RAHB has received numerous complaints regarding missing property history. Matrix uses multiple fields to match properties, and if all of these fields do not match, the property history will not appear. Please be mindful of RAHB’s MLS® Rules & Regulations and Policies regarding listing accuracy, listed below:
Rules and Regulations, Section 2 – MLS® Listings, Sub-section 2.05 states:
The Listing Brokerage and Listing REALTOR® are responsible for the accuracy of all information submitted by the Listing Brokerage to the Association’s MLS® System, whether Board Loaded or Broker Loaded.
RAHB’S MLS® Policies:
Address
- That listings on all property types (including farms and vacant land), whether in town or out of town, shall show the address as per the street table and the address specifies on of the following:
- City;
- Town;
- Township;
Even if we follow all the rules, with RAHB changing computer programs so often, causes history to be inaccurate. Many of Dunnville’s history (and probably the rest of Haldimand County) is listed under “Out-of-area” and does not show up if “Dunnville” history is searched. This has been brought to the attention of the MLS Dept but no correction has been made or cannot be made.
Even when one follows the rules, it does not mean that the history information will be accurate, since RAHB has changed area codes so many times for certain areas. The MLS Dept has been made aware of the inaccurate history for the Dunnville area (and maybe rest of Haldimand) but the history continues to put addresses in “OUT-OF-AREA”, making searching difficult.
Thank you for sending us these comments from Liz. While we have changed the way the system works with Regions, Municipalities, and Neighbourhoods, we have done it in a manner where there was always a 1-to-1 translation for the listing area. The reasons for the area changes have always been to expand on the granularity the system offers and to allow the system flexibility for growth. The translations of data throughout these changes should not have ever resulted in mapping listings from a proper area to out of area. This listings in Out of Area should all be from a period of time when there was not a defined area for the listing. We are aware of these historical listings and we have asked if Corelogic could assist us in geocoding these listings to map them to their proper areas, but they have been unable to do this for us thusfar. We have been working on a solution of our own to geocode these listings and relating them to polygon shape data which defines the boundaries for RAHB’s neighbourhoods. This will allow us to assign proper region, municipality and neighbourhood information to those listings. For our code to work correctly, the listings will need a proper address and postal code to be geocoded accurately. Incorrect addresses or postal codes will introduce some margin of error. We will need to test this process further before we can commit to applying it to all of the out of area listings. What we can do, is start with Dunneville and Haldimand County as the areas we target first. If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact RAHB at 905-529-8101 and ask for Jason Hersey or Pamela Morton.