"f" for Foreclosure

If you see a funky "f" symbol next to the price for a listing in
spreadsheet mode, that is likely a foreclosure, REO, or Bank listing.

First of all, the listings are flagged with an "f" if the listing
agent checked the box for "bank owned" or "foreclosure".

However, as many of you know, sometimes bank listing agents are lazy.
So they just skip the checkboxes and put it in the remarks like this
"Hurry for this Bank Owned" listing.

So just like the short sales which get an *, we scrub the remarks
looking for the words: foreclosure or bank owned or REO. And then we
go a step further and remove the "f" if it says "not an REO".

While not 100% perfect, it is close enough and gives you a split
second guide to bank deals. That is the point of FranklyMLS, speed!

Please let me know if you find a listing that has an "f" when it
shouldn't, any any other feedback on this.

Sorry it took so long, I should have doe this last year, but I was
looking for bank deals for a client and I thought "geez this is stupid
that we don't distinguish these."

Thanks

Frank
Owner FranklyMLS
Broker FranklyRealty

Sent from my iPhone sorry for typoes.

Easier to view the # of viewings and # of saved.

Now we put on the top right side of the listing how many people have viewed a listing and how many have saved it. For example:

As of this moment
http://franklymls.com/CV7136184
says: Saved by 8 Users. Viewed by 37. (22%)

Also with the %. Hopefully in the future we can use this data to see if there is a correlation between the list price and the sold price for homes that are saved by a high % of people. Won't that be fun?

Frank

Now with an @ Twitter account. @FranklyMLS

Follow us on Twitter to get alerts on new features and requests from users for ideas.

@FranklyMLS

Green Stars for Short Sales

This feature was so cool that I upgraded it to my main blog.FranklyRealty.com, Click here to read it

And here is the video in case you are too uninterested to read the details:

Now with Altos Research Charts

Ok this data and charts on the fly from Altos Research is HOT. I have just started to incorporate a chart with the zip code trends into FranklyMLS.

Here is an example http://franklymls.com/AR7194068

There are 100 variables to choose from. I chose to make the timeline "4 or 5 years" I could make it more like 6 months, but I figure people prefer the big picture and not the exact trend.

Also I added a link next to the DOM which will send you over to Altos to look at the Days on the Market trend for that zip code. Again, I could incorporate this. Maybe in a rollover?

Do you like it? What about moving the charts to the spreadsheet results page?

Frank

Sort your Favorites

By popular request, you can now sort your favorites. Seems simple enough, it just never got high enough on the to do list!

Frank

Pick 1 or 4 year Sold Data

So we went from 18 months to 4 years of sold data. But then people complained that that was too much data. Too much data!! Ok, ok, I hear you.

So now there is a checkbox option for sold data from the last 4 years, or sold data from just 2009.

Again, this is MLS data that shows the seller subsidy and the NET price.

You likey?

Frank

New "Clear" feature vs Logging out

I now set up www.FranklyMLS.com/clear which will clear all three cookies for

1) Favorite homes

2) Saved searching

3) Agent branding

This is particularly useful for agents that wish to log into their client's account and leave notes, or favorite homes. So if you are working with 3 or 4 clients, you can make sure not to mix anything up, by going to /clear each time.

If one "Logs out" that does not remove agent branding.

Frank

Best Route (kinda) your favorites.

So there is a new feature. Currently called "Route Favorites"

When you have your homes saved as Favorites, they show up on the top of the page. You then click on which homes you want to see on the map (there is a # to the right of that) and click Route Favorites. This will then show you where the homes are on the map.

Now technically it isn't a "best route" or driving directions, but the idea is you can eyeball which homes you should see first and the # will show you the address.

If people like this, I can make it better.

Anybody?
Frank

New Consolidated Login System, Any Bugs?

Ok, so people were yelling and screaming about not being able to login. The old way if you were not already logged in, you would add a home and then be prompted for your email address (no passwords required).

Now you can login, and it will give you a "welcome frank@frank..." so you know you are logged in.

Also previously the Saved Homes, called "Favorites" was a separate account and login versus the Saved Search (emailing you changes you to saved criteria). Now they are consolidated into one login.

Let me know if you get snags.

Also we had to start blocking people who are too high tech for cookies. Those that scrub cookies end up breaking the site, so if you don't use cookies, we can't help you, sorry.

Frank

(anybody know how to make it so emails to Yahoo aren't trashed into spam?)

3 Featured Comments on the front page

We are now featuring the most recent three comments from Realtors (or buyers) on the front page. We do this to further encourage adding to the WIKI. More exposure, and Google juice for the contributor and more of a "oh now I get it" for consumers that don't get the Wiki concept at first.

Currently it only displays home reviews that have photo albums.

Thanks!

Frank

Search for Agent's BUYING activity

Now you can put in an agent's name (start with the last name) and search under SOLD to see their sold listings (previously available) AND now their sold purchases.

The Sold homes where they were the buyer agent, that is the new part!

Soon I will make it easier to see in the spreadsheet mode how the agents did, and whether they were the buyer agent or the listing agent.

Frank

MLS Under Contract Types. We show all 3

Bottom line: Under Contract means almost SOLD. No need to email us and say "Is it still available? Can I see it?" It is not available for showings. It has a ratified contract on it with a serious buyer and closing might be days away. Favorite the home to sign up for an alert to be notified if it goes back to active.

There are three stages of Under Contract on the MRIS MLS system. At Frankly.com we show 2 of the 3. (MRIS Doesn't allow us to show #4, Updated 11/2015)

In 22201 right now there are 55 homes for sale under some sort of "Under Contract".
- 4 are: Under Contract/KO (Kickout) (These are pretty rare, 10%)
- 33 are: Under Contract/NoKO (No Kickout) (These are the most common at 60%)
- 18 are just plain: "Under Contract" about 30%

Under Contract/KO (w/Kickout)
This means that the home for sale has a contract that has been signed by the buyer and seller. However there is some terms in it that make it a "KICKOUT."
For example, if there is a home sale contingency, the seller is effectively saying in the kickout: "Ok, you can keep in that annoying home sale contingency, but if we get another offer, we will give you 3 days to 'sh*t or get off the pot.' " So when the other offer comes in, the buyer has to decide if they want to take on the risk of not selling their home, or if they want to let the seller sell to somebody else.

The downside for the seller is when it hits this stage, it gets dropped from many MLS sites and agents and buyers stay clear of it. Which is a shame.

This type of contract is only for about 10% of the homes for sale. If you have a GREAT agent, they should be looking for these as well. They are prime candidates. Why? The buyer has already been beaten down on the price (which is not posted publicly) and now all you need to do is come in with better terms (read my blog on terms terms terms). Nothing is guaranteed, but you have a shot.

Under Contract No/KO (No Kickout)
This is the most common Contract type. It doesn't have a particular term in it that will allow a buyer to easily get kicked out. However there are still some contingencies such as a Home Inspection or HOA Docs or an appraisal contingency. So a home buyer can put in a back up offer on these. Many agents will not because they think it is a waste of time, but you can still do it. The best approach is to make an offer with strong terms (and maybe a tad higher, if you can find out the other offer amount) and make it clear to the seller that if the buyer so much as sneezes or asks for anything unreasonable, you will be there and close quickly and not be a pain in the neck. Then you might have a shot.
Note that you can pull a back up offer at anytime before it becomes the prime offer. Ie if you plan to offer elsewhere.

Just: "Under Contract" Regular
I added the word "regular." It is actually just listed on the MRIS system as "Contract."
Some agents are lazy and skip the first two steps and put it in like this. Why? It takes 1 more step to enter into the MRIS system when it has gone from one stage to another stage and they can get fined by the MRIS if they forget to update it.

Listing Agent tip: Never ever list it as just "Under Contract- Regular" Why? The MRIS system is whacked and it shows other potential buyer agents who the listed buyer agent is! Who cares? Why in the world would you want to tell the world WHO the buyer is, before you close? This is private information and MRIS should change their policy on displaying this (only on the back end).

UPDATE 10-25-2012, this post conflicts with my post on How and when to write a back up offer http://blog.franklyrealty.com/2012/10/backupcontract.html. So check that out too if you are die hard serious about a particular home.

Written by Frank

4 Years Sold Data and Crosslinking

Due to multiple requests, we now have sold data for almost 4 years back! We were 1 year, and then 18 months.

Also we have crosslinked the sold data. So if you see an active listing that was previously sold within the last 4 years, there is now a link to show you what the house used to look like and information when it was previously sold.

Now I am working on data to make it easier to search for an agent's track record.

Frank

iPhone And Cell Mode for MLS Searching

So FranklyMLS.com is probably the easiest way to view the MLS on your cell phone. Previously I was routing all cell phones to www.franklymls.com/cell. However iPhone users felt their browser could support the regular page.

So at the request of a client, I have made it so iPhone users that enter through FranklyMLS.com will see the normal front page AND (this is the latest tweak) when they click on a listing, they will see the regular computer version, and not be switched over to the cell mode.

But if you are on an iPhone, or another phone, and you enter in on www.FranklyMLS.com/cell (faster/smaller images), when you click on any listing you will see the cell mode. SOon there will be a link at the bottom of the cell mode for you to see the regular CPU version.

To those that don't use their cell phone to follow the MLS, this might seem like minor tweaks, but to hard core users, it can be very frustrating when some of the data that you come to expect isn't as easily accessible.

Frank

INMAN Innovator of the Year Winner: FranklyMLS

Many of you might not know what INMAN is, but it is the leading real estate news organization outside of the official Realtor association.

Anyhow, Frank, the creator of FranklyMLS.com won the 2009 Innovator of the Year award to a crowd of 1500 people two days ago at Inman Connect in San Fran.

Kinda cool that they noticed our little ole MLS site here on the east coast. Thanks Inman. And thank you if you are one of the many that have sent in suggestions for making the site better.

Inman Article: View Annoucement

Watch video:

I will have a more detailed blog post on how everything unraveled out in San Fran and I will post it on Blog.FranklyRealty.com, so make sure to subscribe to that blog.

Post written by Frank

(Photo by Tim Suh)

(Video by Ray from VideosByAddress.com)

As demanded! SORT by column headers!

You asked for it.
I gave a bunch of excuses for not doing it.
Now we have it!

Previously the only way to sort in spreadsheet mode was to click on a scroll bar and pick from a luandry list of ways to sort.

We just recently redid the backend of the site (to make it 50% faster) and in doing so, somehow the sorting option works with the new infrastructure.

We will still have the drop down sort options. We might remove the repetative stuff like Price and DOM, but we will leave the more complex srting like % of tax assessment to sales price.

Thoughts?

Frank

Now showing LAND

We now are showing LAND. It will have the word: Land: before the address. I might change this to a "L" after the MLS number so it uses up less room.

To search for just LAND in a county like Arlington, search for Arlington Land. It will still pull up homes that mention land in the remarks, but it should be 90% accurate and lightening fast.

Frank

Add Private Notes

So now you can add private notes on homes that you like.

In the full view (the 1 page with all the info on the house) look in the upper right hand corner. There you can add notes about that particular home. Fill in the box and press SAVE (does anybody want this to automatically add the home as a favorite?).

Then as long as you are a) logged in or b) on the same computer, it will keep your notes.

If the home is saved as a favorites, when you rollover the MLS#, it shows you the remarks, but it also will show you your private notes. That way when you have 10-30 homes saved to favorites, you can remember what you thought of each one.

Frank
Broker FranklyRealty.com

Tons of Sorting Options

Many people miss the power of the sorting options in all search mode, so I thought I would go over them now in detail. Note that once you sort, when you come back to the site or do another search, that sort option will be the default for you. No need to resort it each time.

To sort, look for the "Sort by" followed by a scroll bar. This should be above the results.

Price/High- This one should be obvious. This is the default. Homes with the highest (current) "for sale" price are listed first.

Price/Low- The lowest (current) "for sale" price.

DOMm/Low- This is Days on the Market "M" M stands for MLS. SO it shows you how many days this home WITH THIS MLS# has been on the market.

DOMp/High- This is Days on the Market "P" P stands for Property. This DOMp shows you total days on the market for this property regardless of multiple agents and several MLSs (it resets after 90 days off the market). This number is more accurate if you want to know "How many days have they been trying to sell this home?" Many sites won't show you this. They think the consumer needs less info and they dumb down their site.

(more on DOMM vs DOMP)

City- Alphabetically by City.
Zip- Sorted by Zipcode
BDR/Low- Sorting by the # of total bedrooms. Lowest first.
BDR/High- Highest number of bedrooms first.

Lot/Low- Lot size (if entered in by the Realtor). Lowest first.
Lot/High- Highest listed first.

ADVANCED- These are more complex!

List$/Tax Low- This is List Price divided by Tax Assessment. The lowest ratios are shown first. This is an amazing feature that is frequently missed. While sure, I constantly say NOT to use the tax assessment to value a home accurately, you CAN use it to quickly show you the "bargains" in a zip code. Homes that are 20-50% below tax assessment mgiht be great fixer uppers or bank deals. You can even sign up for alerts to "show me homes that are 50% below the tax assessment". This is a must have for investors. Here is Jeff's video how to:

List$/LastSold- This will in one click show you homes that have dropped the most since their previous purchase price. It is the current List Price divided by the Last Sold price.

Built/Low- Year built.
Built/High

SQFT/Low Total interior square feet. Sometimes this includes the basement, sometimes it does not. Also note that MANY agents leave this off, so this is not a great way to sort.
SQFT/High- Larger units shown first.

Subdivision/Asc- Alphabetical order for the subdivision. A-Z
Subdivision/Desc- Same as above but Z-A

# Views/High- This is cool. This tracks the number of people that have looked at the property. So you can sort to see the most popular listings first.

Last$Change- This sorts by the last DATE of change in the price. So the homes at the top have most frequently dropped their price. This can be better than sorting by DOMm to see newly listed homes. The recently dropped homes shouldn't be missed!

OpenHouse- Pulls up all the Official Open Houses first and then the Unofficial "maybe" Open Houses based ont eh remark's keywords. For example if it says "Open Sunday" in the remarks and the home has been on for 60 days, there is a good chance the agent was too laxy to update their listing. We use the wavy symbiol to show maybe: ~.

Walk Score High- A new feature! Allows you to quickly see which homes have a higher walkability score from WalkScore.com

CloseDate High- This works great in the SOLD mode. It lets you sort by the date the home last sold. Good for recent sales, but also for homes that sold in the 1990s (when hairdoos were cool!).

ListDate High- Shows the most recent listed homes first. This works well for people watching Short Sales that are under contract since the DOMm get frozen.

Am I missing anything? Any benefit of one of these?

And don't forget you can export to Excel and sort using that as well.

Written by the Owner of FranklyMLS.com: Frank LL0SA

Now with 15 months sold data

Before we had only 3 months of sold data. Now we have 15 because you all requested it and loved it so much.

Frank

MLS Blocking Comments & Zillow. Also Wiki Reviews moved up

So NAR just launched some new rules that allow the seller to block public comments about the home and block Automatic Valuation Model like Zillow.

Being that FranklyMLS.com is the First Wiki MLS with public comments and photos, one might think this would put a damper on things. Nope. For the 5% of homes that block this data, we will be letting consumers know that "Home seller has blocked this data".

If they blocked the Zillow AVM data, then we can not show the Zillow price. So instead we will link to it. Heck, the consumer is just going to jump over to Zillow anyhow to get it (if they want it, even though the AVM is more of a toy and not to be used as anything close to an appraisal).

If the seller blocks comments... then if a buyer agent (or consumer) adds comments to a listing that does not allow public comments, that contributor's name and link to their website will show up, but the comments will be blocked (in red). The consumer will then have to contact the cotributor (usually buyer agents) directly for information that they have.

Therefore the information is NOT public on the site.

What next?

Ban a buyer agent representing a buyer's best interest from telling a buyer over the phone what they thought about a place? Gimme a break.

Blocking this stuff just makes the homeowner look bad.

In an unrelated related note, in spreadsheet mode the wiki comments have been added in blue to the rollover. Now you can more easily see what others have said about the home.

Frank

Embedded Walkscore and sort in spreadsheet!

Now the full listings have the Walkscore instead of linking to a page that will slowly calculate the walkscore.

Also the Walk Score is displayed on the front page spreadsheet mode (all the good stuff is only on spreadsheet mode). And you can even sort by Walk Score! 

Anybody wanna make a Youtube video thanking Walk Score for all the cool work they are doing? I know they would appreciate it.

Posted by Frank

SOLD DATA LIVE!

First we gave you email alerts with the sold data for homes in your saved search and favorites.

Now you can search for the MLS sold data.

So the same day the Realtor closes the listing as SOLD, we have it. This includes seller subsidy, something the tax records will never have and can be as high as $50,000.

Other sites might show old Tax data, but we have the MLS data which is more accurate and faster.

Update: now with 15 months.

Enjoy

Frank

Numbers in the Pins for the Map

New little feature. For those that get their results on a map, we added numbers in the pins. Those pins will correspond to the first column in the spreadsheet mode.

So home #1 on the spreadsheet will have a pin with a 1 in the middle.

Soon you will be able to mouseover the pin and it will highlight the row for the home on the spreadsheet.

Frank

New sorts, Like Open Houses & Last Price Change

You can now sort and see all the Open Houses in your search criteria. The shortcut symbols are:
^ stands for a scheduled Open House
~ stands for "maybe" an Open House based on the keywords.

We show TWICE the number of Open Houses compared to other sites. How? We show not only the Open Houses based on great Realtors that check an "Open House" box when entering in the MLS data, but also the lazy Realtors that just put the info in the remarks.

Other things you can now sort by: Subdivision. Year built.

And here is one you have requested: Last Change in Price. Similar to sorting by Days on the Market, but it shows you Days on the Market at the current price.

I know some of you want to be able to click on the column headers to immediately sort that way. We might do that, but it isn't as easy as it seems (with the system that we have).

Frank

"Check it out" Email a Friend, or YOU. 1 Click

New "Check it Out" feature.

Now you can email a friend, yourself, or your agent an MLS listing in one click. Also this is done without passwords or logging in.

Look halfway down the page (should I move it up?) for the three boxes and a submit button.

1) Enter the "from" address and a
2) Enter the "to" address and
3) Answer the spam math question

You only have to do the above once. Then the site will cookie (remember) what you put in, and going forward you will only need to press the submit button.

Thoughts?

Frank

Now with Mapping

We got mapping on there now.

Still very raw in beta, but figured we could fix it up along the way.

http://tinyurl.com/franklymlsMap

SOLD ALERTS!!

Finally!
We have Sold alerts. If you have saved a favorite home and it goes under contract... we will email you the day that it is recorded as closed on the MLS. We will even show you the seller subsidy price.

Also if you save a search such as : Arlington Bank, it will email you all homes that sell in that search criteria.

Frank

Wiki Contributors: 100 points & Branding Steps

This is for the buyer agents out there (from any company) that are FranklyMLS.com Wiki Contributors (adding photos and comments to listings).

You get 100 bonus points when you link from your blog or website back to YOUR reviewed homes on FranklyMLS.com .

Usually agents will put "My Reviewed Homes on FranklyMLS.com" (but not in red)

How to get the right link to get the 100 points (and for buyers to see each home you have visited):
1) Go to the front page of FranklyMLS.com and click on the number by your name (not in the top 10, click on "All Contributors").
2) Copy that URL. It should look like this:
http://franklymls.com/default.aspx?m=R&h=ALL&s=100014&a=USERNAME
3) Paste it in your website around the words "My Reviewed Homes on FranklyMLS.com"
4) Email me for your 100 points.

(Optional note, add the &a=USERNAME to insure that your cookie is added to every visitor, so your ad follows them)

Don't forget to put your IDX in your email signatures:

Search the MLS: www.franklymls.com/Username

Other tips:
When you review a neighborhood in a blog, consider linking to all active homes in that area. (Matrix links don't last forever, FranklyMLS.com links do). Make that link have your branded IDX. Like this:
Link name: See all Actives in "Old Dominion Gardens" for sale
Link URL: http://franklymls.com/default.aspx?m=R&h=ALL&s=%22OLD+DOMINION+GARDENS%22&a=JohnDoe

Also add shortcut Favorite links like I have done on blog.FranklyRealty.com (I did it without my branded IDX, but you should add your &a=JohnDoe to the URL)

• - Arlington Condos to $700k
• - Alexandria Foreclosure to $500k
• - McLean "Motivated Seller" All $
• - Falls Church (Sort:List$/LastSold)

Did I miss anything?

Frank

Easier Links to Google

Many homebuyers like to Google the MLS # and Google the street name to see if there is more information on a home. Now we make it easier with a "g" hotlink next to the address and MLS#.

What do you all think? Anybody using this? I got the idea from a user.

Frank

Sort by Total Views

Now the spreadsheet mode will show the # of views each home has. And you can sort by the # of views to see which homes have been seen by the most viewers.

What do you think about this? Should I keep it? Drop it? Replace it with # of saved listings?

Frank

Fairfax now has a Direct Link to Tax Data

Now all the Fairfax listings will link directly to the government's tax data. That way you can get the 2009 tax assessments and owner information in 1 click.

Soon the other counties will follow.

Nobody offers this. ;-) Yet another FranklyMLS.com first.

Frank

Hide a Listing, Click the X

Now you can click on the "x" when using the spreadsheet mode. This will hide that listing forever. No more needing to see that annoying anomaly that keeps coming up in your searches.

I got this idea from Match.com when I was on a few years ago. It was great to click the X and never see certain people every again.

Also you can UNHIDE the listings by clicking on the Unhide Listing button (it only appears after you hide one listing). For now it will bring back ALL the hidden listings. If enough people use this, we can let you un-hide them one by one.

Frank

Now with FSBO Data!

FranklyMLS.com now publishes FSBO data from ForSaleByOwner.com .

The data is integrated into the regular results.

If you want to see JUST see FSBO results, then try a keyword search for: FSBO Arlington.

What do you think?

Frank

Just added WalkScore

Just added WalkScore to each listing.

I hope to integrate this data more including letting you search for homes that are above a certain score that you are looking for.

Thoughts?

Frank

Email Listing Agents

So now you can email the listing agent directly from the listing.

DO NOT EMAIL THE LISTING AGENT AN INFORMAL OFFER!

This is in beta mode and will be removed if people abuse it. (which I am close to doing).

I strongly recommend AGAINST EVER contacting the listing agent, (Yes I know it is counterintuitive, read this).

But I offer it anyhow. Why? Because I want to make the site as open as possible. If a buyer wants to shoot himself in the foot... I wannna be the one giving them the crossbow.

Since I respect email addresses, Unlike MRIS which helps promote spam, all emails are hidden from not only the html, but also the actual email that is sent will hide the agent's email in the BCC (otherwise spam cultivators can click 100 pages and grab all the "to" emails).

I do get a BCC of the emails to make sure you all don't abuse it.

Here are some recent dumb questions.

1) "Would it be possible to schedule a viewing of the home?"

This was asked to a listing agent for an REO that just hit today. Yeah right, they don't reply to buyer agents, so why they gonna reply to you. And no, they don't even care enough to put more than 1 photo, they aren't going to email you back.

2) "can you send more info about this property like floor plans, options, closing cost assistance"

Um, no. They won't. If they had that info and they cared, they would have put it in the listing. Do not expect a reply.

3) "What is the status of the home? Is it under contract or still available."

What part of the remarks did not make sense that said "Bank has already accepted offer".

4) "I think we'd like to take a look at this property. Could you email me a plat, and any other photos, particularly of the barn, run-in, and fence? Any interior photos would be great, too. I'll check your website to see if any are there. We are seeing a place on Saturday already... maybe Sunday, or coming week?"

You maybe had them until you said "We are seeing a place on Saturday already". That usually means "I have a buyers agent". To which the listing agent will reply "why you bugging me, get your agent to show you."

5) "I would be interested in seeing this property. Please reply to my email address."

That is the buyer agents job. This will tick off the listing agent.

6) "My fiance and I were interested in taking a look at this house this weekend. We are relocating to the DC area this spring. Would we be able to look at it on Sunday morning?"

This is a bank property. You will not get a reply. Also it says "BANK HAS VERBALLY APPROVED ON LISTING PRICE," Was that not clear? Come on people. I really need to remove this feature.

7) "I am interested in this home.We need to sell the home we have now first. "

Translation: "I am a sucker." And yes, that was the entire email.

8) "Just wanted to let you know that the list price for LO6969184 most assuredly was inadvertantly entered with an extra zero. You may want to update MLS with the correct information. It is currently listed at $4,499,000."

Finally! A decent email to a listing agent.

9) "I'm interested in a rent-to-own situation. What terms is the seller considering? "

Rent to Own is for suckers, any good buyer agent would tell you that. They do not exist. It should be called... why don't you just rent and buy next year?

10) "Hello! Is this listing still available? You can either email me at the above address or call 410.5555550. Thanks so much!"

What part of "Under Contract" was not clear?


11) "We are working with a realtor- Is this home completed? Are there photos of the completed home?"

ASK YOUR REALTOR, NOT THE LISTING AGENT!

12) "Do you think that in the near future you will submit more than the six pictures. It is impossible to get an idea of what this lovely home has to offer with so few photos on a 21000 sq ft home. Can we get more soon..Please!!! I have an agent but I saw this online. "

NO! If the agent is so lazy as to only take 6 photos, AND you have your own agent... can you say DELETE.

13) "Interested in viewing X AAAAAA Ct in XXX. Will be in Area Saturday Jan 31st. Can I set up an appt? "

This is REO, you will not get a reply.

14) "I am very interested in this house based on it's description and curb appeal. Is there any way you could email me pictures of the inside of the house, so I can decide if I'd like to take a closer look? "

Yeah right. 80 days on the market. They have only 1 photo... yet that sucky agent is going to somehow take photos for you? Yeah right.

15) "Hi i am a first time buyer. i was wondering if you have already sold this house an if not what i can do to see about purchasing "

Ouch. Can you can the wolf and little red riding hood?

16) "What is the absolute minimum the sellers would consider? "

NO NEGOTIATIONS ARE ALLOWED through this!

17) "iss it possible to get pics aand more info. on this prop......condition,.... "

no

18) "Hello i stay 5 min away and i am looking for a new house please call me i would love to see this house thank you for your time. "

Home was under contract.

19) "I came across this listing and wanted to ensure that it was in fact off the market. If not, I would appreciate a call / email back as I would like to get more details. I am in the market and would be willing to move quickly should it be available and meet my requirements. "

Again, a question for a buyer agent.


So there you have it. These were not cherry picked, just everyday questions.

So should I turn off this feature? Or make it harder to click?

Frank

Faster Cell Mode

While people loved searching from www.franklymls.com/cell (it gets routed there automatically if you go to franklymls.com on your cell phone) it was still a little bloated when they got to the full listing page.

So now... each listing has been slimmed down to the bare essentials. Faster loading for cell users.

Let me know if you want me to reorder things.

Frank

Now with Minimum Pricing.

So I was stubborn for a year. Not allowing people to search with a minimum price. WHy? The idea was the site was so fast that you just stopped looking once you found what you liked. I had one buyer that bought $70k UNDER his minimum price. A random bank property (mispriced) hit and that was that.

But without minimums, the sorting can get messy. (ie if there are 100 homes and you sort by year built, you might get junk up top).

So now we have old fashioned Min and Max. It will cookie what you select, so you won't have to do it each time

So let me know what you think.

Frank

Request More Photos. (Per Listing & Bonus Points)

So the Wiki MLS has added over 50,000 photos to our local MLS from buyer agents (an alternative perspective). Up until now the photos were taken by buyer agents that were already out with their clients. The idea being, "Why not share the photos with the world after the buyer decides they are not interested?" and pick up some points along the way.

Well now, a buyers on the site can specifically request photos of a particular listing.

If it works out, I might create a page that lists all the requests and the contributors can try and fulfill them. Maybe even for an extra 10 points or something.

This idea was in part from Simon Hahn, our newest rising star contributor.

Frank

Live Chat

Just added a new feature. LIVE CHAT (in VA DC MD)

I had the top WIKI contributors sent me code that would work with their current GTALK or AOLIM chat programs. Now a user will see a "LIVE CHAT" link at the top of each listing page and be able to ask 1 of 10-15 agents questions about the listing they are looking at.

Let's see if anybody uses it!

Update 1-28-09: This has been a smashing hit. 20 Realtors have signed up.

Frank

More on How to use live chat and instant messenger

Tag A Hood! Now Added to the Wiki MLS.

Just launched minutes ago. Tag A Hood (tm)

Now Realtors that have written great "hyper-local" blog posts can attach those to listings.

Using our "Tag A Hood" system, you can add your specific blog post to any listing, and it will automatically attach itself to other listings in that subdivision (ie building or neighborhood).

The points are the same as the Wiki Photo albums. 1 point for a comment, and 4 points (was 10) to link to a full blog post (with photos etc).

I recommend either making a short summary of your post, or just teasing the reader with the first paragraph and encouraging them to click the link.

This will be unmatched SEO link juice for your blog post. So not only will you get traffic from FranklyMLS.com visitors, your Google ranking will rise. Try it, and give me feedback.

Frank

Creator FranklyMLS.com

Frankly MLS

Photo by Peter

Frankly MLS New Blog, New Features

So this forum will be a more frequent update on new features for FranklyMLS.com and a request for feedback.

Feel free to leave questions and suggestions at anytime on any blog post.

Frank Borges LL0SA
Owner FranklyMLS.com
FranklyRealty.com Broker