Posts Tagged Minnesota MLS
Weeding Out the Junk Listings On the MN MLS
Maybe I am skeptic (of you could maybe even call me a cynic), I have learned over the years to take everything that I see on the Minnesota MLS with a cautious optimism. I am forever surprised at how many times an agent either through incompetency, error, or maybe a little snake oil has incorrect information in the system. Just like any computer database, it is garbage in and garbage out. The problem is when my customer and I take time out of our day, drive across town only to see a piece of junk that the agent put on the MLS incorrectly.
I have seen 3 bedroom homes that were really 1 bedrooms when you get out there. I have seen homes that were listed 1000 square feet larger than they really are. Agents are notorious for omitting an obvious problem with the house such as the when the previous owner started a remodel by removing all the interior walls, but never finishing it. Or how about the time that I literally drove to an address and was looking for the house on the MLS picture and I only found a vacant lot where the house used to stand!
So how do you catch these junk listings and mistakes on the MLS in Minnesota so that you don’t waste your time looking at them? Here are just some thoughts:
- When you get interested in a property, ask your agent to send you the agent view of the listing. This gives you a few more bits of information that frankly I think are critical such as time on market, starting sale price. These 2 items can help you. If a property has been on the market 360 days and only dropped $5k, there must be an issue. Also, these agent views will also give you the remarks that are meant for agents. Often they will contain valuable facts (instead of the sales fluff in the public remarks), such as no basement, remodeled started, code compliance to be completed by buyer, etc. Many of these facts would make you eliminate that house from your list.
- If there are pictures of the home on the MN MLS, do your best to look at them with a skeptical eye. Put your CSI hat on and look for damaged walls, short ceiling heights, small rooms, bad roofs. If you concentrate of finding the problems, you will get good at noticing imperfections in the pictures that tell you a lot about the home. I looked at the picture of the 2nd floor of a 1.5 story home in Minneapolis. I noticed the angle of the camera shot to the angle of the ceiling. I thought that either the photographer was 6’5″ tall or the ceiling height was less than 6’10″ (which will disqualify that space from being used as a bedroom). Sure enough, the ceiling height was about 6’9″.
- Multi-family listings are probably the most error prone MLS listings I have seen. Most Minnesota Realtors don’t appear to understand how to enter the data correctly for number of units, number of bedrooms, and expenses. I will often see a duplex listed as 1 unit having 6 bedrooms (they meant to have 2 units with 3 bedrooms each). Listing agents will often not understand how to put expenses down on the MLS. They will often include costs that the tenants pay (which as a landlord, I don’t care about in my financial analysis). When looking at these properties, I recommend that you use your own estimates for an initial review and then follow those up with hard copies of bills and calls the the utility companies to verify costs (do this once you get an accepted offer during your inspection period).
While the Minnesota MLS is absolutely the best tool out there to use to find a home, you need to watch out for the frequent errors and omissions that can frustrate you.
Tips to Using the MN MLS to Buy a Foreclosure
Foreclosure are all the talk right now. Regardless if you are an investor or owner occupant, everyone wants to get that good deal and they think it comes from buying a foreclosed home. They are probably right, but there are lots of gotchas when buying them. Here are some tips on how you can use the Minnesota MLS to catch potentials issues with a home before you drive out and see it.
- Although some listing agents only put one picture of the home on the MLS, any photos can give you some information. Here are some things to look for:
- How does the roof look in the pictures? Is it really old? Is the color look like it is from the 1970s?
- If there are interior pictures, notice the decor. Is the carpet from the 1970s? If so, this may mean that not much on the house has been updated. Are you looking for this type of rehab?
- If the interior pictures show the bedrooms, can you tell if they are in the basement? If so, do they have egress windows?
- If there are pictures of the finished attic and/or basement, notice the angle of the camera to the ceiling. If the person taking the picture is 6’ or under the ceiling should be high above. If it looks close, it may be a low ceiling.
- The MLS listing should say what type of basement the house has. While most houses built after 1960 have full basements, I have gone out to several houses built in the 1950s or earlier only to find that they have no basement or simply a 8’x8’ room in the basement and everything else is crawlspace. While this may not be a deal killer for you, it could explain why a home is cheaper than it seems it should be on paper.
- Review the square footage of the home and compare it to how many bedrooms it has. Unfortunately, real estate agents will often simply copy the listing details from the previous listing. They do not recheck the square footage or bedrooms sizes. I have found that most square footage entries on the MLS in Minnesota are incorrect.
- If you can see any outlets or plumbing faucets in the pictures, have those been updated? This may give you some indication of how old the facilities are.
- Compare what the MLS details say for the heating source compared to what you would expect for a home in that particular area and age. A home in the City of Minneapolis that says electric heat could mean that someone did a bad remodel in the past and removed lots of the character (these houses would normally have cast iron radiators, which are much more authentic).
Doing some investigative work based upon the MLS MN details can save you from being disappointed by details that were omitted about a house that on the internet looks like a great deal.
New Contingency Field Added to Northstar MLS
The Minnesota MLS has taken another step forward to make it easier to find out if there is any offers in on short sale homes by adding a new field. Read the press release below.
Last year, BookAShowing added a Contingency field so that you could indicate when any of your Active listings had an offer accepted subject to a contingency. That field is now maintained within NorthstarMLS.
- BookAShowing has shut off input of the Contingency field within their system.
- The Contingency field is now available for add/edit within Home Base. If you have add/edit permissions, you will find the field in the “Listing” section right before List Price.
- The Contingency field is available on Northstar MLS Matrix for search and shown on displays (including the Customer Portal for your clients). If there is a Contingency, it will display on a line below Status (full and short displays). On the Single Line displays, there is a new column to the right of Status labeled “C” for Contingency. It is filled with either N (No) or Y (Yes) to indicate whether or not there is a Contingency. The Contingency field has not yet been added to the Print Reports, however we expect that to be completed by the end of the week.
- You will no longer enter Contingencies into BookAShowing. You will enter them in Home Base, and your listing on BookAShowing will automatically update.
- BookAShowing provided us a data feed of all Contingency settings for NorthstarMLS listings within their system. We automatically populated those Contingency settings on NorthstarMLS so that you don’t have to go in and reset them.
- The Contingency field on MN MLS has the same options as on BookAShowing: Inspection, Sale of Another Property, Third Party Approval and Other. It is a required field. The selection will default to “None” when you enter a new listing. Whenever you have a contingency on one of your listings, you are required to edit the listing to reflect that contingency within 24 hours of accepting the offer with contingency.
- The Contingency Notes field is still be available for input within BookAShowing. If you want to add notes on the Contingency within NorthstarMLS, enter them in Agent Remarks.
Twin Cities Real Estate Market Update
This information is courtesy of the Minneapolis Association of Realtors for the week ending 5/1/2010. Much of this information is compiled from the MLS MN.
As the weather warms and the end of the federal government tax credit winds down everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what the real estate market will bring us. Some experts are predicting that the market will tank, others are saying it will be solid. What is really going to happen is anyone’s guess at this point. Let’s review some stats for last week.
New listings last week were down both week over week and year over year. The number of new listings hitting the market is below 2000 for the first time since February. Although I would like to say this signals something, with only 1 week of data, it doesn’t make a trend. We will continue to monitor.
Pending sales were up dramatically both year over year and from the previous week by over 30%. I suspect much of this can be attributed to home buyers rushing to capture the federal tax credit prior to expiration (which was April 30). The number of pending sales was the highest in 2010 and almost double that of February. The number (1469) is actually the highest we have seen since April 2005.
Active listings for sale have remained relatively constant since April 1, but have increased by almost 20% since the first of the year. We are hovering around the average for the last couple years. The increase is mostly seasonal adjustments coming out of the winter.
Days on market until sale continue to fall and have been falling since 2008. We are now down to 127 days on the market for April 2010, which is a 15.3% decrease year over year for that same week.
Pricing your home for sale at the correct price is crucial to getting it sold. But, even when you do price it correctly, buyers will often make lower offers if they sense they are in a buyer’s market. Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale has rebounded slightly after a dip this winter. We are currently averaging around 93%.
Currently there are 5.69 house per buyer in the market. This is called the supply demand ratio. We have seen it as high as 12, but May was close to the low of 4.39 in April. Months of supply of homes is also an idicator of the health of the real estate market. From a high of 11 months of inventory in the summer of 2008 to a low of 5 months in January 2010, we have increase slightly as banks are releasing new properties onto the market, faster than they can be absorbed.
Much of this real estate market data was compiled from the Minnesota MLS.
Minnesota MLS Changes Away From Security Tokens
Less than one year after the Northstar MLS implemented security tokens for authentication into their MLS system, they have returned to simple passwords. As it turns out, the somewhat temporary change did it’s job. According to NorthstarMLS management the tighter security revealed the following issues:
- Almost 150 licensed agents were accessing the MN MLS without paying for a membership fee.
- Multiple government agencies (including tax assessors offices) were accessing the MLS for data.
- Since the change, appraiser membership has risen dramatically, showing that these professionals were also using someone else’s MLS code to access the data.
This change is a welcome reprieve for many agents that were frustrated over the use of the tokens and additional security. As it turns out, the new password system actually has more security than it appears on the surface. The MLS staff feel like this new technology is on par with the previous tokens. By using multiple authentication methods such as IP Address tracking, key stroke monitoring and usage patterns, they expect that they will be able to spot abuse easily.
Maximizing Your MLS Search
As you are probably seeing, there are so many different sites to use to search the MN MLS. Not only does just about every Minnesota Realtor have an MLS search function on their site, but you can also use national sites such as Trulia, Yahoo and Zillow just to name a few. So how do you make sure you are not only getting the most up to date information, but also seeing every home that may fit your MLS search?
- Use a local Realtor’s website to search the MLS in Minnesota. Most of the national sites get a data feed from the Northstar MLS each night and therefore that information can be up to 24 hours old on their sites. Most of the local real estate agents use company that has a direct connection to the live MLS system or at the very least, they update their database hourly. You don’t want to miss a house because of out of date data.
- When you set up your search, put in parameters that are slightly beyond what you are exactly looking for. For example, if you are looking to spend up to $200,000 on an Eden Prairie home, put $210k in the system as your maximum price and . This will will do several things for you. You will be able to see properties that are maybe overpriced (at $210k) and watch them come into your price range. Alternatively, maybe the seller is desperate and just needs an offer and you could get the house for $200k.
- Consider searching the cities immediately around your target area. By searching a slightly larger geographic you may find a home that is perfect for you across the street from your target neighborhood. If schools are a concern, remember that most districts allow open enrollment and you could get your child into that preferred school district even though you live in another town.
- Unfortunately, the Minnesota MLS is not a perfect system. Many real estate agents do not enter their listings properly. It is very common to go out and look at a 3 bedroom house only to find it is actually a 2 bedroom home or even a 4 bedroom home. If you limit your search to just a certain number of bedrooms, you may overlook a property that either was input wrong into the MLS MN or is possibly could be converted to suit your needs.
These are just a couple quick examples of how to search the Minnesota MLS and get the most of your results.
Tax Software Delaying MLS MN Tax Updates
As reported in Sunday’s Star Tribune, 28 Minnesota Counties continue to struggle with a new computer and software system installed to handle annual property tax billings. Some have already dropped it and are making other arrangements. Of the 28 counties, at least 10 provide us with annual tax updates: Aitkin, Carver, Cass, Isanti, Ramsey, Rice, Scott, Stearns, Washington and Wright.
The first priority of these counties is to straighten out their technical problems and complete their annual tax billing. As a result, their ability to provide the MLS with annual tax data updates for Minnesota MLS will continue to be delayed. Unfortunately, they do not have a delivery date, but the MLS staff is in contact with them and getting updates when they can.
If you are interested in more information, click here for the Star Tribune article.
Northstar MLS Outage on Tuesday Morning
From the Minnesota MLS System:
NorthstarMLS Matrix was unavailable to users Tuesday morning until approximately 10:30 a.m. According to Tarasoft (the Matrix vendor), several things happened at the same time to cause the outage. Most was hardware-related, but there was also a 20-fold increase in network traffic that exacerbated the problem. As soon as the outage occurred, Tarasoft and its hosting facility dedicated staff to diagnosing and resolving the problem as quickly as possible.
We understand that the MN MLS is critical to your business and 24/7 availability is crucial. Since launching Matrix for NorthstarMLS users in 2004, unplanned down time resulting from technical problems on Tarasoft’s side have been extremely rare. They are an excellent business partner and provide one of the best MLS systems in North America. Tarasoft plans to soon migrate Northstar MLS to all new hardware, greatly improving their ability to quickly diagnose and resolve any future problems.
During the Matrix outage, both Home Base and our backup system, NorthstarMLS REsearch were available for entering, editing, and searching listings. If you are not already familiar with NorthstarMLS REsearch, we encourage you to log on (from www.northstarmls.com) and familiarize yourself with the interface. We understand that WEBForms and BookAShowing were also unavailable during the Matrix outage. We will work on other secure access for those systems outside of Matrix.
Again, we are sorry for this morning’s disruption and appreciate your understanding as we work with all our vendors to improve system reliability and customer service.
Minnesota MLS Removing MLS Areas Field by Early 2011
From the Northstar MLS system.
Municipalities and Townships: NorthstarMLS has changed its rule so that if you list a property that is located in a Township, you now have the option to select the Postal City for the Municipality field (instead of the Township). You may do this for future listings and for existing Active listings (using the Edit function in Home Base). This option is available only for those properties located in a Township.
There are over 700 Townships in Minnesota. Most of them are not known by the public, even in the areas around the Townships. They are more commonly grouped with the nearest town/city which is usually also the mailing address. These Township properties can now be more easily found by and for potential buyers, giving them more selection. The Township name will continue to be reflected on the Tax record (available by clicking the PID Number).
MLS Areas to be Discontinued: The Minnesota MLS Area field will be phased out of NorthstarMLS by early 2011. Reasons for this decision include:
- MLS Areas were developed many years ago for a form of newspaper listing that no longer exists.
- Boundaries are mostly subjective. As areas have developed over the years, many boundaries have come into contention with no clear consensus on where new boundaries should be drawn. Even if new boundaries are drawn, they will likely change again over time.
- Changing MLS Area boundaries is difficult. Besides gaining consensus, there is system reprogramming, reclassification of existing listings and redo/printing of maps (including some broker/agent Web sites).
- Many listings (over 1,000 per month) are routinely entered into the wrong MN MLS Area in an attempt to improve the listing’s exposure. This requires a great deal of staff resource time to respond to complaints from other agents who object to incorrect location information.
- Consumers have no knowledge of MLS Areas beyond what their agent tells them.
- NorthstarMLS provides many alternative search tools, particularly Map Search which allows you to define a very specific search area for your client’s needs.
- NorthstarMLS mapping is extremely accurate. With three to four thousand new listings entered per week, only a handful (less than half a percent) report mapping problems which are quickly corrected. Agents even have a utility in Home Base where they can easily correct the map on their listing if needed (select “Map By MLS#” from the Home Base main menu).
Many of you still routinely search based on MLS Area. We are giving months of advance notice to give you time to become accustomed to other search methods. Throughout this transition, we will soon offer online videos on how to do Map Searches. If you have never used this tool, we think you will find it extremely useful. You can also continue to search by Municipality, Postal City, School District and ZIP Code.
MN MLS Tokenless Switchover to Start this Week
From the Northstar MLS Site, April 5, 2010.
Starting this week, we will ask MN MLS users to switch over to the new tokenless SafeMLS login system. The first thing you will notice is that there will be a new Tokenless login section on the Login screen (in addition to the existing login with PIN and token password). Both will be available until we have everyone switched over to Tokenless.
At the start of the week, we will switch over MLS and Association staff to ensure there are no issues. Then NorthstarMLS users will start switching. Because switchovers to the new tokenless security system require a set amount of server resources, the process needs to be managed gradually over several weeks. As a result, you cannot choose when you want to switch. The system will automatically prompt you to make the switch when there is room on the enrollment server at the time you log in. We understand everyone is anxious to make the change, so we appreciate your patience with this process.
When you are prompted to switchover, you will follow two quick steps. The first is to enter new answers to your 3 secret questions (birth city, birth year and mother’s middle name). You will be newly answering these, so they do not have to match your responses from your token enrollment last year. Second, you will enter your new MLS Minnesota password that you create. Your new password must be at least 8 characters, include both letters and at least one number, and no number or letter may be repeated more than three times in a row.
After you enroll, you will log on to NorthstarMLS systems using the Tokenless section of the login screen, entering your user ID and new password. You will no longer need your token, you will no longer enter a PIN, and your password will remain the same until you choose to change it. Also after enrollment, your SafeMLS token will automatically be deactivated. Because your token has a battery in it, we encourage you to return it to your Association for recycling and not throw it in the trash.