Table of Contents

MLS Step-by-Step appears as a column each month in the The Informer newsletter.

Getting a Snapshot of the Market (March 2003)

You can print several different market reports in the MLS. The key point to remember is that you must do your search first. Here's an example:

1. Go to Property Search.
2. Select "Sold," "Residential" for dates 1/1/03 to 3/1/03.
3. Click the Search button.
4. Go to the Tools menu, select Reports, then Sold Market Analysis.   This report includes total sales, average days on market, average price, and median price by area.

Since the stats are based on your search, you can customize the report by changing your search criteria.

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Expired Listings (February 2003)

What happens when a listing passes the expiration date? There are a couple of things to know:

1. For three days after the expiration date, your listing enters into the limbo of a "grace period."  During these three days, your listing will not come up in a property search or address search.  It will come up if you search by MLS number (it will show as active).  These three days give you a chance to go in and extend your listing before it shows up as expired on the system.
    
2. After the 3-day grace period has passed, your listing will show as expired.  If you've gotten an extension, you must change both of the following fields: (a) expiration date and (b) status.  You must change the status to "active" because the computer will not do it automatically when you extend your listing.

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Virtual Tours (December 2002)

You can now add virtual tours to your listings in the MLS system!

1. Contact the company that created your tour and get the Web address that points to the tour.
2. Log onto the Internet and go to Paragon (online MLS access) at http://kerrville.fnismls.com.
3. Once you’ve logged in, click the Maintain tab and click Listings right below it.  (If you get another log in screen, type in your password and click Enter.)
4. From Input & Maintenance, type in the MLS # and click Virtual Tour… in the Actions column.
5. Type in the Web address for your tour; it will be in the format http://~~~.   Click OK.

That's it! Now when someone pulls up your listing -- or even emails the listing to someone -- a virtual tour link will appear.

Note: This is another reason to become familiar with Paragon. You cannot add, view, or email virtual tours in Voyager.

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The Caravan Schedule  (September 2002)

Caravan leaves from the Board office every Tuesday at 9:00 a.m., going to a different area each week (in order by area number); residential listings within about a 5-mile radius of the Board office -- that have not been on Caravan in the past 6 months -- are included. Make sure the Caravan (Y/N) field on your listing is marked Y.

To see the schedule in Voyager:

1. From the main screen, click the Hotsheet key.
2. Select Tour Listings.
3. Change both the Date End and Date Begin boxes to the date of the Caravan.
4. Click the Hotsheet Report button.  Note: If you click Search instead, you'll get a spreadsheet, but the listings will not be in the correct order.
5. The order of the houses is shown in the Hotsheet Comments column.

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Printing a Membership Roster  (August 2002)

You can print member rosters from Voyager, with many options available. The steps below give you a standard roster similar to the one in the MLS books.

1. Go to the Tools menu.
2. Select Reports.
3. Select Membership Roster by Office.
4. In the Agent Type box at the top, double-click Realtor, Designated Realtor, and Appraiser.
5. In the Agent Status box at the bottom, click the Add All->> button.
6. Click the OK button.
7. Click the Print button on the toolbar, or go to the File menu and select Print.

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Adding Photos to Your Listings  (July 2002)

Since all residential listings in the MLS must have a photo, it may be a good time to go over a few photo tips.

1. Transfer your photos onto your computer, either from your digital camera or by scanning a regular photo.
    
2. When you are taking a digital photo or scanning a photo, be aware of the resolution you are using. Higher resolution photos are sharper but they produce larger files and they are not good for the MLS system. If you have the option, use basic quality/resolution with a picture size of 640 x 480 pixels. Voyager requires files that are 50,000 bytes (50 KB) or smaller. The online Galaxy system requires files of 32,000 bytes (32 KB) or smaller. If your file is too big, reduce it by shrinking the photo, reducing the resolution, or increasing the compression. Your digital camera or scanner should have come with some kind of software for editing the size and quality of photos; check the manual for help.
    
3. The photo files should be in JPG format.
    
4. When you're ready to add the photo, go to Input & Maintenance, open your listing, and select the Pictures tab. Click the Browse button (has "…" on it) for the first picture, navigate to the folder where you have saved your photo, select your photo, and click OK. Tip: The file size is shown next to the photo -- it must be less than 50,000. To replace a photo, just click the Browse button next to the picture you're changing and select a new one.
    
5. When you're done, click the Update button, then make sure to upload the information to the system.

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Searching Inside or Outside the City Limits  (June 2002)

1. From the home page, select "Property Search."
2. First select the class, status, price range, etc. that you want.
3. Click the General tab.
4. Click the City Limits button.
5. Double-click No for outside the city only or Yes for inside the city only.  This should add it to the box on the right.
6. Click the OK button.
7. Click the Search button.

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Online Access to the MLS  (May 2002)

What do you do if you need access to the MLS but you can't get to your regular computer to use Voyager? If you have access to a computer with an Internet connection, you can log on to the MLS system just as you would any other Web page. Go to the Web address (there's no "www"): http://kerrville.fnismls.com.

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Searching by Elementary School   (April 2002)

1. From the main screen, click Property Search.
2. Click the General tab.
3. Click the Elementary button.
4. Select the school(s) you want by clicking them, then click the Add button.
5. Click OK.
6. Click the Primary Criteria tab to finish selecting criteria.

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Searching for Water Features  (March 2002)

If you were looking for property with live water, you might decide to use the Features criteria, by following these steps:

1. Go to Property Search.
2. Click the Features tab.
3. Under the Topography category, click once on Creek, Lake, Pond, and River to highlight them.
4. Click the Close Match 1 (Or) button. Note: If you click the Include (And) button instead, you’re telling the program to find properties that have all of these features instead of any of them. This is important to remember when you’re doing searches.

That’s one way to search for water features. A better way is to remember that Water Features is one of your Keywords. Since each Keyword must be filled out by the listing agent (which is not true of the Features), you are less likely to miss properties:

1. Go to Property Search.
2. Click the Keywords button.
3. Under Water Features, click once on Creek, Lake, Pond, and River to highlight them.
4. Click the OK button.

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Finding Online Resources  (January 2002)

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When Did I Last Update Voyager 2?  (October 2001)

If you ever need to find out when you last updated your Voyager data, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Tools menu and select Options
2. Click the Communications Setup tab
3. The box labeled Sequence Number contains the date and time of your last successful update squished into one long number (note that the time may be off by an hour or so):

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Changing Fields Shown on Search Results

You can change what information is shown on the spreadsheet you get after doing a search:

1. Go to the Tools menu and select Options.
    
2. Click the Field Preferences tab.
    
3. Open the upper, left-hand box (labeled Class) and select the property class you want to modify.
    
4. Open the upper, right-hand box (labeled Results View) and select "Spreadsheet" or whichever view you want to modify.  Please note that "Hotsheet" searches and "Tour" searches generate their own spreadsheets.  To change them, select "Hotsheet" or "Tour" instead of "Spreadsheet."
    
5. The large white box at the left contains fields you can add to your spreadsheet; the box at right contains fields that have already been added.  To move fields back and forth, double-click them, or click once and use the Add and Remove buttons.
    
6. If you want the short form of information - e.g., the status code rather than the full status description - make sure that the field is in your list of fields to display (the right-hand box), then click once on it and check the box below it labeled "Use short value when displayed."
    
7. You can change the order of the fields by clicking and dragging them. 
    
8. When you have the fields set up the way you want them, click the Apply button, then click OK.

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