Statement about the New Tax System
Posted on 02/07/2012 by ARMLS Social Media Team | 1 Comment
Yesterday was a frustrating day for our Subscribers and around the halls of ARMLS as well. The Realist system was not available leaving ARMLS Subscribers in the dark. We understand fully that Subscribers rely on us for their livelihoods and we don’t take that responsibility lightly. While IMAPP has extended an offer to ARMLS Subscribers, we no longer have a relationship with IMAPP and IMAPP will not be coming back to ARMLS.
Realist was tested by active Subscribers who used IMAPP daily. Many are asking why we didn’t poll all ARMLS Subscribers. Simply put, the response would have been conjecture and not thorough product testing.
Secondly, the “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” adage became a mantra yesterday. IMAPP is an older system that hasn’t had any major system upgrades in 5 years.. After two major meetings with IMAPP last year, IMAPP was not interested in making the improvements we requested. The improvements were ones our Subscribers had requested through us. At that point the task force felt it prudent to look at other tax systems.
The new Realist tax system is far from perfect, but this is an opportunity to contour a tax system we truly believe is the best system for our Subscriber long term. The short term benefits might be hard to see right now, but your suggestions are helping. A lot of energy has been poured into phone calls, emails, status updates and tweets – we are watching and need your feedback to serve you the best way we can. Later today, we will release a FAQ to clear up some common questions we are receiving.
Weekly Lockbox Report 2/3
Posted on 02/03/2012 by ARMLS Social Media Team | No Comments
Click to Enlarge Map
This week, lockbox activity showed an increase of 1.58% from last week with 36,104 opens. We’ve taken zip code information from each lockbox open and calculated hot and cold spots of showing activity. The bigger and hotter the dot, the more opens for that area. Dots are placed on the center of each zip code range.
Download a list of opens by ZIP Code here.
Beyond the Expected: CASH!
Posted on 02/02/2012 by ARMLS Social Media Team | No Comments
The following is an article from the current issue of WAVE magazine, you can read WAVE here or in PDF format here.
In 2011, ARMLS Subscribers racked up the second highest sales record of the decade (100,959), second only to 2005’s housing bubble pinnacle (104,725). But would it surprise you to know that 47% of those sales were cash? Valley Buyers purchased over 47,400 single family properties with no third party financing in 2011.
The $100,000 and under price point accounted for 63% of the total cash sales, with another 24% in the $100,001-$200,000 range. Further analysis of the cash transactions shows 48% were foreclosures and 24% were short sales, accounting for a 72% dis-tressed property make up of the cash sales.
ARMLS Open House
Posted on 01/31/2012 by ARMLS Social Media Team | No Comments
Please join us on Monday, February 27 from 4:00 – 7:00pm for hors d’oeuvres, libations, music, celebratory congratulations and prizes as we observe our 30th Anniversary and honor those Subscribers who have been members of ARMLS since its founding. All Subscribers are invited! Price – FREE.
Register Now:
The ARMLS Puppets Return
Posted on 01/30/2012 by ARMLS Social Media Team | No Comments
WAVE | Amnesty Day Details
Weekly Lockbox Report 1/26
Posted on 01/27/2012 by ARMLS Social Media Team | No Comments
Click to Enlarge Map
This week, lockbox activity showed a slight increase of 3.05% from last week with 35,540 opens. We’ve taken zip code information from each lockbox open and calculated hot and cold spots of showing activity. The bigger and hotter the dot, the more opens for that area. Dots are placed on the center of each zip code range.
Download a list of opens by ZIP Code here.
ARMLS App Coming Soon
Posted on 01/23/2012 by ARMLS Social Media Team | 2 Comments
At the Past Presidents Breakfast this weekend, celebrating ARMLS’s 30th Anniversary, we announced and previewed our own mobile application. The app will be available on Android, Apple OS devices and a web version which is compatible with any Internet-enabled Smartphone. The app will be 100% free. The expected launch date is February 14 and more information will be provided soon.
Features will include:
Support Center locations on interactive maps with directions
Mobile MLS through Goomzee and flexmls Mobile
flexAlerts and news
Helpdesk call button (call enabled devices only)
ARMLS Blog reader
… and more
What is SOPA?
Posted on 01/20/2012 by ARMLS Social Media Team | 3 Comments
The Stop Online Piracy Act, also know as SOPA, is a controversial bill being debated in Congress. So how does this bill relate to real estate? The bill could have implications related to how real estate data is shared, scraped or stolen online. At ARMLS, we are watching this developing story. Earlier today, bill sponsor Lamar Smith announced a re-drafting of the bill. What are your thoughts?