my florida resource - july 2011

The monthly magazine of My Florida Regional MLSJuly 2011

Volume 1, Issue 3

Technology Independence!

Technology that frees us from our desks.

Kurio: It’s Showing Time! Plus other Kurio enhancements!pages 8 & 9

page 6

Also in this issue...

Member Spotlight:

pages 26 & 27

page 31ENTER to WIN a movie theater gift card!

Kathryn Stelljes!

2 | My Florida ReSource | July 2011 Volume 1, Issue 3

JOIN in the MFRMLS (Booth) Spotlight!

MFR booths: 406 & 408

(side-by-side), as well as

113 (MFCRE).

Special guest appearance by...Elvis? You may just find the “King” is in the MFRMLS booth (also, giveaways and prizes)!

Learn more about your MFRMLS products & services!

Florida Realtors® 2011 Convention & Trade ExpoRosen Shingle Creek, Orlando, FL, Aug 25-26 (Trade Expo Dates; FREE Admission on 26th)

www.MFRMLS.com July 2011 | My Florida ReSource | 3


July 2011

My Florida ReSource MagazineJuly 2011

Volume 1, Issue 3

My Florida Regional MLS (MFRMLS)5032 Goddard Avenue

Orlando, FL 32804Tel: (407) 218-8607

Toll-Free: (800) 686-7451Fax: (407) 293-6461

About MFRMLSMy Florida Regional MLS is Florida’s larg-est multiple listing service with over 32,000

subscribers. Owned by 15 Shareholder REALTOR® Boards and Associations in

Central and Southwest Florida, MFRMLS offers a comprehensive suite of productiv-ity and marketing tools to professionals in

the real estate industry.

Positioning StatementMy Florida Regional MLS is the only real estate information resource that helps our members deliver quality service to their

customers by providing the tools and op-portunity to succeed in their profession.

2011-2012 MFRMLS OfficersBill Dryburgh, President

Melody Hall, President-ElectSteve Amburgey, Vice-President

Bob Grant, Jr., TreasurerAaron Chandler, Immediate Past President

MFRMLS ExecutivesMerri Jo Cowen, CEO

Jay Markell, CFO, COODeanna Harris, VP of Information Services

Carole Burgess, VP of AdministrationJennifer Thompson-Kersting, Director of

Marketing and Education

Editorial StaffNatashia Ford, Editor

Doug Wise, Editor, Creative Director

8-12 MFRMLS News—Kurio Enhancements, including Showing Time integration!—Scam for Rent on Craig’s List?—PH Status Rule Change—MFRMLS Joins CoreLogic Partner InfoNet—MFRMLS Road Warriors – Trainers on the Go!

13 Commentary by MFRMLS Leadership—The Troll Under the Bridge

16 Training & Tips—Recent My Tips of the Week

18-20 Resources—No Time to Tweet?—Marketing in the Age of Do Not Call

23 Real Estate News24-27 Spotlights

—Team Member: Barbara Wheeler, Member Services Specialist—Product and Services: Transaction Desk—Member: Kathryn Stelljes, Keller Williams Realty, at the Parks (Team:

ThinkLiveBe Properties)

28 Commercial Real Estate News (pre-sented by MFCRE)29 Around the House (an article for cur-rent and future homeowners)30 Off MFRMLS Property31 Win a movie theater gift card!

Featured

In every issue...

Technology Independence!

TabletsSmartphonesKurio

Transaction Desk

Technology that frees us from our desks.page 6


MFRMLS PROPERTY REPORT & LINK

Online, interactive housing payments & lending info displayed side-by-side with property information on a new Consumer Report

Keeps customers on listings longer

You choose the lender to display

Interactive mortgage tool allows homebuyers to play ‘what if’ scenarios to address their financing needs

PROPERTY FLYER PROGRAM

The system creates detailed flyers with property listing information and acurate mortgage payment information

Created with one mouse click

Can be emailed or printed

Promotes both the Agent and chosen Loan Officer

RatePlug provides your prospective homebuyers with valuablepayment information specific to each property they view.

1.

2. Provides marketing material for your Open House functions or general display.

How does RatePlug helpAgents in today’s market?

FREE to MFRMLS Members!Visit www.rateplug.com/mfrmls to enroll

3.*Participating lenders pay a license fee.


Technology Independence!By MFRMLS Staff

Happy belated–4th of July! In honor of the 4th of July and our nation’s independence, we’ve decided to celebrate a different kind of indepen-dence: the independence to move away from your desk and still stay connected!

That’s right: technology indepen-dence.

For REALTORS®, the last decade has been quite the roller coaster. However, one thing that has remained consis-tent is the development and use of new technologies. From the develop-ment of laptops to smartphones to tablets there are now more ways than ever to leave your desk, but still stay connected. And for REALTORS®, that can mean more ways to connect with clients.

So, for fun, let’s take a quick look at some of these ways to connect with your clients when you’re “on-the-go”, according to operating device.

Laptops

The laptop was the first frontier in the development of portable de-vices. According to Wikipedia, “the first commercially available portable computer was the Osborne 1 in 1981 … Although it was large and heavy compared to today’s laptops, with a tiny 5” CRT monitor, it had a near-revolutionary impact on business, as professionals were able to take their computer and data with them for the first time.”

Now-a-days laptops are pretty much identical to desktop computers, in

terms of capability. Anything you can do with a desktop you can pretty much do with a laptop. This means any of your MFRMLS products that you can use on a desktop you can also use with a laptop.

In the market to buy a laptop? Here are some links to help you out:

—Top 10 laptops, according to PC-Mag (dated June 9, 2011): http://tinyurl.com/pcmag-top-laptops

—Top 5 laptops, according to CNET (dated June 27, 2011): http://reviews.cnet.com/best-laptops/

Smartphones

The History Channel recently came out with its “top 101 gadgets that have changed the world.” Number one on the list: smartphones, just ahead of radios and televisions.

Whether you agree with the History Channel or not, there’s no doubt that the development of the smartphone has been influential.

Although IBM produced the first mo-bile phone in 1992 with smartphone qualities, including an email client and the ability to send and receive faxes, the first mobile phone to be marketed as a “smartphone” was the Ericsson R380 Smartphone in 2000. Combining the functions of a mobile phone and a personal digital assistant (PDA), the Ericsson R380 offered email, a speaker phone and Internet access, among other features.

Since then, smartphones have continued to advance, es-pecially in terms of inter-action. Now, on most of the recent smartphones (within the past few years), people can receive GPS navigation based on current location, download music and movies, as well as download a myriad of applications (or Apps) that allow you to search for recipes, check weather radars, per-form online banking and more.

“Smart” indeed.

Here are the top smartphones, ac-cording to the following publica-tions:

—Top smartphones, according to CNET (dated July 14, 2011): http://reviews.cnet.com/best-smartphones/

—Top 10 cell phones (smartphones), according to PCWorld (dated June 28, 2011): http://tinyurl.com/pcworld-top-phones

Tablets

For some people, tablets seem like they just appeared out of thin-air

(please see “Tech” page 7)

Celebrating the freedom to connect with clients

http://tinyurl.com/pcworld-top-phones

http://reviews.cnet.com/best-smartphones/


Tech(continued from page 6)

yesterday. However, they’ve actually been around for awhile, albeit in less advanced forms.

Some of the earliest tablets were developed in the 1950s and ‘60s and looked much like an archaic desktop computer, except with the ability to draw or write on a pad that trans-ferred information.

According to an article in the Huffing-ton Post (http://tinyurl.com/history-of-tablets-huffington), “these “tablets” consisted of a large computer terminal attached to a receiver pad, which ac-cepted electrical or magnetic input from a stylus. They were extremely ex-pensive to make and extremely heavy. Over the years, as tablets became functionally more complex, they also became more compact.”

Now, we know most tablets to be thin touch screens that are somewhat similar in capability to standard desk-top and laptop computers, but allow more portability minus the number of drives (i.e. USB connections, DVD connections, etc…). Similar to most smartphones, you can also download various Apps that allow you to per-form various functions.

Your colleague just got a tablet. Now you want one. Check out the top tablet devices, according to listed publication:

—Top 5 tablets, according to CNET (dated July 7, 2011): http://reviews.cnet.com/best-tablets/

—Top 10 tablets of 2011, according to ZDnet (dated May 4, 2011): http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/top-10-tablets-of-2011-the-new-leader-board/48214

Free yourself with

Kurio!Showing Time in

Kurio is here!page 8

PLUS lots more Kurio news!pages 8 & 9

What’s next in the development of portable devices that allow you to connect with clients?

According to Wayne Ackley, MFRMLS IT Manager, “very soon, (mainly due to advancements in nanotechnology) as smart mobile devices progress more toward being replacements for their larger desktop and laptop “cousins”, they will include exciting never before thought of fea-tures such as,

—Over-the-air charging (no cables, yeah!)—Built-in projection for small presen-tations—Multi-burst gigabit wireless—Terabyte storage for all your data—Biometric access, eliminating the need for passwords—Firewall/Sandbox of data to protect sensitive information—Low energy use with long term bat-tery storage of days/weeks instead of hours—Secure offsite over the air backups of your data in case of water/acciden-tal damage—Artificial Intelligence enabling an assistant in your pocket.

... Our wise and affordable use of ex-isting smart devices and new mobile innovations will allow for improved versatility, better communications, increased accessibility for and to our clients, and present less of a need to be chained down to a desk/office envi-ronment.”

Next prediction? Perhaps no more desks.

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/top-10-tablets-of-2011-the-new-leaderboard/48214

http://tinyurl.com/history-of-tablets-huffington


Kurio: It’s Showing Time!By MFRMLS Staff

Calling all Kurio Users!

Good news: Showing Time integration into Kurio is here!

Showing Time has been integrated into Kurio for the following:

—iPhone and iPAD

—Android Operating Systems (phones and tablets)

—Blackberry Operating Systems (phones and tablets)

—Other mobile devices (i.e. Palm, etc.)

—Full Browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari), which also means Showing Time in Kurio can be accessed on Laptops and Desktops (a great alterna-tive if you can’t log into MLXchange)

When logged into Kurio, Showing Time can be accessed through the “Schedule a Showing” button on the respective property’s listing page.

Link to Kurio: http://mfr.kurio.mobi/

Not a Kurio user?Kurio offers you complete access to MLS listing information (including the new ability to schedule a showing) while you’re “on-the-go.” Kurio is included in your MFRMLS subscription. However, to use Kurio you will need to register for an account.

Please click on the following link to create your account:http://mfr.kurio.mobi/account.kurio/agentregister (We recommend that you create the account with the same ID and password that you use for MLX-change.)

To view a KURIO TUTORIAL on how to register and utilize Kurio please visit the THIS link on the MFRMLS University YouTube channel.

Please note: The tutorial pre-dates the new Showing Time inte-gration and some of the most recent enhancements.

http://www.youtube.com/user/mfrmlsuniversity

KURIO TUTORIAL

Looking for Showing Instructions in Kurio?

http://tinyurl.com/kurio-tutorial

You need to submit a showing request before the showing instructions appear.

Here is a short video on the MFRMLS University You Tube Channel to show

you how this works:

http://tinyurl.com/show-instr-youtube

http://www.youtube.com/user/mfrmlsuniversity

http://tinyurl.com/show-instr-youtube


Do you want a Kurio icon on your smart phone desktop, but don’t know how to save the shortcut?

1) First, log into Kurio using your mobile device or computer. Select the option “More” on the upper right side of the screen.

2) Under the “More Options”, first select “Help”, then select “Help Topics”.

3) Locate the option “Shortcut to Kurio”

Here you will find a list of devices, select your mobile device and you’re off to creating a shortcut to Kurio!

Want a Kurio icon to show up as an App on your mobile device?

Using Real Biz 360 for virtual tours?

Real Biz 360 is offered at a discounted rate with your

MFRMLS subscription. Visit the following link to find out more: http://www.mfrmls.com/mem-ber-benefits/realbiz360-mem-

ber-benefits

By MFRMLS Staff

Hoping a potential buyer will see your virtual tour on Kurio? Well the poten-tial just got greater.

That’s because prospective buyers (and REALTORS®, for that matter) using Kurio to search for properties no longer have to log into their Kurio account to view virtual tours.

Previously, if a virtual tour was cre-ated for a particular property, such as what you would see on MLXchange, a person had to log into their Kurio ac-count to view the virtual tour for that property.

Now, any person who visits Kurio can simply choose the “Search for Homes” option on the Kurio landing page and

view any virtual tours that are avail-able for respective properties – with-out logging into or creating a Kurio account.

Please note: Due to data updating, it may take a couple more weeks for all virtual tours to show for certain prop-erties in Kurio (when not logged in), depending upon when the virtual tour was created. This is only applicable to properties that are found through simple, location-based searches in Ku-rio. Properties found through advanced searches and searches using ML# or specific address will show the virtual tour without logging in.

What’s the difference between searching for homes on Kurio

without an account and search-ing for homes with an account?

Even though you can now view virtual tours on Kurio without an account, there are still many advantages to signing up for a free Kurio account.

For REALTORS®, you can view full MLS listing information once logged in, including the new ability to sched-ule a showing.

For Consumers (i.e. your clients), they can save their favorite properties, list the agent they’re working with (you!) and more!

New Virtual Tour Access with Kurio

else is

Visit the following link to download info on some more enhancements from Kurio:http://tinyurl.com/kurio-enhancements-2011

http://www.mfrmls.com/member-benefits/realbiz360-member-benefits


By MFRMLS Staff

Over the past month you may have noticed a message or two from MFRMLS, concerning real estate scams that involve Craig’s List.

Here is an example of one par-ticular scam:

A scammer, let’s call him “John Scammer,” manages to get ahold of listing information and photos for a particular property, whether through Craig’s List or another website. “John Scammer” then turns around and lists that property and its photos as his rental property on Craig’s List. Someone from out-of-state sees the rental listing, emails “John Scammer,” decides he or she wants to rent the property and then sends “John Scammer” a check for deposit.

The new “renter” shows up to the property he or she thought he or she was renting and, what do you know, the property is not being rented and there’s someone already living there. Meanwhile, “John Scammer” disappears and finds more people to scam.

It sounds far-fetched, but it’s happening. Here is the link to a blog post from a Century 21 real estate office in Tallahassee, discussing this very scam that used one of their properties: http://tinyurl.com/scam-example-1

Just last month an article appeared in the Des Moines Register, giving another example – except with this example, the scammer had put the listing informa-tion and photos as a rental property not on Craig’s List, but on another rental website. Here is the link to that article: http://tinyurl.com/scam-example-2

So what can you do to prevent one of your listings from being the source of content for a scam?

Well, the honest answer is not a lot. It’s pretty much impossible to prevent a random person from pulling your listing information and photos from a par-ticular website, regardless of how selective you and your broker have been with posting and syndicating listing information. After all, it’s the consumer that you want to reach with your listing information and, unfortunately, it’s also the (very occasional) consumer who turns out to be a scammer.

However, what you can do is occasionally use a search engine, such as Google, to search for your listing address to see if it pops up as a rental listing anywhere.

Also, when listing a property, as part of the listing process (after obtaining the

MLS number) setup a Google Alert (http://www.google.com/alerts) for the property address as well as the MLS number. This simple process will alert you when the listing appears on ANY website. Simple, quick and easy to setup! How’s that for keeping your eyes on your listing without a huge time investment?

Additionally, here is a webpage on Craig’s List that discusses scams and what to do if you become a victim of one: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

More than anything, we want you to be aware that this is happening, so that you can remain vigilant. After all, knowledge is power, and knowing is half the battle – or so we’ve heard.

Scam for Rent on Craig’s List?


By MFRMLS Staff

My Florida Regional MLS (MFRMLS) recently signed an exclusive agree-ment with CoreLogic to participate in the Partner InfoNet. Through Partner InfoNet, MFRMLS will license its listing data for use in a variety of new risk management products for mort-gage lenders, servicers and the capital markets. The Partner InfoNet com-bines CoreLogic MarketLinx licensed MLS data with CoreLogic property data assets to create enhanced risk management products for lenders.

What does this mean to you?

Partner InfoNet will allow MFRMLS

My Florida Regional MLS Joins CoreLogic® Partner InfoNet

By MFRMLS Staff

Beginning on Tuesday, August 2, the amount of time allowed for a list-ing without the required photo(s) is changing from seven business days to three business days. This means any listings that don’t have the required photo(s) after three business days will be purged from MLXchange.

Additionally, if a listing was entered prior to August 2 and has been with-out the required photo(s) for longer than three business days, then that listing will be immediately purged on August 2.

So, please take the time now to make sure all of your listings have the required photo(s) by the close of business on August 1.

The primary reason the rule is chang-ing is to prevent members from keep-ing their listings from view by other members. MFRMLS had identified many listings going from PH directly to pending without other agents hav-ing the opportunity to work the new listing.

To see the rule on photo requirements (and the types of photos to upload), please visit the following link: http://tinyurl.com/photo-rule

Thank you for understanding, as we work to make MLXchange as success-ful as possible for you and your fellow REALTORS®.

a safe and easy way to generate ad-ditional value for our members by applying your listing data outside of the real estate industry while also giv-ing lenders critical listing information that would help make better and faster lending decisions.

The exclusive agreement also gives our members free access to the MLS Data Co-op. The MLS Data Co-op provides valuable property data and reports such as RealAVM valuations, tax records, listing history, nearby schools, neighborhood data, commu-nity demographics, real estate trends,

foreclosure information and more.

With the Partner InfoNet, MFRMLS will create new revenue opportuni-ties and, at the same time, equip our members with the tools and compre-hensive property data their clients demand.

PH Status Rule ChangeTime to upload required listing photo(s) changing from seven business days to three business days

http://tinyurl.com/photo-rule


By MFRMLS Staff

This month we are shining the spotlight on the most mobile

department at My Florida Regional MLS ... our fabulous training team!

Our trainers work effortlessly to help you get the most out of all the prod-ucts and services available to you through your MFRMLS subscription.

MFRMLS trainers are strategically positioned across the state to ensure training classes are available in your local area. This team racks up an ap-proximate total mileage of 5,300 miles per month and teaches over 75 courses per month. That’s a lot of driving and teaching!

Not to worry, the training team reduces their carbon footprint by driving company issued hybrids that boast excellent fuel economy. Company is-sued vehicles are a great way to provide our team with reliable transportation while remaining budget conscious, as it costs less to provide vehicles to our team than to pay out the current IRS mileage rate. In fact, since mid-October 2010, MFRMLS has saved approximately $3,800 in lieu of mileage reimburse-

MFRMLS “Road Warriors” – Trainers on the Go!

ment. Also, since the vehicles are company issued, MFRMLS was able to take advantage of a great advertising opportunity – vehicle wrapping. So, as our trainers move from class to class, city-to-city, they are also advertising for your consumer website www.myfloridahomesmls.com Their vehicles have become moving billboards!

Stay tuned for next month’s issue where we present a short Q & A interview with each of our trainers!

Company issued vehicles are a great way to provide our team with reliable transportation while remaining budget conscious, as it costs less to provide vehicles to our team than to pay out the current IRS mileage rate.

Pictured, left to right: Terry Barnett, Ivette Jimenez, Jennifer Thompson-Kersting (Director of Marketing & Education), and Katie McCoy. Not pictured: Cindy Rayfield.


Commentary

By Merri Jo Cowen, MFRMLS CEO

The MLSs and vendor partners across the country have just learned a new lesson – an expensive one, and one that has proven to be an eye-opener for everyone – and one that we want to share with our members.

The lesson: CIVIX. This is not civics as in government, but CIVIX as in a patent lawsuit that has been plaguing many indus-tries, and burrowed itself into the real estate indus-try about a year ago. The company, CIVIX, has run rampant through any in-dustry that has location-based Internet search options.

I’m not an attorney and the minute details of the threatened lawsuits are more than most of us would even care to understand. What I have learned: patent litigation is expensive beyond belief. We are talking millions of dollars to defend and unimaginable millions if lost.

The practice of “trolling” – or find-ing a patent that can be twisted into a possible gold mine – is not new, but the first “Troll” under the real estate bridge is CIVIX. It boggles the mind and it has made the pocketbook of CIVIX bulge from settlements: Real-tor.org /MOVE/NAR settled two years ago with CIVIX; Microsoft has settled; travel industry participants have settled; overall, it’s not over yet.

Where did it this start? CIVIX has gathered millions of dollars (over $30 million) over the last several years through settlements. Their legal

counsel has been relentless in finding any industry that might use the very broad patent. They moved into real estate by “inviting” two large MLSs in the country (MRIS and MRED) to pay them a

nice settlement fee

or go to court and fight it out. Both MLSs tried just that – to fight the good fight for our industry. But those MLSs, just like ours, are not made of millions of dollars – settlement was imminent to avoid bank-busting legal fees that would certainly have impact-ed their membership.

The rest of us, the other larger MLSs in the country, knew that it would soon be our turn to receive the invite to pay or play with CIVIX. We asked NAR to help. And while they were already protected through the Move settlement, they stepped in to be the intermediary and were able to bring about a global settlement through negotiations directly with the CIVIX attorneys – for the industry wide price tag of $7.5 million dollars. That settle-ment would ultimately protect (from the CIVIX patent) all members, ven-dors, associations, MLSs, real estate agents and brokers everywhere.

I know that may sound like a ridicu-lous amount (and you are not alone). But think about every Internet search that is location based and you’ll see the impact that this patent suit places on everyone in real estate.

How about IDX searches using maps? Or Map Grids? Or “Near XYZ”? Or any MLS search that is location based, including mobile searching and Internet real estate searching

through an iPad or tablet – basi-cally any real estate related search

that you or any other real estate professional might use. Add to that any consumer real estate portal where listings can be searched – including your IDX website. Also, you can mix in applications that your local associa-tion has created, your MLS provides or anything that you, yourself created or paid to have created.

To fight such an enemy individually would have cost each of us millions of dollars and the “win” column for those who had chosen to fight did not lend confidence to fight the fight.

The good news: It’s over for real estate. In response to requests from many large MLSs across the country (including MFRMLS), the National Association of Realtors stepped in and worked a unilateral settlement for anything real estate related. This settlement includes every 3rd party vendors providing any type of real estate location-based searches, every MLS, every local Association/Board of Realtors and, most importantly, every

(please see “CIVIX” page 14)

The Troll Under the Bridge

http://www.Realtor.org


Commentary

CommentaryCIVIX(continued from page 13)

broker and real estate licensee. Literally every “anything” related to the CIVIX patent for all past, current and future members is now indemnified – MLSs, vendors and users are now licensed to use products that include the patented technology from CIVIX.

How did we do this? We, the industry, worked together to raise the $7.5 mil-lion dollars to settle with CIVIX in exchange for the license. The dollars boiled down to $9.06 per member, sent to NAR and then to CIVIX. For an organiza-tion our size, that $9.06 represents close to $300,000. The MFRMLS Board of Directors was quick to respond with a plan to cover that full cost if necessary to protect our members, shareholders, vendor partners and MFR in general.

We met the deadline, along with a large portion of the MLSs and Associa-tions across the country. We (MFR) did it with the help of committed business partners like CoreLogic, Florida REALTORS, iMapp and Catylist. I have heard recently that the entire $7.5 million has been raised, and Florida is at 100% par-ticipation. A huge thank you to NAR is also in order for their role in facilitating the settlement.

MFRMLS is proud to have worked so closely with our business partners to cover this cost on behalf of all of our members – and without any need for a member or local association/board assessment. Our lessons learned:

a. The real estate industry can work together to accomplish such a task.

b. There is still more patent litigation looming on the horizon that will im-pact us all.

c. With CIVIX as our lesson in unity, we know that we can work together as an industry – to fight or to settle, whichever turns out to be the best option for our members.

d. MFRMLS will continue to look out for each of you, our members, brokers and member Associations/Boards. We will do everything possible to keep these issues in our hands and allow you to continue working without inter-ruption or concern.

Should you ever ponder on the value of MFRMLS or your Realtor Associa-tion/Board, please recognize the CIVIX settlement as a commitment that goes beyond providing products and services to help you succeed. We’ve got your back!

AreYOUa CommercialRealtor®?

For more information about becom-ing an MFCRE member, a Commer-

cial Information Exchange (CIE), please contact Connie Kazakowitz at 1-800-686-7451 (ext. 8668) or email

[email protected]

www.MFCRE.com


http://shortsale.mfrmls.com

5032 Goddard AvenueOrlando, FL 32804

[email protected]

Eligibility Criteria

Submission Guidelines

Where additional documentation is requested, servicer response time will be

issue by working through the servicer. Real estate professional may submit the case in the event the servicer has not provided:

an initial response within 20 days,

or, if the real estate professional has received an approval from the servicer for your transaction, but either the mortgage insurer or second lien holder has imposed a closing condition that is not possible for the borrower to meet.Real estate professional must address all “actionable” requests from the servicer before submitting the issue.

http://loanlookup.fanniemae.com/loanlookup/

Real estate professional must be a member of a participating MLS.Real estate professional must be the listing agent for the property.Real estate professional must obtain a signed Borrower Authorization Form (BAF) from the homeowner(s) and submit it to the MLS; http://mfrmls.com/shortsale/docs/SSAD-BAF.pdf

a request Tuesday and had TWO calls from

houses but she called the second time because I

I call responsive! And she couldn’t have been

-M. HuntAltamonte Springs, FL

1-800-686-7451 [email protected]


Recent My Tips of the Week

Did you know that you can access your Supra Showing Report for your listings from within MLXchange?

1. To see the Supra Showing Report for your listing, first you must retrieve your listing by clicking on the Active listings link from the inventory watch

box of the MLXchange Home page.

2. Click on the ML # in the Results screen, then click on the Supra Keybox link on the left side.

3. Click on the bottom line, “Assign Shackle Code and Serial #”, type in the Shackle Code and Serial # in the appropriate boxes, then click the Save button.

4. Now, you are only two clicks away from seeing the Supra Showing Report for your listings: click on the Supra Keybox link and click on Showing Report.

Training& Tips

Do you know that the only way that you may disclose the gate, lockbox, alarm or security code number in a

listing is by typing the code in the Showing Time Secure Remarks field?

1. To add a code for the gate, lockbox, alarm or security code to a listing, retrieve your listing by clicking on the Active listings link from the inventory

watch box of the MLXchange Home page.

2. Select the listing, click on the edit icon at the bottom of the window, then, click on the Edit button.

3. Scroll down, locate the Showing Time Remarks field and type in the box (ex. “The gate/lockbox/alarm/security code is 1234.”). We recommend you add to

the Realtor Only Remarks field, “Please click on the Request a Showing Button or call the office for the code.” There is no other field that you may disclose any gate, lockbox, alarm or security code. Non-MFR members whom retrieve your

listings through MLS Advantage are unable to see the Request a showing button.

4. Click on the submit button at the bottom of the screen to update your list-ing. Please visit the following link to view the Showing Time Tutorial:

http://showingtimeftp.com/download/demos/mlx/MLXAppt.html

SUPRA

“What’s the

code?”

Looking for more My Tips of the

Week? Please visit

http://tinyurl.com/mfrmls-my-tip-of-the-week for an archive of previous tips.

http://tinyurl.com/mfrmls-my-tip-of-the-week


Class is Now in Session!

Have you been to MFRMLS University? This training portal will connect you to the many courses available to you as an MFR Member. Online, or in person, we’ve got a class for you.

Looking to learn in your pajamas? With easy registration and no waiting, you can bring our trainers into your home through live and recorded webinars. Available online, you can save gas and you can save time. Best of all, the courses are free.

Need face time? No problem. MFRMLS University also con-nects you to live courses taught at your association/board by MFRMLS instructors. With interactive sessions in a classroom setting, you’ll be an expert in no time.

In-person or online, MFRMLS University can help you boost your business with the many tools and products off ered with your membership. Log on today to learn more!

www.MFRMLSUniversity.com

Go Big "U"


Resources

By Natashia Ford, MFRMLS CommunicationsSpecialist

It’s no secret, social media plays a big part in almost every industry, and real estate is no exception. So, in keeping with the theme of this issue of My Florida Resource, I want to highlight a few ways to, depending upon your current usage, start, step up or advance your social game while NOT staying glued to your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

When it comes to social media, one of the most common concerns is the time involved to manage a social me-dia marketing plan. I wish I could say that this is not a valid concern; how-ever, yes, to be effective in your social media marketing, you do have to put in the time.

Although I can’t say there is minimal time involved in social media, what I can say is you don’t have to spend all day tweeting or updating your status. There are quite a few tools out there that allow you to schedule your

messages days, weeks, or months in advance.

The one we use in our office is Hoot-suite (http://hootsuite.com) and it has really helped us manage our social media sites while continuing to do the bulk of our every day assignments.

Some of the things I like about Hootsuite are:

• You can schedule and monitor your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn posts

• When you schedule your Facebook posts it pulls up a preview of what the post will look like on Facebook

• They offer a free version – not a free trial but an actual free version. So if you just need to schedule and moni-tor your social media sites the free version will suffice, especially if you’re just starting out.

• They offer great reporting features through their paid subscription plan that won’t break the bank, as it’s rela-tively affordable.

• A cute feature that I love, love, love is the Hootlet. The Hootlet downloads to your bookmark toolbar and as you surf the Internet and find content that you feel is worthy to send to your social media circle, the Hootlet automatically creates a post that you can

No Time to Tweet?

Follow us on Twitter!@MFRMLS@MFCRE@MyFloridaHomes

choose which social sites you want to post to.

• They offer a mobile application that works with iPhones and Androids so you can schedule your social media via your cellphone.

Like I mentioned earlier, although there are quite a few tools out there that allow you to schedule, track, and monitor your social media sites, HootSuite is an office favorite.

With clever planning, scheduling, and the right tools, you have all you need to effectively manage your social media, so ... get to Tweetin!

“Like” us on Facebook!http://www.facebook.com/My-FloridaRegionalMLShttp://www.facebook.com/mfcrehttp://www.facebook.com/My-FloridaHomesMLS

http://www.facebook.com/MyFloridaRegionalMLS

http://www.facebook.com/MyFloridaHomesMLS

http://hootsuite.com


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Resources

4 Marketing Strategies in the Age of ‘Do Not Call’Learn how you can still reach out to prospects without breaking the lawSometimes, following the law goes hand-in-hand with effective market-ing. Such is the case with the National Do Not Call Registry, says Denver real estate practitioner Jennifer Allan. Long before the do-not-call list, technology was changing the way that consumers want to interact with salespeople.

“All the law did was give salespeople a push into the 21st century,” says Allan, author of If You’re Not Having Fun Selling Real Estate, You’re Not Doing It Right (Bluegreen Books, 2010).

Here are Allan’s rules for reaching out to prospects without being a nuisance.

Leave people alone. Whether it’s their use of TiVo to skip the commercials or caller ID to avoid sales calls, people have made it clear they have little tolerance for being sold to. Even if they’re not on the no-call list, you risk irritating 95 out of every 100 people you call if you solicit their business with a cold call. And irritated people don’t refer business to you.

Get them to call you. People like to get to know you in a non-pressure envi-ronment, and then when they need something, they call you. Social media is perfect for that. Use the Web to keep your real estate expertise front and center without making it explicit. Answer people’s questions in a way that showcases your expertise without trying to sell anything.

Keep it personal. When you blog and send e-mails to your sphere, only focus on real estate if you have a good story to tell: An interesting listing or a video clip of your interview with the local TV station are good examples. Mostly focus on things that can help people, like a reminder of street-sweeping day so that they can move their car and avoid a ticket.

Go for the quality. When you cold-call, you play a numbers game in which you try to get five leads for every 100 calls. Rather than go for the quantity, and risk alienating people, go for the quality. Get outside, meet people, and form relationships that your new contacts will value. “Get out in the world with your antennae up and a smile on your face,” Allan says.

Copyright National Association of REALTORS®. Reprinted with permis-sion. Source: http://tinyurl.com/do-not-call-marketing

‘Do Not Call’ RefresherAs of Jan. 1, 2005, telemarketers and sellers, including real estate practitio-ners, are required to search the do-not-call registry at least once every 31 days and drop from their call lists the phone numbers of registered consum-ers.

The law allows calls to “existing cus-tomers,” defined as people with whom you’ve done business in the last 18 months.

You can call FSBOs on the list only if you have a buyer for their home, not to solicit their listing.

There is a safe harbor for inadver-tently calling someone on the list if your company has written procedures on calling, provides training on do-not-call regulations, has accessed the national registry within the last three months, and maintains a company-specific list of numbers not to call.

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More ExposureAutomatically publish your tour to YouTube or any video sharing or social network.

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from your VuVista MLS Tour. Simply select AnnounceMyListing when you publish your tour!

Seller AnnouncementLet your seller personalize and email their announcement to their social contacts and post to their Facebook wall, lever-aging social media in a new and unique method.

Agent AnnouncementEmail your announcement to your database of clients and peers. You can even embed video and links to your blog or website.

For more information visit: www.announcemymove.com/MFRMLS

http://tinyurl.com/do-not-call-marketing


Upgrade Highlights for MFRMLS Members!

Transform your Tours to Videos in one click, published to YouTube!

UnlimitedYouTube iVuVideos!

Social MediaViral Marketing Tools!

Professional ResultsiVuVideo transforms your still photos and panoramas to video in one click.

More ExposureAutomatically publish your tour to YouTube or any video sharing or social network.

Video never got easier!

How would you like to be introduced to your client’s friends and family with each listing?AnnounceMyListing is a viral marketing tool that auto-generates two Free Listing Announcements

from your VuVista MLS Tour. Simply select AnnounceMyListing when you publish your tour!

Seller AnnouncementLet your seller personalize and email their announcement to their social contacts and post to their Facebook wall, lever-aging social media in a new and unique method.

Agent AnnouncementEmail your announcement to your database of clients and peers. You can even embed video and links to your blog or website.

For more information visit: www.announcemymove.com/MFRMLS


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Real Estate News

The long-term viability of America’s housing finance market requires com-prehensive reform of the secondary mortgage market. Toward that end, the National Association of Realtors® supports H.R. 2413, the “Secondary Market Facility for Residential Mort-gage Act of 2011.”

“As the leading advocate for home ownership and housing issues, Real-tors® want a secondary mortgage mar-ket that will serve home owners today and in the future, as well as support a strong housing market and economic recovery,” said NAR President Ron Phipps, broker-president of Phipps Realty in Warwick, R.I. “An efficient and affordable restructured mortgage finance system is in the best interest of taxpayers, and to accomplish that, Congress must enact comprehensive housing finance reform legislation.”

H.R. 2413 was introduced yesterday by Reps. Gary Miller (R-Calif.) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.). The bill offers a comprehensive strategy for re-forming the secondary mortgage mar-ket and gives the federal government a continued role to ensure a consistent flow of mortgage credit in all markets and all economic conditions.

While the return of private lenders is necessary for a healthy market, having only private capital as the sole source of housing finance could severely restrict mortgage capital and result in a system that is dominated by a few large banks that are “too-big-to-fail” at the expense of consumers.

“We strongly support the efforts of Reps. Miller and McCarthy in devel-

oping a well thought-out strategy for reforming the secondary mortgage market. Continuing government par-ticipation and establishing an entity that will provide liquidity during all market conditions will help ensure that qualified home buyers can obtain safe and sound mortgage financing products even during market down-turns, when private entities have historically pulled back,” Phipps said.

The entity would have no sharehold-ers and would exclusively serve a national mission to facilitate the flow of mortgage capital and provide liquidity during all market conditions. The proposal also spells out plans to protect taxpayers and ensure safety and soundness through appropriate regulation and underwriting stan-dards.

“We applaud the efforts of Reps. Mill-er and McCarthy to create a structure that opens the door to lenders of all sizes without favoring large lenders over small and mid-sized institutions,” said Phipps. “Other hybrid proposals with private profits and government guarantees would only replicate the same incentive structure and mistakes of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac be-fore the government takeover.”

NAR has and will continue to advo-cate comprehensive housing finance policies that will ensure qualified borrows can obtain safe and sound mortgage finance products rather than piecemeal approaches that would introduce uncertainty into the hous-ing finance market and slow the frag-ile housing recovery.

“Realtors® thank Reps. Miller and Mc-Carthy for their dedication and work on this bill, and we look forward to working with Congress to ensure that comprehensive and effective housing finance reform legislation is enacted. We must do this to preserve and strengthen the American dream for future generations,” Phipps said.

The National Association of Realtors®, “The Voice for Real Estate,” is Amer-ica’s largest trade association, repre-senting 1.1 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.

Copyright National Association of RE-ALTORS®. Reprinted with permission. Source: http://tinyurl.com/secondary-mortgage-market-nar

Realtors® Support Bill for Comprehensive Reform of Secondary Mortgage MarketWashington, DC, July 07, 2011

http://tinyurl.com/secondary-mortgage-market-nar


Every month we spotlight one MFR team member, in order to help distinguish some of the dedicated, hard-working, friendly faces we have on our MFR staff.We truly believe we have an outstanding team of individuals. And, of course, this is no coincidence, as we look to provide our members with outstanding service.

So, without further ado, we are pleased to spotlight (drum roll please) … Barabra Wheeler, Member Services Specialist and candle consultant!

How long have you been working at MFR?Approximately 3-1/2 years.

What aspect of your job do you enjoy the most?I like helping the members and especially working with my

contacts at the LSCs (Local Service Centers).

Any hobbies outside of work?I enjoy being a PartyLite consultant and doing home candle parties.

What candle fragrance do you like the best?Oh my goodness. I have so many favorites. It’s a toss up between Iced Snowber-ries and Champagne Pear. I’ll go with Champagne Pear.

Where were you born and where were you raised?Miami, FL

If there’s one place in the world, all expenses-paid, you could visit tomorrow, where would that place be and why?Paris, France – it’s so romantic, the food is great and I would love taking a gon-dola ride!!

Thank you Barbara! Thank you for your answers and for being a great team member!

Spotlight

MFRMLS Team Member

Barbara Wheeler, Member Services Specialist


Spotlight

Product and Service

Transaction Desk

SpotlightsComplete Document ManagementAs a member of My Florida Region-al MLS, you have access to the most complete paperless document man-agement system on the planet! Made specifically for busy REALTORS®, TransactionDesk seamlessly inte-grates with MLXchange and IMAPP allowing you to conduct paperless transactions from the beginning of the listing process, all the way to the closing table. Accessible from any web browser and Smart Phone, you are no longer chained to a desk. You’ll save time, money and fuel while responding quicker to your clients.

Benefits At-a-Glance:

Complete Document ManagementAuto-populate all of your FR/BAR forms and contracts directly from the MLXchange or IMAPP for greater ac-curacy and time savings.

Built-in Electronic FormsCreate and edit real estate contracts and forms online through Transac-tionDesk Pro OR if you need a simple and easy solution, TransactionDesk Lite is also available.

Unlimited Document StorageAccess existing and historical transac-tions with unlimited storage space, regardless of the source of the docu-ments.

DocBox2GoAccess all your documents, forms, transaction folders and contacts with your Smart Phone.

DocBox Print DriverWith a single click, you can “print” your document to a virtual printer which will store your document with simultaneous fax and email delivery options. (Faxing within North Amer-ica only.)

Instanet FaxPaperless faxing with your logo to the

recipient’s email with digital time-stamping and verification.

Customer Service PortalDocument access for your clients to retrieve

the relevant information you choose to share.

Activity PlansAllows the insertion of multiple tasks in to a transaction with a few clicks of the mouse.

Email and Internet FaxingForms can be emailed in read-only or editable format. Contracts can be sent via Internet fax to clients for signing then emailed with signatures to both parties when approved.

Online NegotiationAllows forms to be sent between par-ties and interactively negotiated and tracked online. A full audit trail of all changes and modifications is kept for each contract and form created in TransactionDesk.

Multiple Fonts, Colors and Sizes(please see “TD” page 27)


Spotlight

Member

Introducing ...

Kathryn Stelljes PAKeller Williams Realty,

at the ParksMember of Orlando Regional

REALTOR® Association

Name:

Kathryn Stelljes PA

Business:

Keller Williams Realty, at the Parks.

Team Name is ThinkLiveBe Proper-ties.

My business partner on the team is Jeanette Dixon.

Association/Board:

Orlando Regional REALTOR® Asso-ciation

How long in the industry:

Since 2006

What you love about real estate:

I love showing homes and helping people realize the potential. In Down-town Orlando, most of these homes

were built in the 1920s-1950s and have great architectural character. I enjoy pointing those features out to buyers and helping sellers understand how to market those features to buyers.

Favorite product or service through MFRMLS:

Imapp is the best tool ever. It is such a great resource and I think I use it almost every day to research property informa-tion or prepare some kind of marketing piece or idea.

How has MFRMLS helped your business:

MFRMLS has provided me with the tools to grow my business. The free website where I can create property searches for clients has always been a great way to keep an efficient record of what types of properties a buyer is interested in seeing or keeping track of what we’ve already previewed. Imapp, as I mentioned, has

been a huge tool that has enabled me to have knowl-edge about the property and neighborhood. Most of the time I know more

about the plot of land than the homeowners themselves!

Must have gadget or tool:

So many to list! My iPhone, Transaction Desk, Dropbox are definitely the top! I simply could not live without the first two. I guess any Smartphone will allow you to be mobile and work more efficiently as a realtor. But the mass amounts of apps available for the iPhone seems to trump any other. My newest favorite app for my phone is Read It Later. This app allows you to save or bookmark an article on your Firefox and then from my phone I can open the app and read the articles when I have the time – say while waiting for a buyer to arrive to a property, etc. Transaction Desk allows us to keep all of our files digital and organized for easy access. Dropbox is a great place to exchange files with my business partner. We can place a listing presentation into Dropbox, make it a favorite, and pull it up on the iPad to share with a client without even being online.

Greatest accomplishment to date:

I joined the industry after the boom. I have gone from scratch in 2006 when no one was buying to 2011 and each year my business has grown. To say we all survived the greatest housing reces-sion is something that we can all be proud of.

I love showing homes and helping people

realize the potential.“ “

Imapp is the best tool ever ... I think I use it almost every day to research property in-formation or prepare some kind of market-ing piece or idea.

“

““ “To say we all sur-

vived the greatest housing recession is something that we can all be proud of.

Kathryn Stelljes PA


Want to be the next Member Spotlight? Want to brag to your clients that you’ve been spotlight-ed by MFRMLS?

Send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “Spotlight Me” and you could be the next Member Spotlight. Please note: Member spotlights are selected at random, and on a first-to-email first-to-feature basis.We look forward to hearing from and about you!

GetFeatured!

When not working you can be found:

Reading articles on design and architecture and working on my own home which I purchased recently in Downtown Orlando. It’s a bungalow that was built in 1930 – the perfect project for me!

What you love about the area you work and live in (what you would emphasize to your clients):

I love the diversity of home styles, the original brick streets and the oak trees that line them, the parks and public places to enjoy Florida living…but what I love most are the small businesses nearby…the little shops and restaurants nearby.

What difficult or slow periods in the real estate industry has taught you:

That you cannot give up just because things are a little challenging. I entered the real estate industry after the boom and there were plenty of times when I could’ve just quit. I put everything I could into it and every year I have done more business.

One piece of advice you have for REALTORS just entering the business:

Plan your real estate business like a busi-ness. You need to have capital just as you would with any other small business. I wish someone would have told me to sit down and write a business plan – with a budget! – before entering the business. Also, it is important to discuss the accounting aspects of the business with a professional as well. You need to set up how you will track your expenses with your tax professional or you will get behind.

“ “I wish someone would have told me to sit down and write a business plan – with a budget!

TD(continued from page 25)

You can select from 14 different fonts, 10 colors and 8 sizes for contracts. An autosize feature will shrink longer sentences to fit within the text input area on a contract.

WatermarksWatermarks can be embedded onto each page of your forms.

Quick Start GroupsMake your own forms groups and insert mulitple forms into a transac-tion with one click, instead of adding the same individual forms to many transactions.

Digital SignaturesAuthentisign™ lets you securly manage the signing of documents by remote parties, while optionally providing the verifiable security of the USPS Elec-tronic Postmark, while meeting all federal eSign guidelines.

Transaction Desk is included with your MFRMLS subscription. To utilize it, all you need to do is log into MLXchange and click on the Trans-action Desk link under the “Smart Links” section found under the right-hand “Resources” column.

More info on Transaction Desk, and some new Transaction Desk enhancements, coming in a future issue of My Florida ReSource!

Spotlight

Product and Service

Thank you, Kathryn! We enjoyed getting to know you!


Commercial Real Estatepresented by

MFCRE for your mobile phone

Proposed changes by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to lease accounting rules could make record- keeping a lot more complicated and lease negotiation more difficult, says Marc Betesh, president of KBA Lease Services and Visual Lease in Wood-bridge, N.J.

What are the changes that the Finan-cial Accounting Standards Board (the private-sector group that sets rules and reporting standards for accountants) is proposing for leases?

The fundamental change under FAS Topic 840 is that all off–balance sheet transactions involving operating leases, which includes most real estate leases, will be eliminated. Currently, companies don’t show operating leases for real estate on their financial statements, except in footnotes.

How will companies account for their leases if the new rules are ad-opted?

Leases will appear on a company’s fi-nancial statement as though the com-pany had purchased and financed the leased asset. The lease will be shown as a “right-of-use asset” with a corre-sponding liability for the rent pay-ments and any direct costs like bro-kerage commissions. The actual figure used will be the net present value of the rent calculated at the interest rate it would cost the company to bor-row money. The liability appears the same way, although direct costs are excluded. As the company makes rent payments, each payment is recorded

as a payment of principal (a portion of the NPV of the asset) and interest. This amortization requirement could mean that a disproportionate amount of the rental liabilities will shift to the first years of a lease.

Why are the changes eliciting such controversy?

There is a lot of debate on two points—operating expenses and lease options. The right-of-use asset is sup-posed to cover only the pure use of the space, not the cost to service it. So companies will have to separate out service costs like common-area main-tenance charges, taxes, and insurance from the right to use the space. Strip-ping out these costs will be easy with a pure triple-net lease since the tenant pays all those costs separately. It’s more muddled with a modified gross lease since the landlord pays these costs for the first, or base, year of the lease.

What is the issue with lease options?

Under the new rules, tenants will have to consider how likely they are to exercise lease options from the first day they sign a lease. If they are likely to extend a lease, they have to include the option term and the option rent in their calculations. Making the option decision so early is very subjective and seems to undermine the purpose of the rule change, which is to provide more transparency and reliability in financial statements.

To make things even more complicat-

ed, the tenant also has to re-evaluate these probabilities on a regular basis and recalculate the amortization to reflect any changes.

How could these changes affect the overall leasing climate?

Under the new proposal, tenants may prefer shorter leases, which will be problematic for landlords that need longer leases to secure financing or sell a property at a higher price.

When will the proposals be final-ized?

It seems likely that the proposals will be enacted sometime this year and go into effect a year or more later.

Copyright National Association of RE-ALTORS®. Reprinted with permission. Source: http://realtormag.realtor.org/commer-cial/conversations/article/2011/06/facts-fasb

The Facts on FASBA conversation with Marc Betesh.

http://realtormag.realtor.org/commercial/conversations/article/2011/06/facts-fasb


AroundHouse

the An article for current and future homeowners

1. Understand the camera’s perspec-tive. The camera’s eye is very different from the human eye. It magnifies clut-ter and poor furniture arrangement. To make a home shine in a virtual tour or video presentation, cater to the lens.

2. Make the home “Q-tip clean.” Because the camera magnifies grime, each room must be spotless. Don’t for-get floor coverings and walls; a discol-ored spot on the rug might be over-looked by prospects during a regular home showing, but that stain becomes a focal point for online viewers.

3. Pack up the clutter. But leave three items of varying heights on each sur-face. For example, on an end table you can place a lamp (high), a small plant (medium), and a book (low).

4. Snap pictures. This will give you

an idea of what the home will look like on camera. Closely examine the photos and list changes that would improve each room’s appearance: opening blinds to let in natural light, removing magnets from the refrigera-tor, or taking down distracting art.

5. Pare down furniture. Identify one or two pieces of furniture that can be removed from each room to make the space appear larger.

6. Rearrange. Spotlight the flow of a space by creating a focal point on the furthest wall from the doorway and arranging the other pieces of furniture to make a triangle shape. The focal point may be a bed in a bedroom or a china cabinet in a dining room.

7. Reaccessorize. Include a healthy plant in every room; the camera loves green. Energize bland decor by plac-

We truly hope My Florida Resource is what it claims to be … a resource to you. We know anything that helps your clients in turn does the same for you. So we thought it would be nice to include this “Around the House” section. It’s a place where we share with you consumer articles that can be passed along to your clients or included in your newsletter content.

Here’s a great article we found on Realtor.org

Note: This is just one of the many articles available to you from Realtor.org Their consumer articles are downloadable and are able to be customized with your branding.

ing a bright vase on a mantle or drap-ing an afghan over a couch.

8. Keep the home in shape. You want buyers who liked what they saw on-line to encounter the same home in person.

Prepare Your Home for a Virtual TourWith more buyers shopping for homes on the Web, photos and virtual tours are a must. There are many things you can do make your home shine on camera.

Utilizing MyFloridaHomesMLS.com?

Sending clients to your unique custom URL with your information

attached to all listing searches?

Check out the flyer on page 22!


Off MFRMLS PropertyDistrict 13 Business & Tech Expo

We recently had the opportunity to chat with some of our District 13 members at the District 13 Business & Tech Expo, held this past June 23.

Visiting us at events, where we’re present and have a booth set up, is a great way to ask us questions in-person and learn a little more about our

– your – MFRMLS products and services. Often times, we even have a laptop or two set up, so we can walk you through any questions you have

by actually demonstrating an answer online!

So, we look forward to seeing you soon!

Come visit us at the 2011 Florida Realtors® Convention & Trade Expo! See last page of this issue for more information!

Cindy Rayfield, Senior Trainer, helping some of our District 13 members. In the far right picture Cindy is signing one of our

members up for Kurio.We were giving away Koozies, pens, golf towels and, of course, lots of information on MFRMLS products

and services.


Thank You for Reading

Here’s how:—Simply answer the three questions below and then email the answers and your name to [email protected]

(All answers can be found in this issue of My Florida ReSource.)

—If you email us the correct answers, we’ll enter your name in a drawing for a $25 movie theater gift card. Three names will be drawn for three separate gift cards (can only win once). Drawings will take place on Monday, August 15, 2011.

—If your name is drawn, the gift card will be mailed to you (or scheduled for pick-up, depending upon the theater).

Deadline to email us: Friday, August 12, 2011 by midnight*Must be an MFRMLS or MFCRE member to win.

Questions:1) What’s ONE of the reasons MFRMLS decided to lease company vehicles for its trainers? (Hint: answer found in article “MFRMLS Road Warriors – Trainers on the Go!”)

2) What’s the name of the discussed product used to schedule social media? (Hint: answer found in article in the “Resources” section)

3) In the Member Spotlight, what is Kathryn’s “favorite product or service through MFRMLS”?

Once again, please email [email protected] with your answers to win!

Win a $25 Gift Cardto any

Movie Theater near you.*Gift card subject to your closest or preferred movie theater. In some cases a gift card may not

be available.

*


Looking for a calendar of upcoming training classes?Visit http://www.mfrmls.com/resources/training-and-events for a complete

calendar of upcoming courses.

Help Desk Hours:

Monday–Friday: 7:30 AM–8:00 PMSaturday–Sunday: 8:00 AM–6:00 PM

Toll Free: (800) 686-7451Local: (407) 218-8607

http://www.mfrmls.com/member-support/help-desk

Address:

My Florida Regional MLS5032 Goddard Avenue

Orlando, FL 32804

Telephone:

Tel: (407) 218-8607Toll-Free: (800) 686-7451

Fax: (407) 293-6461

Administration and Membership Question?

The Administration Department at My Florida Regional MLS has two main re-

sponsibilities—ensuring an accurate MLS database and maintaining your member-

subscriber information.

Whether you have questions about our MLS Rules and Regulations, listing viola-

tions, subscriber fees or simply need to update your contact information, our

Administration Specialists are ready to assist you.

Department hours are Monday through Friday from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM.

1-800-686-7451 (option #3)http://tinyurl.com/mfrmls-admin-

membership

Upcoming Events:FL REALTORS® 2011 Convention & Trade ExpoMeeting Dates: Aug 24—Aug 28; Trade Expo: Aug 25—26Location: Rose Shingle Creek, Orlando, FL(MFR Booths: 406, 408, 113—Giveaways and prizes!)

5th Annual International Real Estate Conferencepresented by the Sarasota Association of Realtors®, Global Business Council

Dates: September 14 & 15Location: Hyatt Regency, SarasotaLook for the MFR table!

Did you know we also offer live webinars?http://www.mfrmls.com/resources/training-and-events/webinars/cat.listevents/2011/05/20/-

August Issue Feature:Back to School

MFRMLS Training & Education

http://www.mfrmls.com/member-support/help-desk

http://tinyurl.com/mfrmls-admin-membership

http://www.mfrmls.com/resources/training-and-events/webinars/cat.listevents/2011/05/20/-


MFRMLS Associations and BoardsShareholder Associations and BoardsBartow Board of REALTORS®— http://www.bartowboardofrealtors.com/index.html

East Polk County Association of REALTORS®— http://epcar.com/

Englewood Area Board of REALTORS®— http://www.englewoodareaboardofrealtors.com/

Greater Tampa Association of REALTORS®— http://www.gtar.org/

Lakeland Association of REALTORS®— http://www.lakelandrealtors.org/

Manatee Association of REALTORS®— http://www.manateerealtors.org/

Orlando Regional REALTOR® Association— http://www.orlrealtor.com/Main/Main.asp

Osceola County Association of REALTORS®— http://osceolarealtors.org/

Pinellas REALTOR® Organization— http://tampabayrealtor.com/

Punta Gorda-Port Charlotte-North Port Association of REALTORS®— http://pgpcnprealtors.com/

REALTORS® Association of Lake & Sumter Counties— http://www.ralsc.org/

Sarasota Association of REALTORS®— http://www.sarasotarealtors.com/

Venice Area Board of REALTORS®— http://www.vabr.org/

West Pasco Board of REALTORS®— http://www.wpbor.com/

West Volusia Association of REALTORS®— http://www.westvolusiarealtor.org/

Member-Subscriber Associations and BoardsDesoto County Board of REALTORS®— N/A

Lake Wales Association of REALTORS®— http://www.lwar.net/

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