PROView - May 2008 - (Page 14) MLS Update Simplifying the Search for Subdivisions by Jan Dean, Director of Information Services We rely on our members to bring important concerns to our attention so that we can take any necessary action and in many cases, educate our members on appropriate MLS practices. The receipt of such an email the other day prompted me to write this month’s update. The subject of the email was the often-seen difficulty to search by the name of a subdivision. The sender of the email stated that she was having problems finding all available properties within a certain downtown St. Petersburg subdivision. Referred to as the Beacon on 3rd St., The condo (unrec.) by both the Pinellas County Appraiser and listed as such in Realist, these properties are located at 470 3rd Street in St. Petersburg. During a recent search in TEMPO, properties at the address listed different subdivisions – making it rather challenging to find all properties of interest. In addition to the correct subdivision mentioned earlier, other examples included The Beacon on “Third” and “Beacon/Condo”. On the first page of the add-listing process, the field named public record lookup allows you to have TEMPO enter the correct tax ID, legal description, subdivision name and number, owner name, year built and taxes. This occurs if you have correctly entered the property address on that page. Besides saving time and effort, it also ensures that the subdivision name and number are entered correctly and consistently. And consistency helps when searching for properties based on either subdivision name and/ or number. You can still fill out that information on the MLS Profile Sheet; just allow the system to enter it for you during the add-listing process. The agent who contacted us with her concerns said she also plans to search by subdivision number (a search that I highly recommend since that field tends to be consistent), so I mentioned that the new TEMPO 5 system will allow her to set up her own one-line results page and she can add the subdivision field name or subdivision number to that report. Since TEMPO 5 allows her to sort by any column added, if she uses multiple subdivision numbers for her search, she will then be able to sort by those different subdivision numbers. This is just one example of using the TEMPO system to make your life a little easier. Please pass the importance of consistency on to your fellow brokers and agents. And thanks to the agent who submitted the question – you have helped educate all our members and improve our system. consistency helps when searching for properties based on either subdivision name and/or number The agent was interested in seeing if the TEMPO system could provide a table edited feature that would require that the agent pick from a list when entering a subdivision – an excellent thought and suggestion. Unfortunately, though, with the large number of new subdivisions – or condo conversions that might require a new subdivision number and name – it would be very difficult to keep up with the changes from the county. I told her that the good news is that the problem could be dramatically reduced if an agent allowed TEMPO to automatically populate the tax information when adding a listing. For those of you who add your own listings into TEMPO, you probably know about this feature. 14 PINELLAS REALTOR® ORGANIZATION May 2008
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