Compliance Corner

Thursday 04 September 2008

July 2008 Violations — New Photo Rule

MFR is serious about reducing or eliminating fines. Our warning notices are working to both increase the integrity of your MLS and to reduce fines. In July 2008, we only assessed 36 fines. Thanks for doing such a great job at keeping our MLS accurate!

The top three listing violations for July, 2008 were Tax ID, Driving Directions, and No Front Exterior Photo. Here are some quick pointers to avoid receiving warning letters for each of these violations:

Tax ID

Use the Tax Autopop feature. It accesses county tax records and automatically formats the Tax ID properly. If you use the Tax Autopop feature, you are virtually guaranteed to never receive a warning letter for an improperly formatted Tax ID.

If you decide to enter the Tax ID manually, please separate each field by a space only – no slashes or dashes. For new construction, properties being sub-divided, or condo conversion, enter the full address with unit number if applicable.

Driving Directions

Reserve this field for driving directions only. Don’t include other information that should be included in the “Public Remarks” field or the “REALTOR® Only Remarks” field. And as always, contact information should only be placed in the “REALTOR® Only Remarks” field.

No Front Exterior Photo

The first photo for each listing in MLXchange must be a front exterior photo or rendering, except in the case of two notable circumstances:

If the property is vacant land, there is, of course, no exterior to photograph. In this case, simply upload a photo of the land.

For waterfront properties, you may load a photo of the water view in the first slot. If you choose this option the second photo must be a front exterior shot.