The announcement followed an earlier statement from NAR declaring DocuSign the official and exclusive ESIGN provider for their 1.1 million REALTOR Benefits® Program member, late last year.
DocuSign Realtor Edition's enhancements and features include special NAR member-only branded signature and templates, an online dashboard, mobile signing, workflow optimization, and integration with real estate tools.
In this video from WRTV-ABC's Channel 6 broadcast news, learn some handy tips that won't break your budget to sell a home. Curbside appeal is #1 in attracting the customer, while upgrades and renovations in the kitchen and bathrooms will help seal the deal once a buyer's inside.
Interviewer: Today were talking with Ed Hardey from Integrity Real Estate Group. He's the Vice Chair for the Metrolist Board and Chair for Metrolist Rules and Regulations. Ed, welcome to the show.
Ed Hardey: Thanks for having me.
Interviewer: We wanna talk a little bit about support services and online marketing. Every agent pretty much these days is involved in online marketing and, of course, they probably need a little help from Metrolist, is that right?
Ed Hardey: Yeah thats right. Thats obviously a big issue in one of the services we provide. So a broker can have their listings go out to places like in IDX feeds, RE Colorado, realtor.com, as well as things through ListHub, which is over 35 sites, okay, you can have your homes go to.
Interviewer: So I dont have a personal website or a realtor has a personal website and they can call Metrolist and say, Id like to have my listings displayed on my website and you sign it, what they call, an IDX agreement, correct?
Ed Hardey: Correct.
Interviewer: Charge for that is?
Ed Hardey: As of March 1st itll be zero; that will be included in the fees for Metrolist.
Interviewer: Flat fee for Metrolist? Okay, and of course, you got to have some type of third party display those listings on your website, whoever that may be, whoever you choose to do that, but theyll work in conjunction with Metrolist to get the data, is that correct?
Ed Hardey: Correct. You get to choose your own vendor, but we provide the data and we update that daily and so thats one of the big pluses for Broker.
Interviewer: Now here is something interesting that I found out, which was, I went back to my third party provider, and I wanted to start displaying new contracts and solds, and they are not equipped yet to do that. When I asked them why, they said because the majority of Metrolist boards, or majority of MLSs across the country, dont provide the feed.
Ed Hardey: You know one of the things...its true, one of the things that we do is we give brokers a choice, including your membership fee, is the professional product that includes active listings. Some people wanted more, under contracts and solds, so we provide that, that is the fee, but a lot of brokers dont take advantage of that and it depends on the broker's individual marketing, what they want to do.
Interviewer: Thats kudos to you and the board, because clearly from talking to the third party provider who works with MLSs all across the country, youre way ahead of the curve because they dont have enough participating MLSs to launch their product.
Ed Hardey: Yeah, in talking about that and making that decision quite a while ago, we saw the data was available regardless whether we provided or someone else, so lets get it right, now let's give our members that option.
Interviewer: Right, now you mentioned some other listings, syndications and distributions. Tell me more about these.
Ed Hardey: Well, probably the biggest one is ListHub, and that allows any broker to, at no charge, distribute the properties to 35 different websites, no additional effort. They can even choose which ones they want, if they only want some of those. One of those websites thats brand new is our exclusive agreement with DenverPost.com. Were pretty excited about; were the only ones that can do that.
Interviewer: Yeah, and now people can go to the classified sections online at Denver Post and search for homes and get the, a lot of the same information.
Ed Hardey: Yeah, theyll get that information, but theyll get it right and the broker gets the credit for their home sale.
Interviewer: And theres two websites that are also really important, that I know a lot of people that are included in, that is...
Ed Hardey: One of them is realtor.com, largest in the country for that. The other ones RE Colorado, which is Metrolists consumer site, and thats the largest in Colorado.
Interviewer: Yeah, its good stuff, you guys are doing a great job, thanks Ed.
Interviewer: Today were talking with Ed Hardey from Integrity Real Estate Group. He is the Vice Chair of the Metrolist Board and Chair for Metrolist Rules and Regulations. Ed, welcome to the show.
Ed Hardey: Thanks for having me.
Interviewer: Well, weve got some exciting news, you know, coming up here. Metrolist is going to go to a flat fee pricing for their brokers, correct?
Ed Hardey: Its correct, its something, its what the brokers had asked for, for a long time, and so were trying to be responsive and offer a predictable service for them.
Interviewer: Now, on the outside looking in, somebody would say, well arent you going to make less money?
Ed Hardey: You know, we honestly dont know, we budgeted to be revenue neutral.
Interviewer: Okay.
Ed Hardey: So just depending on the market situation.
Interviewer: So Metrolist can afford to go ahead and take this chance?
Ed Hardey: Correct, we booked a lot of members for that.
Interviewer: All right now what am I going to see or how is it going to be billed, tell me little bit about how its going to work.
Ed Hardey: Well the billing will be similar to which you have now. It could be through your broker, it could be through a direct bill, but its going to include most of the things that brokers use: that would be your searching, things like ListHub, contracts, they have Instanet, most of the service that you see today that you use, including even IDX professional, are going to be on that system.
Interviewer: And so, I was going to ask you about, because I, like a lot of brokers, have my own personal website. Ive got an IDX feed, people can search for listings and so forth, and thats been typically a $5 extra fee to me, but you are saying this is going to be, what, included?
Ed Hardey: Its actually included, but not only that, but you have two sites that are included with the IDX professional, and so that includes IDX professional, includes things like all your active listings, up to 10 photos, and its updated daily.
Interviewer: Okay, now here is the question for you, I wanted to know. Is it going to include refresh listings?
Ed Hardey: It will include anything thats active on the market.
Interviewer: Okay, but if I refresh a listing, you normally, thats a $10 charge. Thats probably not going to be included, I would assume?
Ed Hardey: Okay, on the actual fee there is a couple of things that arent, so if you want to use refresh you can, but you will be paying for that.
Interviewer: Okay.
Ed Hardey: Additionally things like ghost listing.
Interviewer: Right.
Ed Hardey: Youd also pay for that, just like you do today.
Interviewer: Talk a little bit more about the decision process and how you guys came around to this. I mean, obviously brokers said, I want a flat fee pricing, but there had to be more to it than that.
Ed Hardey: Well there is, theres you know, we get a lot of feedback from brokers, some looking for flat fee, some not wanting that.
Interviewer: Okay.
Ed Hardey: So youre trying to juggle and trying to what's best for the majority of members. Flat fee weve looked at it for a number of years, we decided, the board did, in December, to make that change, that the time was right.
Interviewer: Okay, and from December to March, it starts March 1st, correct?
Ed Hardey: March 1st, thats right.
Interviewer: And is there a certain amount of time you need there to get some billing things in place or whatever?
Ed Hardey: Well, we wanted to change the billing, but also just as far as the market cycle, to make sure that it was a smooth transition, that everyone was aware of it, and there were no surprises.
Interviewer: Right and so, in a case like me, Im going to call Metrolist, give them my credit card number. Im already on a direct bill pay. I dont pay through my broker and theyre going to keep that on file and theyre going to hit my credit card once a month.
Ed Hardey: Correct and just like they would do today so if you are, do you pay your bills directly?
Interviewer: Yeah.
Ed Hardey: Continue doing that, if you pay them through your broker, then continue doing that as well.
Interviewer: Thats going to be great for me because I normally rack up more than $38 in fees.
Spring can be a challenging time of year for real estate agents. The leftover winter--brown lawns, leafless trees and not much color to be seen--can make it harder for a property to "stand out" on the curb.
Carla Davis, Managing Editor for the Online Edition of Realty Times, offers five tips to freshen up the bleak landscape, improve your curb appeal, and increase the property value of the home you're selling as well as the overall values of the neighborhood in which it lies.
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