Ensure Correct Property Type

Recently staff has received numerous complaints surrounding listings with the incorrect “Property Type”, particularly, properties that are a Link.
If you are unsure as to what the correct Property Type is for your listing, you can confirm this by looking up the property address in GeoWarehouse, under “Structure”, and “Property Description, as shown below.
If you have any questions, please contact the MLS® Help Desk at 905.667.4650 or e-mail [email protected]

Change to Seller Instructions – Permission to Contact after Expiry on RAHB’s Property Information Forms

The Board of Directors recently approved a change to RAHB’s Residential and Commercial Property Information forms, specifically the Seller’s Instructions under “Permission to Contact”. The “Permission to Contact” field allows the Seller to check and initial whether they consent to be contacted after the listing expires.

The Seller Instruction, Permission to Contact after Expiry, has now been changed to “Permission to Contact after Expiry, Cancellation or Termination”, which will now be consistent with the wording on OREA’s Form #200, as shown below:

The change will be reflected on RAHB’s Residential and Commercial Property Information Forms in WEBForms™ on October 22.

Should you have any questions, please contact the MLS® Help Desk at 905.667.4650 or e-mail [email protected]

Terminology re: Master Bedroom Change

The Board of Directors recently approved a change to the terminology surrounding the term “Master Bedroom”. Beginning October 22, the term “Master Bedroom” will be changed to “Primary Bedroom” and will be reflected in Matrix and on RAHB’s residential property information form on October 22.

If you have any questions, please contact the MLS® Support Desk at 905.667.4650 or e-mail [email protected].

Cumulative Days on Market (CDOM)

Effective Tuesday, November 10, 2020, the Cumulative Days on Market (CDOM) business rule will be implemented once again in the RAHB Matrix.

On December 10, 2019, CDOM was implemented in the RAHB Matrix system; however, it was discovered the business rule was not functioning exactly as intended and it was disabled.

The new CDOM business rule is as follows:

When a listing is “cancelled” or “expires” and is relisted with the same Brokerage within a period of sixty (60) days from the date of cancellation or expiry, the cumulative days on market will continue counting the total days on market.
When a listing is “cancelled” or “expires” and is relisted after a period of sixty (60) days with the same Brokerage, the CDOM counter will reset and begin counting at zero.
If a listing is “cancelled” or “expires” and is relisted with a different Brokerage, the CDOM rule will not apply.

This change will ensure the actual Days on Market is reflected in the listing history.

The CDOM will appear on the REALTOR® Full report for all property types.

Should you have any questions, please call the MLS® Help Desk at 905.667.4650 or e-mail [email protected].

Toronto Regional Real Estate Board (TRREB) Subscriber Agreement

RAHB and TRREB have recently signed a Subscriber Agreement, which allows RAHB members to subscribe to access TRREB’s MLS® Data.

TRREB provided notice on March 19, 2020 to their, then current, subscribers that they had decided to withdraw from the Universal Data Sharing Agreement (UDSA) Program effective June 30, 2020. The UDSA became in existence in 1993, allowing Signatory Board Members to subscribe to other Signatory Member Boards’ MLS® Data. With the UDSA, individual board agreements were not necessary.

If you have questions pertaining to this agreement or if you wish to subscribe, please contact TRREB’s membership department at 416.443.8100.

Have Your Voice Heard – Residential Zoning Project

The City of Hamilton’s Comprehensive Zoning By-law No. 05-200 came into effect on May 25, 2005, and is being implemented in stages. This Zoning By-law applies to the entire City of Hamilton and is replacing the Zoning By-laws of the former municipalities.

The final phase of this project – Residential Zoning Project — is focused on residential zones in the urban area.

For more information on Zoning Bylaw No. 05-200, please click the button below:

The City of Hamilton is now asking for your input on the Residential Zoning Project through the Engage Hamilton portal. To view the Engage Hamilton Residential Zoning Project webpage, please click the button below:

There are four key dates associated with the Residential Zoning Project:

  • Secondary Dwelling Unit Surveys Open (October 19)
  • Secondary Dwelling Unit Surveys Close (November 16)
  • Virtual Town Hall # 1 (November 12) – Registration details to come
  • Virtual Town Hall # 2 (November 16) – Registration details to come

The two surveys — Urban and Rural Secondary Dwelling Units — can be found by clicking the buttons below:

Please note, to participate in the two surveys, you must have an Engage Hamilton account. To register for an Engage Hamilton account, please click the button below:

Saved Passwords

Thank you for your comments and suggestions regarding the authentication platform utilized by RAHB. We appreciate your feedback and certainly understand that having to manually enter your password when logging into my.rahb.ca may be viewed as an inconvenience, especially with the number of passwords most of us are required to maintain across the many systems we all use regularly. To view why Clareity does not currently allow saved passwords, as well as what is on the roadmap for the future, please the information below.
 
Background on the Clareity SafeMLS authentication and security platform:
 
The Corelogic (Clareity SafeMLS) system was put in place to secure your login to RAHB’s Matrix system and other associated applications and resources which are available to you as a member.  Clareity’s SafeMLS Single Sign On system is designed to operate as a Single Sign On provider which collects behavioral data associated with all logins to the system to help mitigate security threats.  The behavioral data collected by the system includes information such as login times, system fingerprint information (i.e. device type, operating system, browser version), keystroke dynamics, GeoIP location information, IP address, and a variety of other characteristics. This information is collected and monitored on a regular basis and is used to build risk profiles. When any of these patterns consistently differ in a significant way, it triggers the system to generate an additional risk profile which is associated with your account. When more than one risk profile is associated with your account, the system will measure the risk score differences between profiles and if that score is above the allowed threshold, the system will start a remediation process to help mitigate any potential risks which may indicate that your account is being used by more than one person.
Why Save Passwords are not allowed:
The reason the ability to use Saved Passwords is disabled during the login process is due to the Keystroke pattern analysis which is performed on each login. When entering a password, each person has a consistent pattern associated with the way they type. The system pairs this pattern with other information to account for differences which may be caused by different devices.  This particular indicator is very effective in identifying scenarios where a password has either been compromised or shared with another party.  If the ability to utilize saved passwords was enabled, the system would be unable to collect accurate keystroke data for analysis.
What Alternatives are being considered:
Both RAHB and Corelogic (Clareity) understand that having to manually enter a password to authenticate with the system may be viewed as an inconvenience to some users. We are always reviewing ways to improve the security and usability of the systems provided to our members. Corelogic’s Clareity SafeMLS team has indicated to us that they have been exploring and considering alternate methods of authentication for future adoption within their system. Some examples of the alternative methods being considered are as follows:
  • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is an authentication method that requires two or more independent ways to identify a user. Examples include codes generated from the user’s smartphone, Captcha tests, fingerprints, or facial recognition
  • Certificate-based authentication technologies identify users, machines or devices by using digital certificates. A digital certificate is an electronic document based on the idea of a driver’s license or a passport
  • Additional Biometric information as an alternative to keystroke biometrics. Examples include: facial recognition, fingerprint recognition and voice identification
The security of your data, your clients data and the associations data is extremely important, especially with the security threat landscape which exists today. While we would like to turn on the ability for Saved Passwords to be used, that is not an available option at this time within the Clareity SafeMLS platform.
We will continue to investigate and work with our technology partners to research, consider and adopt new and improved methods of providing effective and efficient security authentication, identification, and analysis to our members.

Reporting of Sales

It has come to our attention that there is some confusion as to whether a sale should be reported if a deposit cheque has not been received. As per RAHB’s MLS® Rules and Regulations, Reporting of Sales, Section 9, sub-section 9.01, sales must be reported within two (2) Association business days following written acceptance of an offer from the Seller, regardless if a deposit cheque has been received.

9.01        An important part of the inherent value of the Association’s MLS® System is the transaction data accumulated for sales of listed properties. Therefore, it is the responsibility of all Members to ensure, regardless of their business model, that property sold information for properties listed on the Association’s MLS® System, including the reporting of conditionally sold properties and sale prices, be reported to the Association. Members are not permitted to avoid these reporting responsibilities to the Association by, for example, cancellation of a Listing between receipt (or anticipated receipt) and acceptance of an offer, or encouraging a Seller to do so. Accordingly, the Listing Brokerage will report by Broker Load all sales and conditional sales for Broker Loaded MLS® Listings effected during the Listing term and during the holdover period of an MLS® Listing, within two (2) Association business days following written acceptance of any Offer by the Seller. If the MLS® Listing is Board Loaded, the sale or conditional sale must be submitted in writing within two (2) Association business days following written acceptance of any Offer by the Seller. Power of Sale and commercial sales shall be reported not later than two (2) Association business days after closing.”

RAHB/ITSO Issues Resolved – October 9, 2020

RAHB is pleased to advise you that many of the issues reported by RAHB Members as a result of the ORTIS and the Ontario Collective (OC) cutover to the new ITSO system have been resolved as follows:

 

  • Missing photos for ITSO listings have been backfilled and photos are now available to view on reports.
  • ITSO status changes are now available to view on the Matrix reports. Previously, status changes such as conditional or firm sale information were missing on RAHB reports.
  • ITSO listings are now only displaying Total Square Footage (above grade only) on RAHB reports.
  • Commercial Listings from ORTIS and OC will now display if Sub-Property Type of (Industrial, investment, office, retail, sale of business or store) is selected.
  • Data is being mapped incorrectly from ITSO to RAHB’s “Type” and “Property Sub-Type” fields. This issue is primarily affecting ITSO listings, which would normally be searchable with a Type of Townhouse/Row House. Corelogic is aware of this issue and is currently working on updating these listings. We will provide an update regarding the status of this issue early next week.

 

CoreLogic is continuing to work on a few outstanding items; however, RAHB expects those to be resolved shortly, and will provide you an update at that time.

 

Thank you very much for your patience and understanding.

Printed Forms Discontinuation

During the COVID-19 pandemic, RAHB Members have adapted and transitioned to using electronic forms. RAHB’s printed Residential Property Information Forms dated 01/2020 and RAHB’s Commercial Property Information Forms dated 05/2018 will continue to be accepted for use until January 31, 2021, as well as sold in the RAHB Realty Shoppe until this date or sold out. After January 31, they will only be available electronically via WEBForms®  or found under the Standard Forms & Clauses section at www.orea.com.

The RAHB Realty Shoppe will continue to sell OREA Form 200 Listing Agreement – Authority to Offer for Sale until 01/31/21 or sold out, to coincide with the Data Forms discontinuation date. However, if OREA updates the 2021 OREA Form 200 Listing Agreement – Authority to Offer for Sale, then the sale of that printed form will be discontinued as of 01/01/21.  We will update members if there are any changes to these dates.

The WEBForms® icon is available via the RAHB Dashboard, as shown below. Members can access WEBForms® by logging into the SSO dashboard via http://my.rahb.ca, and logging in with a user ID and Password.

Once in WEBForms® , click the “Forms” icon on the left side of the screen, and then select the file for REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington.

 

 

Once here, click on either the Commercial Data Input Form or the Residential Data Input Form, as shown below.

 

If you have any questions, please contact the MLS® Help Desk at [email protected].

 

RAHB Continues to Meet with Elected Officials: MPP Jane McKenna & MP Adam van Koeverden

RAHB Continues to Meet  with Elected Officials: MPP Jane McKenna & MP Adam van Koeverden

On October 2, Government Relations Chair Dave Zalepa, Vice-Chair Patrick Tomaszewski and Member Shawn Paterson, met with MPP Jane McKenna to discuss:

  • The possibility of a land transfer tax holiday
  • The home renovation tax credit
  • Creating community opportunity zones

On October 5, GR Chair Dave Zalepa and RAHB staff Wendy Stewart, in partnership with OMDREB, met with MP Adam van Koeverden to discuss:

  • Creating homes across the housing spectrum
  • Housing’s place within infrastructure projects
  • The green renovation program

 

For more information on advocacy issues at the provincial and federal level, please click the below buttons:

Provincial Advocacy and Resources

Federal Advocacy and Resources

RAHB REALTORS® RELEASE SEPTEMBER 2020 MARKET STATISTICS

*PLEASE NOTE* – As of October 7, 2020, the Residential Market Activity for RAHB Areas table, Social Media Stats Kit, Market Highlights, maps, and Top 3 Stats video have been updated due to an error related to the OC/ORTIS (ITSO) cutover. The data primarily affected was that of the Hamilton Mountain.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

 

Hamilton, ON (October 2, 2020) – The REALTORS® Association of Hamilton-Burlington (RAHB) reported 1,751 sales of residential properties located within the RAHB market area were processed through the Multiple Listing Service® (MLS®) System in September 2020. Sales are up 37.67 per cent over last month and up 53.9 per cent over September of last year. New listings are up 32.67 per cent over August 2020 and up 8.5 per cent over last September. The average price for residential properties was $721,354, which is up 3.8 per cent from last month and up 19.8 per cent from September 2019. The number of active listings for the month was down 40.4 per cent over last year.

*The news release will be posted to www.rahb.ca/market-stats/ on Friday, October 2, 2020.*

Follow the links below for:

Burlington

Halidmand

Hamilton

Niagara North

 

*Video updated as of October 7*