for looking into this. It has been requested several times but I'm not sure it ever got to the right place.

[Troy Feeken]

Jim,
Are you referring to direct link to the CRS tax and county data you currently use? When viewing a listing on the Detail tab there is a Tax Info option which will open the CRS system you are accustomed to using.

Regarding the One Liner CMA, that has just now been installed to the regular live system. Some other members of your tech committee and MLS office have been reviewing it in the last week. Let us know if you have any other questions or input regarding the format. To run the CMA, conduct your search, select the listings you would like to include, then click the CMA button in the top right. The menu will drop down displaying a "Buyers CMA" option which is what you should select to open the report.

[Jim Jacobs]

When will we see the County Links attached to each listing? This is very important in the research process.

[Troy Feeken]

Laura,
The one liner CMA is on its way, it's receiving some final testing before it's being installed to the live system.

Up until Friday, we weren't fully aware of the amount of information found in your Captions field for photos and previously we didn't have a comments type of field available to store as many characters as is done currently. We're looking at some ways to display those captions for your and we're pretty sure we can make it all work out.

What do you feel makes Hot Sheets so difficult to run and Subdivisions hard to search on?

The ability to find a listing and then edit it, you still can do exactly as you described. If you have the ability to edit listings, after viewing a listing on the search results screen, the small grey triangle next to the list number will show an Edit Listing option. If you want to search by address or by agent name or even the one click option of every listing that's in your office. That option is under Search and My Office Listings.

Keep the comments and questions coming! Also, for those of you who haven't registered for classes yet, please do that ASAP! Here's the link www.flexmls.com/registration/tar
I'll be in Tucson for two weeks with another associate from FBS conducting flexmls Web so we hope to see you there!

[Laura Mance]

You want specifics? As a branch manager I'm the one who hears the complaints when people return from training. What happened to the one liner CMA? Why is is so much harder to search subdivisions? Will I really have to re-do the captions for all my photos? (86 listings X 10 photos per listing = 860)So much harder to do HOT SHEETS? It seems like there's a lot of emphasis on being "big brother" to our clients and tracking their interests but I want to be able to efficiently and effectively pull information that will help me provide them with exceptional service. Why doesn't the one line report include price? When I make a listing change I used to be able to type in the address or street or agent or MLS# to pull it up. Now only the MLS #? I don't always have it with me. Those are the types of comments I hear. Thanks Wes for the news that there will be a public search. Makes sense that we can't have two at once. I think that giving more answers to specific questions will help this transition a lot. Thanks everyone for listening and commenting.

[Troy Feeken]

Bryan, my name is Troy Feeken, I'm the lead account representative from FBS that has been overseeing the conversion process from your current system to flexmls Web. I'd like to provide some response to your concerns and questions above.

The flexmls Web system actually isn't built on Java. Some of the speed concerns you have could very well be related to the amount of data and code being moved into the system as we get closer to the final conversion date.

When the search results view is built, you are readily seeing 50 listings at any one time. When you scroll to the edges, the system automatically fetches the next 25 listings and removes the first 25 from the list so at all times you still have 50 listings in one display. If you had a general idea as to where the listing was (ie listing 40 out of 125 results) you could type that number in the top left hand corner between the arrows and it will jump the results to that numbered listing.

If you go to the Search menu and Address Search you can search exactly the way you are referring to with the range of house numbers.

Regarding hiding the Listing Agent from displays, that is due to what the MLS has requested. By emailing or printing "Public" version reports or search results, the L.A. value will be removed as that is considered a Private value. If you'd like to discuss more about that, please contact the MLS.

Organizing of drop down lists such as Type of Property and Area is quite simple from the administrative side actually. I'll be in contact with the MLS to receive their desired organizations for those lists.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.

[Bryan Hill]

Some more observations about FLEX:

The heavy use of Java makes the searching slower than the older system if clients have a less-than-superior internet connection. Also, I imagine I might have some problems looking up properties on a smart phone (ie. I just drove by a home fore sale...).

Also, when properties are paginated, I can only see 25 until it must refresh. This means that if I had a property in mind but forgot its exact price/description, it would be harder for me to just scroll down to find it.

The FLEX system also does not seem to easily let me search for a range of addresses. ie 1500-2500 E Speedway.

The Flex system also does a decent job of hiding the listing agent. As an investor, I might want to contact the agent myself to ask questions. Why hide the L.A.?

Lastly, some of the search boxes are all messed up. For example: The "Area" box is organized alphabetically and therefore lists "Extended NE" comes before "North" and "Northwest". While this may seem trivial, less than 1/10th of 1% of properties are in XNE while 25% are in NW.

This applies to the Property Type as well. Condo, MSFR, and MH are listed before SFR despite SFR having the overwhelming market majority.

I know these might sound trivial, but for all the money it must have cost, these problems seem to contradict the "usability" of the system.

In general it seems that FLEX has a few quirks I'd like to see cleaned. Having said that, for the common home-buying client, the system is better especially considering the map feature.

[John Schneider]

Perhaps this is a touchy subject for you. So you may have missed it; what I asked for is feedback from other agents- good, bad or otherwise. And yes, I dont like it.  Heres why - (its in the comments, if you bother to read them)

- Its (Rappatoni) like having a car with 3 gears that takes me everywhere I want to go and gets me there quickly and easily. But now, (with flex) in order to get to those same places I suddenly need a big-rig with 12 gears and it now takes 5x longer to get there. Whats the point.

[Paul Olson]

Actually, in the training sessions, and I've been to 4 of them, the feedback is overwhelmingly positive, not vice versa. Also, your honest feedback is needed badly. The key there is to define your problem specifically so that something can be done about it. Just grumbling and saying "It's Bad" helps no one and is a waste of time.

[john schneider]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm getting the distinct impression that the TARMLS folks don't want to hear anything but praise for the new flex system - if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.

Makes you wonder, doesn't it.

[Paul Olson]

I first saw what today is Flex back in 2006 at the REALTOR(R) Mid Year meetings in Washington DC. To say that I was impressed is a serious understatement. That was 4 years ago now and Flex has only gotten better. If there is one thing I can say about Real Estate agents, it that they will complain about new MLS Systems each time a change is made. Until they take the time to learn the system throughout. That process takes many months of practice with the actual functioning system. As a Past President of TARMLS, I know how difficult a decision to change MLS's is for leadership to make. This time around the process was far more open to membership than ever before. The Tech Committee investigated multiple systems, probably thousands of hours went into this decision and each meeting was open to membership attendance and comment. I am familiar enough with Flex to predict that the learning curve will be far shorter with this system and that the new functionality will vastly improve our ability to do our jobs better.
Paul