midflorida mls public site (Orlando, Sarasota: real estate, apartment complex, rentals)

[d4g4m]

The MFR announced that they were developing a site for the public viewing of area RE listings. I expected to see a search link to see the actual listing that RE associates use and see, just like what the old charlotteareamls - innovia site showed to use. Instead it took months to develope their own program of something that already exists. Many RE firms have been using a similar 'map' search format. At least they are using MS Virtual Earth [maps.live.com] which is more up to date than google or yahoo. The only difference is that the MFR site allows the viewer to see the 'details' without having to register and give your name, address, phone #, e-mail address.
Search functions-
Clicking 'sarasota' on the main page gets you to a map of St. Pete to Ft. Myers [???] Entering a zip code in the 'find homes' gets you ONE detail listing. [???] Typing a 'neighborhood' sub-division name goes to a map of the southeat U.S. [???] with a pin at Sarasota. Using 'county' or 'area' is useless, same as above. So when the map appears, you have to zoom to the area you want to the '600 yards' level and do a lot of panning to zero in on the zip code/area you want to see. Getting from the home page map to the zip code/area you want needs improving.
Search - type
From previous experiences with using other sites, if you're looking for a townhouse or villa/condo you shouldn't or can't use the townhouse, condo search because many RE associates list these homes as 'single family' and will not appear on your search, so you have to use 'all types'.
Missing search items-
There is no search function for narrowing a search to parking available, if you want a house/villa with a carport/one or two car garage. This means viewing all thumnail photos and hope there is a photo of the front of the house to see what knd of 'parking' is available.
Search result statistics-
Meaningless and a waste of space
Listing details-
Great photo function but important info missing.
location-
flood zone, yes or no
Financial-
glad to see HOA fee but would also like to see a CDD yes or no, if yes - amount
annual taxes - with amendment one and re-evaluation of property value by the counties propert appraisers, any figure shown is meaningless.
Property features-
garage size [to determine is garage exists and if so, size will indicate one or two car]
rear facing - what direction
water/sewer- public? well/septic?
What does HOA fee include?
restrictions- note if community is- housing for older persons
Fuel- since 99% of our homes are electric, choice for listing associate should be A/C-heat strip or heat pump or delete this field as unnecessary.

Although the site has great photo display and uses a map search, I tend to give the site a grade of C
I suspect that the design, layout, functions and lack of info given was designed by a person who has not been in the market of buying a home snd/or didn't ask people what should be on a real estate search site form, otherwise there would be a lot more info given. I'm surprised that the people approving the layout didn't catch all the missing info. Or was it left off on purpose so that the buyer has to make 'the phone call'.

a btw- one good thing. My spystopper program did not block or identify any hidden bugs, ads, spyware, scripts or cookies.

[Carbondated]

Single family home search includes villas and attached villas?
(Not interested in searching through condos and villas for a single family home.)

Water: City or Well?
(Wouldn't buy a house on well water.)

No CDD fees listed?
(Not interested in financing the builders debt burden.)

Parking: none, carport or 1-2-3 car garage?
Maybe it should say something like this:
Garage/parking - 4 Parking Space, Attached, Auto Open

Over 55 communities... No way to tell.
(Can't live in an over 55, if I'm not over 55.)

Flood Zone?
(Insurance could be a big factor.)

Construction: Wood Frame, Concrete, Block?
(Wouldn't consider looking at a wood frame in FL.)

Driveway: Paved, Shell?

Electric - 200 Amp?
(Could make a difference...)

Exterior - Vinyl Siding, Stucco?

Heating/cooling - Central Air, Hot Air, Multi Zone ?

That is all I can think of, off the top of my head.

[d4g4m]

More observations-
A line on the MFR home page says 'access the same timely information used by realtors'. Technically a correct statement but they should not have used the word 'same'. RE brokers are also still using their own service not open to the public. Their listings look like the old charlotteareamls but with slightly less information.
An odd coincidence - The mfr.mlxchange form also does not have a field for parking or flood zone. But there is a field for fireplace. I think the site designer/programmer may live in an apartment complex where you're on your own for a parking space, in Orlando where there's no concern of flood zones [75 mi. from the Gulf, 75 mi. from the Ocean] and maybe it gets a little chilly in January and would a fireplace be nice.
Carbondated - good point for construction - frame, block. I missed that one. I also missed - lot size.
I've noticed from viewing listings, if fields on the details are not filled in with information the field doesn't show. So if the associate neglects to give a living room size, you won't know that the house has a living room. If a HOA fee is required and the associate fails to enter a HOA fee amount, HOA will not show. If amount not known, they should at least use the word 'yes'.
I looked at many listing that I know are in a 55+ community but not one mentioned 'housing for older persons'. This ommission will cause a lot of waste of time phone calls where people have interest in a listing to find they are not age qualified.
One associate didn't think it was necessary to fill in the features section with any information. So the space is just one big blank white area on the page.
For the amount of time that was used to develope the site, there sure are a lot of problems.

[SoFLGal]

I think both of you have had some great suggestions. I have forward all of the comments to the MLS president and asked her to pass them along to the developers. I can't promise any changes but I will see that they get in front of the people that are the developers.

Often times the developers live in another state or country so they don't always see things the same way that people do that actually live in the various towns.

I'm pleased that they are offering a public website but I agree it needs a little tweaking.

The suggestions just went over so I'll let you know when/if there is a response.

[nautica]

As a Realtor working in Bradenton and on the Islands, I can tell you that the changeover to MFR mlxchange was and continues to be a frustrating experience. Today, for example, the system is so slow that no customer would have the patience to sit and wait for search results. I was told yesterday it was caused by an overload of users! Wonderful! We now have to fight for access with Realtors from all over the state of Florida unless we want to burn the midnight oil!

Simplicity has been abandoned in favor of over-complicated links in order to complete the simplest of functions! It used to be easy to send a client an email with property info and photos; now they have managed to complicate it. It is a perfect example of too many cooks spoiling the broth since clearly too many software wonks were nitpicking the program resulting in it being unnecessarily complicated. No doubt after a couple of years they'll change it again.

So here's my question - I and others in the real estate profession are paying a hefty fee for using this (admittedly crappy) system, so I'm not sure I understand why the general public should get free access for the same service? Quite aside from the fact that MFR is apparently already overloaded for those of us in the profession! Would any of my fellow Realtors care to comment?

[FLBob]

nautica - the move to MFR has been the worst MLS change I've ever been through. The system is not at all intuitive.
I used the public system for hours yesterday and it out performs our MLS. We have more search criteria, but I can find properties faster using the public system.
We have spent hours building custom reports and searches to be able to do things that our prior MLS did very easily.
The only gain I've seen is that properties are not double listed in neighboring boards MLSs.

[SoFLGal]

I totally agree with FLBob. The switch over was horrendous and I'm not that thrilled with the system. I like Innovia better.

Anyway, here's the answer that I got so far:

Hello Shannon – I am copying Marty Hunt on your observations. I need to go back in the site to see the kind of detail in it but I will take a stab at answering some of your suggestions. I did a search right now and there is a breakdown of condos versus single family. I will do more searching but I think the idea is for the public to get a feel of the homes, condos, etc. I don’t think the public search is designed to do what we do as agents. Perhaps the site will expand somewhat but I don’t foresee it being as detailed as you describe below. But I am sure Marty will respond and correct any of my mis-information.

[d4g4m]

Let me clarify a statement. I did not state that there is no separation between single family homes and condos. What I stated was that you have to use 'all types' because too many RE associates place condos and townhouses in the single family home category. Therefore if if are looking for a villa/condo, you will not see all listed condos in the condo category.

And to add to the missing information, here is a big one. There is no link button to view any virtualtours. I'm sure that there are many RE people that use that service and are not happy that they have no way to display their work.

Statement made by someone at MFR 'public search not designed to do what we do as agents'. What is that? Hold back information on listings so we have to call and be identified on your caller ID? So tell me, how does an agent find a only houses with a two car garage when it isn't even on their own MFR.mlxchange site? And why doesn't he feel it informational [in Orlando 75 mi from the Ocean and Gulf] to a buyer looking at homes within 10 mi from the Gulf if the house is in a flood zone or not? And why aren't things like flood zone or CDD on a listing? Could it be that they are expensive items you find out about after you close the deal? Does the person know that even on realtor.com you can narrow a search to a 2 car garage house? Does this person know that all they had to do months ago was to work out a deal with innovia and everybody would be happy?
Do RE associates prefer clients who can come to their office meet the lister, with printouts of 3 or 4 homes they have researched, have detailed information, know most of everything there is to know about the house and are ready for viewing or a client that walks in cold, hasn't got a clue and sits in the office for 2 hours asking 100 dumb questions and looking at pages and pages of listings on a computer monitor at their desk? Then drive around for hours to view some homes and hear 'I don't like this one'.
What are we getting, again, from the people in the ivory towers? We are the experts. We know what is best for you. We don't want to overload you with too much information. We will inform you of information we want you to know. People are spending money on the most expensive thing they will ever buy in their life. I don't want to be treated like I'm buying a TV or a stereo. An informed buyer is a happy buyer.

[SoFLGal]

I did get an email from Marty Hunt, the president of the MLS. He asked me not to post his specific email but I can give you a general idea of the email. He did thank everyone for the comments and said that it helps them to better understand what the public is looking for. He also said that this is phase 1 and the website just came out of Beta last week. They will be tweaking it a bit and keep watching the website for changes.

Electric service and type of driveway won't be added. Type of construction, garage/parking, 55+ and several others will be considered for inclusion.

[d4g4m]

Looks like SoFlgal has some influence with the MFR board. Just visited myfloridahomesmls and saw that some changes have been made.
Five property feature fields have been added. CDD, family room size, parking, construction, water/sewer.
Three unnecessary fields have been deleted. zoning comp., zoning, ownership.
But I'd also like to see under 'location', flood zone yes or no
Under 'property features', lanai size, florida room size, lot size, HOA includes [cable, water/sewer, lawn maint., road maint., roof, pool, tennis, insurance] restrictions. [housing for older persons, no trucks, no motorcycles, no RV, no pets, small pets, no rentals or none as in no deed restrictions.

It could be a great site with a little more tweaking.