Season’s Greetings to all of the members of the East Valley Association of REALTORS®! Another eventful year for our association and our MLS is almost over. It has been an honor and a privilege to serve as the Chairman of the MLS Committee and CRMLS Director. I would like to thank Brenda Meyer and Kelly Russell for their co-chair positions this year, the members of the MLS Committee and the staff, Annette, Karen, Susan, Claire and Liz for their hard work and help. It has been a challenging year for everyone but one full of opportunity as well.

In a monumental year for CRMLS, capped off by the merger with SoCAL MLS, we can now proudly say we have the largest MLS in the United States with over 68,000 members. Another thank you needs to go to the CEO at CRMLS, Art Carter, and the Executive Board who made the merger a reality. Art was recently named to the Inman News 100 Most Influential Real Estate Leaders of 2011, a fitting tribute to his excellent leadership and guidance.

Being the largest MLS in the United States creates many benefits including increased buying power for products currently available and new ones that are on the horizon. Some products that have had historically low utilization have been removed (Mercado). Cloud CMA is very innovative and will be available in the first quarter of 2012 as well as a new transaction management tool. As of December 6, 2011 Realist 2.0 has been added with property-centric data, advanced mapping, market trends, and valuation tools. If you still want to use the old Realist system just click the Realist Classic tab on Matrix Links.

Goomzee is another product that you can use to enhance your listings with text messaging capability, QR codes and personal branding.

Another REALTOR® benefit is REALTOR® Property Resource (RPR). RPR is a national database wholly-owned by the National Association of REALTORS®. As the MLS is agent-centric, RPR is property-centric with tax assessment information, public record information, NOD, REO, pre-foreclosure and foreclosure, MLS information, zoning, liens, permits, school district, flood plain maps and demographics. RPR is not a national database and does not offer compensation and cooperation. Check out the REALTOR® Property Resource tab if you have not looked at it yet.

Lastly, in 2012 there will be a Centralized Violation System throughout CRMLS and CARETS. As I have reported back to the membership, East Valley diligently tracks all MLS violations and tracks who, what, when. Listing Status continues to be the number one violation. If you have an accepted offer from the seller on a listing it must be placed in Back-Up or Pending within 48 hours of the ratification of the contract. It does not matter if the bank has not approved the short sale or not. Once an offer has been accepted, in writing, all subsequent offers become a back up offer. A Purchase Agreement Addendum (PAA) should be used to show what position the backup offers are in.

The East Valley Association of REALTORS® is committed to the sanctity, accuracy and integrity of the data. We will continue to make sure that our members, if violating MLS Rules and Regulations, are held accountable for those violations.

The MLS Committee meets on the last Friday of the month at 8:30 a.m., alternating between the Redlands and Yucaipa offices. Everyone is welcome and any comments, suggestions, complaints can be sent to me at mikeespiritubroker@gmail.com.

Have a safe and enjoyable holiday and may 2012 be a healthy, prosperous year for all!

Sincerely,

Michael Espiritu

MLS Committee Chairman
MRMLS Director
East Valley Association of REALTORS® Director Region #3
mikeespiritubroker@gmail.com
Cell: 951-961-5110