Posts by "Ron LaMee" http://www.aaronline.com Ron is the Vice President - Information Services for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.

AAR has not been receiving email since 10:00am today (Wednesday, 1/11).  The problem is due to a corrupted Internet domain mail (MX) record hosted at one of our vendors. Our website, www.aaronline.com, is currently functioning. Rather than moving our domain records to another vendor, we are going to wait overnight to see if MyDomain corrects the email issue. Unfortunately, shifting the full domain record would result in 24-48 hour interruptions in service to almost all AAR Internet services, which is something we want to avoid. We apologize for any inconvenience and will continue to closely monitor this situation.

Posts by "Ron LaMee" http://www.aaronline.com Ron is the Vice President - Information Services for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.

Just a heads-up everyone: The Arizona Association of REALTORS® is not answering the phone. Or email… Since mid-Saturday, our communication trunks from XO Communications have been down. We’ve made countless calls and have been sitting at the highest level of escalation for more than 12 hours and not a peep out of them. I guess that’s what happens when you cut service staff to save money – they have so few techs they can’t handle emergency issues. Needless to say, we’re upset, but that doesn’t get us up and running.

Anyway, we’ll keep you updated. We still haven’t heard anything from them.

Posts by "Ron LaMee" http://www.aaronline.com Ron is the Vice President - Information Services for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.

Yesterday, AAR’s statewide data sharing consultant, Kevin McQueen, sent out a new survey to all AAR members.  When the results come in, we should know which MLSs people are using, which ones they want to use and how they feel about issues like compensation/cooperation, public-facing websites, etc.  His survey also tests interest in three different models for data sharing: sharing data through RPR, a statewide MLS or simply doing nothing.

I want to make it really clear: the survey is being conducted by Kevin on AAR’s behalf – it’s our survey created with input from local AEs and MLS AEs.  Kevin is taking the point on this project to ensure complete neutrality and anonymity. The survey should already have reached any member with a valid email address on file.  If for some reason you didn’t receive a survey invitation, contact Kevin via email.

Stay tuned… We’ll be releasing results in a few weeks.

Posts by "Ron LaMee" http://www.aaronline.com Ron is the Vice President - Information Services for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.

Continuing his “What I Learned at RE Connect 2010″ series, Ron LaMee shares this tip that you can implement in your business immediately.

Image from ConnectMyBuyer.com

What: Create a flyer for your new buyer or tenant to help them with utility and communication connections

Who: Any agent or property manager

Where: www.ConnectMyBuyer.com

Cost: Free

The Story: My son, Jon, is moving to Tucson to go to school and rented an apartment. Naturally, he started wondering about his options for Internet service and utilities. His REALTOR® sent him an ugly, much re-faxed page listing every utility and service offered in the Tucson area… not very useful.

At RE Connect, I found ConnectMyBuyer.com and created a very cool online flyer that gave him specific information for his address. It included links to the utility and cable company with lowest-price guarantees. I customized the flyer with my photo and clever comments for his benefit.

Jon was very impressed with how professional it looked and the specific information for his address. In less than five minutes, you can register and send your first free flyer. Try it for your own address. Every agent and property manager in Arizona should give this a shot. Please let me know if you come up with any weird or inaccurate information.

Posts by "Ron LaMee" http://www.aaronline.com Ron is the Vice President - Information Services for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.

Ron LaMee, AAR’s intrepid Vice President – Information Services, is attending Real Estate Connect SF 2010 and sending notes back to the Phoenix office. Here are some WordPress plugin tips he picked up this morning.

Gravity Forms ($39) – Build forms and insert into any page; make surveys; route forms to different people depending on content; let others submit potential content that is pre-formatted. Used on RPR site.

Wishlist Member ($97) – Make membership site out of blog; protects posts and pages depending on member types.

Altos Toolbar ($79/mo) – Integrates charting into toolbar; ties into your market; lead capture – capture your own clickthroughs.

Backup Buddy ($50/yr) – Backup/restore database or complete install; scheduling; migrate to a new server.

WP Touch Pro ($29) – Serve up mobile versions on many different mobile platforms; push notifications that someone has commented.

Events Calendar Pro ($32) – Custom post type for events; Google Maps integration; widgets for sidebar.

Sharebar (free) – Controls for sharing to other media (Twitter, digg, etc.).

Meet Your Commenters (free) – Adds pane to admin dashboard that displays information about commenter, including usage of other social media sites.

Others:  BuddyPress, WideoPress, Contemplate, Gmap, Local Market Explorer, Simple Facebook/Twitter Connect, Reportive

Posts by "Ron LaMee" http://www.aaronline.com Ron is the Vice President - Information Services for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.

Inappropriate Usage of REALTOR® Trademark

• azrealtor@gmail.com (associates Arizona + REALTOR®… geographic areas may never be used with “REALTOR®” unless referring to a local or state association of REALTORS®)
• arizonarealtor@gmail.com (associates Arizona + REALTOR®…see above)
• scottsdalerealtor@gmail.com (associates Scottsdale + REALTOR®… see above)
• realtor@casagrande.com (associates Casa Grande + REALTOR®… see above)
• excellentrealtor@gmail.com (associates adjective + REALTOR®… adjectives or descriptors may never be used with “REALTOR®”)
• horsepropertyrealtor@gmail.com (associates descriptor + REALTOR®… see above)
• Twitter or Facebook username is “PhoenixRealtor” or “ResortHomeRealtor” or “DiligentRealtor” (associates location or descriptor + REALTOR®… see above)
• “George Washington REALTOR LLC” as a registered business name (never appropriate to have the trademark as part of a business name)
• anyone who is not a member using “REALTOR®” in any reference to themselves or their business

Appropriate Usage of REALTOR® Trademark

• Bobrealtor@gmail.com (associates member name + REALTOR®)
• BobBarkerrealtor@gmail.com (associates member name + REALTOR®)
• realtorbob@gmail.com (associates member name + REALTOR®)
• XYZRealtyRealtor@gmail.com (associates firm name + REALTOR®)
• Bob@XYZRealtyRealtors.com (associates firm name + REALTOR®)
• azagent@gmail.com (no “REALTOR®” at all)
• XYZRealty@gmail.com (no “REALTOR®” at all)
• appraisers who are NAR members in good standing may always use trademark in appropriate manner

What should you do if you find that your email address is not in compliance with the trademark rules?

1. Set up a new, compliant email address.
2. Forward your current email address to the new one. Be sure to have an autoreply message to senders telling them that your email address has changed.
3. As you use up your business cards and other printed materials, substitute your new email address.
4. After a year or so, messages to the old email address will trickle away to nothing. You can keep the address dormant or let it lapse. 

For more information, see NAR’s Trademark/Logo Rules or contact me 602-248-7787 or ronlamee@aaronline.com.

Posts by "Ron LaMee" http://www.aaronline.com Ron is the Vice President - Information Services for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.

Photo by Flickr user The Library of Congress | CC BY-SA 2.0

For years, the elephant in the room at AAR meetings was something called “Statewide MLS.” We talked about it, we speculated, we wished and we finally dragged it into the open. It shouldn’t be big news, but AAR has a workgroup studying the concept of making data more available to Arizona REALTORS®. The workgroup, under the leadership of John Foltz of Phoenix, represents agents, brokers, association leadership and staff from across the state – a good, diverse group. Unfortunately, we saddled the group with the name “Statewide MLS Workgroup.” One of the first things the group realized was that “statewide MLS” was too limiting and suggested a preconceived end in mind.

The group needed to know how AAR members around Arizona currently use listing data and how they would like to use listing data, so we conducted a survey with the help of Ann Bailey, a well-regarded consultant in this area. She reported the findings to AAR’s board of directors on March 12, 2010. We committed to making these results available to all interested parties. You can find them at http://www.aaronline.com/Documents/survey_results.pdf. If you have any questions or comments, send them to surveycomments@aaronline.com.

What did we learn? Most agents and brokers (79%) would like access to detailed listing data from outside their current market areas. They want to use this information to:

• Be better informed than the consumer
• Appear knowledgeable to current clients buying or selling out of the area
• Obtain knowledge of market and agents to refer buyers and sellers

Interestingly, only 7% said they would use the information to represent buyers and sellers in other areas.

The workgroup’s next step is to list options and weigh them against concerns about loss of income to associations, loss of local control, agents doing business in areas they’re not familiar with, overall cost and this thing called “RPR.” You’ll be hearing more as time goes on, but please send any comments or questions to surveycomments@aaronline.com. We’ll get back to you!

Posts by "Ron LaMee" http://www.aaronline.com Ron is the Vice President - Information Services for the Arizona Association of REALTORS®.

At Clareity’s 2010 MLS Workshop (March 3-5), I attended a question and answer session with Dale Ross, CEO of RPR. He handled the questions forthrightly, even when he knew the audience wouldn’t like his answer. I took these notes on my computer, so the questions and answers are what I think they said, not necessarily what was actually said.

Will RPR compete with MLSs?

No, we’re not planning to build a nationwide MLS. We understand your concerns. It would take $300-400 million per year to run a national MLS with 9,000 people to support it; we’re not funded that way.

Why should Second Century need to be paid back?

NAR’s Second Century fund is a venture capital fund which must paid back for its investments. However, that’s not the source of RPR’s funding. RPR money comes from an NAR technology fund set up with $100 million fund (from investments); NAR’s Finance Committee stipulated that monies must be paid back to replenish fund.

Do members really need this?

Yes. I have to visit numerous sites with varying degrees of accuracy to get info I need. RPR is the answer – more accurate, single location, less expensive.

Since you’re providing RPR for free, where is money coming from? What happens if your revenue models are way off?

Three scenarios: app doesn’t work, we shut down; app works and rev model works, win-win; app works but rev model off. We project we’ll need $50 million/yr to run it… if it is valuable and not generating cash, we’ll figure up another funding source. If members want it and NAR Directors decide that is best way, that could be a member dues increase. I have never seen pro formas work; I have pushed the numbers around based on a 36-month breakeven. We’ll see.

Compare and contrast RPR and other offerings.

Competition is good and keeps everyone sharp. RPR’s value proposition is to provide benefit to members at no profit. First American offers revenue sharing; I say put it in writing. Move.com is a nice tool and has consumer display value proposition, but involves charge to members.

Will you go around MLS to large brokers?

Will not hijack data, only work with broker permission. Major broker we’re testing with is working closely with MLS. However, we’ll do what we have to do if the MLSs won’t work with us, even if that means working directly with brokers.

NAR’s track record is not good… How is this different?

There is no guarantee. NAR does some things well and some not so well. Times change and that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. We’ll try our best and if we have everyone’s cooperation, it will be successful.

What was the rush to announce at San Diego?

It was a complex negotiation; we decided that the drop-dead date was the San Diego meeting – it was self-imposed. It might have been nice to have a bit more time to prepare before announcing, but it is a major issue of great importance to the membership and they deserved to know what was going on.

MRIS is taking a wait-and-see attitude. What do you think?

I know their board and respect their decision. Our launch is going to be bumpy and I understand their caution. Lots happening behind the scenes and I think we they will come on board.

What are you looking for through 2010?

We are hoping to see 50% MLS participation, want to produce a product that’s valued, and test our revenue model.

If appraisers and others have access to RPR, won’t MLSs lose business?

We are putting security in place to ensure that only members have access.

What about agents putting listing directly in?

 That has never been supported.

What is significance with use of term ‘members’ versus ‘MLS users’?

We are building in access controls that allow you to determine access. First, only NAR members can use the RPR information. If you are providing MLS info to non-members, you can give them all the information you have always provided, but not access to any RPR-specific information.

What does success look like in 5 years? When will the property data API be available?

a) When lots of people are using it. We are working on a 3-yr breakeven; after that, enough to keep running and begin to pay NAR back. b) End of March.

If we decide we [the MLS] want to pull back, what happens to our data?

It will be destroyed, if that’s what you want.

Will I be able to discontinue my agreement with tax provider?

We will provide those records for free, but it is restricted so that it can’t be repurposed. The tax data is provided without strings, not on quid pro quo basis (in exchange for listings).

Is unique property identifier still in the mix?

Yes.

What are plans for integration with RETS?

We will completely support RETS, but also other data standards. Note that RETS does not support tax data.

What about DOJ?

Laurie Janik [NAR General Counsel] has been involved since beginning. She is comfortable with due diligence done, but that doesn’t mean we won’t get sued.

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