On January 19, 2016, an additional field called ‘Reserved Spaces’ was added to the Matrix system for Residential Property types. This field was added to accommodate previous listings from other MLS® systems which permitted text in the ‘Garage Spaces’ field. With text being allowed, some agents were inputting not only the number of spaces, but also the space assignment numbers (e.g “2,A123,B456” where 2 would be the number of spaces and A123/B456 would be the assigned parking spot numbers). Following the addition of the new field ‘Reserved Spaces’, the ‘Garage Spaces’ field data will be copied to the ‘Reserved Spaces’ field and then the ‘Garage Spaces’ field will be changed to a numeric entry only field. The reason for this change is to allow for a more accurate and flexible way to search for parking/garage spaces using the numeric input fields.
In summary….
Before
Driveway Parking Spaces <numeric character input>
Garage Spaces <freeform character input>
Result: no easy way to predict what might be typed in the ‘Garage Spaces’ field, making it very difficult to search.
After
Reserved Spaces <freeform character input>
Driveway Parking Spaces <numeric character input>
Garage Spaces <numeric character input>
Result: easier to search the ‘Garage Spaces’ field now that is a numeric value only.
Also new! Garage Types – New pick value
On January 19, 2016, the value ‘Oversized’ was added to accommodate oversized garages which are commonly referred to as a “1.5 Car Garage” or “One and a Half Car Garage”.
Please note these changes are only in Matrix – this does not affect your listing entry into Fusion.