John Hall & Associates - Phoenix Real Estate Brokerage

On June 1st, Arizona Regional Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS) sent out annual bills to over 36,000 members.  They gave all the recipients until July 8th to get their payment in before shutting them off.  Even with over a month to pay, last Tuesday evening ARMLS created minor heart attacks across the entire Valley of the Sun. 

Forethoughtfully, Bob Bemis bumped up his call center staff on the following days expecting a barrage of phone calls from agents wondering what had happened.  They were right, on the 9th and 10th ARMLS reinstated 1,358 members and expect to reinstate another 1,300 before the wave passes. 

All in all - they are anticipating a 15% reduction of membership to about 31,000 active members.

The ARMLS listing database that is.  Nobody is going to be able to change/update/add/delete any listing information from July 25th to the 27th.  Freezing the database allows flexmls® Web to convert the last of the data from Tempo to their system.  Staples and OfficeMax have stocked up on notepads expecting a heavy run from real estate agents needing to write down listing edits so they don’t forget.  

On Monday the 28th, if all goes as planned, you will begin changing/updating/adding/deleting listing information in the new flexmls system.  As you may know, Tempo will never thaw out.  It will remain frozen and will no longer have updated listing information.  You will be able to access Tempo for about a month to give you a chance to get all your saved searches transferred over. 

We know you won’t panic on July 25th, but we’re worried about the thousands of ARMLS members that don’t read our blog.  They might be surprised to find their MLS shutting off this vital feature.  So help us spread the word and encourage others to sign-up for a flexmls class.

At this weeks office meeting in Tempe the question came up about when the new input forms/profile sheets were going to be available. Since input into the new system has changed, the forms are going to change with it. Here is a sneak peek of the 7 different forms - (from newARMLS.com)

Residential Profile Sheet - Class 1
Residential Rental Profile Sheet - Class 2
Lots & Land Profile Sheet - Class 3
Commercial & Industrial Buildings for Sale Profile Sheet - Class 4
Commercial & Industrial Buildings For Lease Profile Sheet - Class 5
Multiple Dwellings Profile Sheet - Class 6
Business Opportunity Profile Sheet - Class 7

The new hardcopy profile sheets for classes 1 and 2 should be available at your associations sometime next week. Zipforms is still working on developing their copies. You can not input listings to flexmls until July 28th.

Bob Bemis, CEO for ARMLS had the pleasure of speaking with Channel 12 news this morning at 5:40 and 6:40. They stopped by to ask how the Phoenix housing market is doing. Bemis commented on the declining prices, high pending sales, and shrinking inventory. He also talked about the highest priced listing in ARMLS - any guesses of the price?

Here’s the video.

After playing with flexmls for about a week, we need to re-emphasize the importance of signing up for some flexmls training sessions. Being that this is a new system with many more bells and whistles than Marketlinx, our fear is that you may get frustrated attempting to do some basic functions. That’s why it is our recommendation to attend training classes as soon as possible. Your login is suppose to go live next week, and so is the training done by LandAmerica.

After speaking with Cynthia Lujan, we learned that LandAmerica is teaching a 100-minute beginners class (similar to ARMLS) repeatedly all around the valley starting on June 30th. Not only will they have access to the same handouts ARMLS has, they have made some of their own. For example, here is their Saved Search Worksheet. Each of their trainers will also be providing support for the new system starting June 30th. ARMLS support will begin July 15th.

Follow the links for the schedules and online sign-up forms.

Flexmls training in Chandler

Flexmls training in Glendale

Flexmls training in Mesa

Flexmls training in Scottsdale

Flexmls training in Surprise

Flexmls training in West Phoenix

Cynthia and her training partner Kathie have set up a blog dedicated to answering questions that come up in the class. Check it out - Flexin’ with LandAmerica.

Have you signed up for the flexmls training yet?  It’s filling up!  At yesterday’s train-the-trainers meeting, Barbara Hoffman with ARMLS said they have 6,000 agents signed-up and 18 sessions are already full!

Register now for a session!  You don’t want to be caught off guard when the new system goes live on July 28th!

Thanks to Diane Scherer (our newest contributing author!) we got word that Palm is offering a FREE vehicle charger and carrying pouch when you purchase their Palm Centro from At&T or Sprint. This offer is only for …straight from the flyer…

Real estate agents or real estate associates subscribing to GE Security services in the United States.

That means us real estate agents or associates here in Phoenix - if you are a Supra subscriber. So, if you have bought the Centro between May 15th and December 31st of 2008 fill-out the form, send it in and return the car charger you probably already purchased. ;)

Have you ever wondered where our single family residence median sales price would have been with a more normal appreciation? Maybe compared to where the median is currently?

Here’s a graph for you showing them both over the last four years.

UPDATE: And here is a graph showing them both over the last three years.

After 10 years of charging members $156 per year, they are now raising their fees. Next year’s access to the MLS will cost $264. Since we are self-proclaimed stats people around here we’ll break it down a little further than Mr. Bemis did in his announcement email. The ARMLS fee is going from $13 to $22 a month, $3 to $5.08 a week, or from about 42 cents to 72 cents a day.

We can only hope the fees stay the same for the next 10 years. ;)

FlexMLS is the most popular topic at the John Hall & Associates’ Broker Meetings. I imagine real estate agents at other companies have questions too. We are going to be posting different tutorials as we get closer to the conversion date.

If you have specific questions about the switch, chances are they have already been addressed.

The title says it all. Here you go… flexmls Dashboard (LINK UPDATED 6/26/08)

THIS FLEXMLS TUTORIAL IS NOT FROM ARMLS - IT IS ONLY TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF HOW EASY IT IS TO USE THE NEW SYSTEM. A NEWER VERSION WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR ARMLS MEMBERS. THE TECH SUPPORT PHONE NUMBERS ARE NOT ACCURATE.