There were four new changes at SWMLS and Flexmls in July. Please take a moment to review each.

1.  No Showings on "Coming Soon" Status
This new SWMLS rule goes into effect on July 17, 2020. Coming Soon listings will no longer have the option for ShowingTime and buyer’s agents must wait until the listing is Active until they can schedule a showing. Holding showings on a Coming Soon outside of the MLS is subject to MLS Compliance fines. An example of this would be if a Listing Agent allowed another REALTOR® to see the home before it went Active. Another example would be conducting an Open House while the listing is in Coming Soon status, since an Open House is also a type of showing. Click here to learn more about this new rule.

2.  Accepting Offer Letters Field
This new field was added in July and lets the buyer’s agent know if the seller is accepting offer letters when an offer is submitting to the listing agent. If the listing says "NO" for Accepting Offer Letters, the buyer’s agent should explain to their buyer before submitting the offer.

3.  Flood Zone Field
This new field was added in July and replaced the Flood Zone Insurance required field. When adding or editing a listing the listing agent must now select the FEMA Flood Code for that home or parcel. SWMLS is working to have the FEMA code auto-populate on a listing. Remine, the SWMLS public record and tax system, has the FEMA code on all local addresses and parcels, and can be used as a reliable source for locating the FEMA code.

4.  New Virtual Open House Terms
On July 15th, Flexmls changed and defined several Open House terms to clear up any confusion:

• Livestream Open House: a home tour is conducted "live" and in real time that is viewed remotely.
• Virtual Tour: a pre-recorded video or slide show of images.

If you have questions about these changes, please email mls@gaar.com or call 505-843-8833.